What you should know about camming
When people hear the word “camming”, the first thing that comes to their mind is a bank account with more zeros that one can read without losing count. But there is a flip side to it – in an industry where success is mostly dependent on consistency (both in content creation and online presence) physical and psychological restrains usually follow.
Somewhere on LiveJasmin, Flirt4Free or MyFreeCams, there is a girl who is rubbing her feet against a pair of ripped stockings. A feet lover offered (and begged) her to do it for 10 minutes straight. She has been online for more than 10 hours and judging by the energetic vibe she is trying to emanate; her shift is far from over. You could envy her – she is permanently working from home. From her bed, to be more precise. But what hides under the dark circles she is trying to cover with extra concealer before she goes online?
Many might think that being a cam girl is a piece of cake. There is no lie that as a cam girl, you could earn as much as a mid-level corporatist in a year – the difference is you can earn that amount in a month. But that only happens when you follow the rules by-the-book – and that’s far from being easy-peasy- lemon-squeezy. I am not talking about the constant fear that you are live streaming your butt cellulite, but about the constant emotional and physical demands this job requires.
If you would ask a cam girl who has built a rousing name in the live streaming world about her initial schedule, she might mention two elements – no days off and 12-hour shifts. One can only imagine that this type of non-stop content creation leads to burnout, characterized by constant fatigue, back pain from moving too much, and itchy eyes thanks to the photographic lighting exposure. But that’s not the only thing that leads to the emotional labor this world demands.
What you should know about camming
You could call camming a unique service industry – and by unique, I mean that you can create cyber bonds with loads of one-of-a-kind individuals. But this is a double-edged sword too. The same men that can make this job appealing can sometimes become abusive, treating cam girls as their virtual girlfriends who are obligated to give them happiness in exchange for money.
Like any other type of industry that offers services, the employee’s main duty is to satisfy the client – no questions asked. Feeling depressed because your boyfriend broke up with you last night or stressed because your earnings were so low that you don’t know how you’ll pay rent this month? You can forget about showing the slightest sign that you feel under the weather online – no man who scrolls glassy-eyed through the homepage will stay in a chat room where the model is not all smiles and giggles. Members who religiously spend their time on such sites rely on the girls to put them in a good mood – most of them had a chaotic day at work or want to forget about the daily mental pressures they go through. You can’t afford to be sad live streaming – I mean you can, but who is going to pay rent?
Be careful about pouring more and more of yourself on cam, because it might leave you emotionally unstable. Indeed, in the camming industry there is a sense of community emerging between you and your followers…which can make you feel bolstered, in the good sense of it. But not all men are sweet, talkative and want you to pour whip cream on your butt as you are giggling it. Some of them might develop an obsession for being with you – and those types of fixations often lead to a crisis point. “Can we be together in real life?”; “I want to feel you next to me” and “I want to know where you live” make you feel the bad type of freaky, leaving you feeling anxious and fearful. Stalkers are not the nicest persons on the planet, so don’t be wowed by the harsh words they are going to carelessly throw in your chat room for not responding to their abusive messages.
Camming builds you as a woman from A to Z.
As you progress as an online model, you gain more confidence and get to know yourself better – what you like, what you don’t, what you desire. You are bonding with a plethora of men, meeting so many personality typologies, making you a real connoisseur when it comes to human behavior.
But this non-filtered industry is an incredibly vulnerable and intimate place to be – so it can tear you down as well. Before you embark on the camming journey (if you haven’t started it already) make sure you have what it takes to not permit anyone – including your own thoughts and feelings – to make you feel less than you are.
