This communal energy can be liberatory: marginalized voices can find safe havens and robust networks. But communities also have friction—trolling, exclusion, and the pressures of continuous moderation. The app’s design (chat features, moderation tools, reward structures) shapes what kinds of communities thrive, and which voices are amplified or suppressed. Live streamers inhabit a liminal space between stardom and labor. Their work—hours of smiling, improvising, performing—bears all the hallmarks of emotional labor. They must manage mood, anticipate audience desires, and maintain boundaries between public persona and private self. The app facilitates this labor but also obscures its costs: burnout, parasocial entanglements, and precarious incomes.