On May 6, viral influencer and Twitch streamer Kai Cenat announced Streamer University—a free, four-day event held at the University of Akron (UA) from May 22 to 25. The goal was to bring together rising content creators and established social media influencers for collaboration and training. Cenat even released an “Official Enrollment Trailer” on YouTube to promote the event. Within days, over one million people applied, but only 120 were selected to attend. UA provided the venue, and major sponsors, including T-Mobile and State Farm, helped fund the production.
While the concept may have sounded promising—at least UA’s communications and marketing department seemed to think so—it quickly unraveled into a weekend of chaos. The reality is best captured in Cenat’s own highlight video, “Streamer University Best Moments:”
Moreover, the event fueled a romanticized notion that social media influencing can be a viable long-term career, promising rapid wealth and fame. Applicants were permitted to stream their application process, flooding my social media feeds with their videos. One particularly memorable clip featured a young man who recorded himself dropping out of Georgia State University to demonstrate his commitment to streaming and content creation. While he was fortunate enough to be accepted, not every risk-taker met success.
@corey2uncensored Twitch: Corey2u 🙂↕️ #corey2u #fyp #kaicenat #streameruniveristy ♬ original sound – Lil Wudy
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I firmly believe college isn’t the only path to achievement and may not be worthwhile for those pursuing fields with limited job prospects. That said, content creation ranks low among alternative career paths. Despite the allure of Streamer University, the reality is that there’s limited space at the top. Even for those who achieve online success, maintaining it is challenging, as audiences constantly shift toward the next viral trend.
Now that the event is over, some creators did gain followers, but most of that growth was seen among those who already had large followings. While there was genuine collaboration and networking, the event was equally shocking and destructive. In addition to lewd behavior, campus dorms were left in disrepair following water fights and even physical altercations. One girl was shot in the eye with an Orbeez gun, while another was bullied for her appearance. Although there were positive moments here and there, the event ultimately resembled a glorified sleepover, derailed by immature adults who clearly disregarded discipline and mutual respect in pursuit of a viral moment.
During the day, the “students” attended classes like “Internet Beef 101” and “Love and Relationships,” which were led by well-known creators whom Cenat called “professors.” From what I saw, the only class that seemed serious was “Pocket Watching 101,” where students actually received useful financial and marketing advice tailored to being a streamer or content creator.
Streamer University was a disaster in many ways, but in terms of going viral and generating buzz, it was undeniably successful. Apparently, Cenat plans to host the event again in the future and has already been approached by major streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime. The idea is a money-maker for sure—but at what cost? As more “struggle streamers” chase fame and internet virality, fewer people are interested in essential, everyday jobs. Most young individuals pursuing this path fail to recognize that success is not guaranteed, and the chances of sustaining long-term relevance are slim.
I hope those choosing content creation as a career come to terms with this sooner rather than later. If not, most will find themselves back at square one—without a stable source of income and no fallback plan.
Image: “University of Akron” by JEN9841 on Wikimedia Commons
One day in my AP US History class, the teacher put a bunch of photographs on the two side walls of the classroom and asked us to identify the difference. One student, who became the town manager, noticed that there were more trees on one side. I noticed that the houses on one side were all made of wood while those on the other were all made of brick or stone.
It was a more innocent age, and what we didn’t notice was that all the teenagers on one wall were White while all of those on the other were Black. But then I attended UMass Amherst where I was taught to see such things…
According to data on its website, the University of Acron is 12% Black (1367/11,160). Nationally, Black students make up 13%-16% of the student body, although it needs to be remembered that this consists of at least two female students for every male Black student — there are relatively few Black males attending college.
But the “highlight” video indicates that the cadre of “streamers” was at least 90% Black, and this ratio included the Black males depicted. I am using 90% as a conservative guesstimate because my racial identification skills are not the best — I still see people as people.
But 90% is six times what you would expect to see in a random sample — so how did this occur?
But more important is the boorish behavior that apparently is being celebrated by being considered worthy of inclusion in a “highlights” video of the event. I would never tolerate a college student being carried through a dining commons — this all stops being fun when someone gets hurt, or — as I *have* told young people — “it’s a really good way to wind up in a body bag.”
Likewise dancing on top of a desk — that will stop being fun when the desk comes apart — and pounding on a person of the opposite sex looks an awful lot like domestic violence to me. Most 5-year-olds understand the concept of “indoor voice” and “outdoor voice”, and I thought we weren’t supposed to use the “n” word (i.e. the Latin word for “black”).
It’s a truly sophomoric display of adult-sized children behaving badly — and people pay good money to see this? Really???
And that goes to my third point — “people”, not “racists.”
Something like this reinforces every prejudice that exists about Black people. This is worse than Birth of a Nation and those folk were real racists — Woodrow Wilson was a piece of work, but I digress.
Bill Cosby strikes me as a creep — I’ve met him personally and came to that conclusion before all the stuff broke about him — but he is right about one thing — Black people are going to have to start taking responsibility for the way that the young Black men of today are behaving.
I’ve met several people, now elderly, who fought for civil rights 60 years ago. One Black woman summed her opinions up by stating “I did not put up with all the stuff I did — for this…”
The young man running the event was probably overwhelmed, it likely was his first event and I do remember what that is like. But what about the university staff? The professional thing to do is to take the young man aside, privately, and suggest that he tone things down a bit. Offer to help him do so, point out the consequences of someone getting hurt.
They probably were afraid of being called “racists” — but I argue it is racist not to say something. The digital video technology of today is probably going to be playable 50 years from now — someone needs to ask these young people how they will feel showing this stuff to their grandchildren…