At-home workers are now watching live streams of STRANGERS online to combat their loneliness in bizarre new ‘body doubling’ trend – as woman, 24, reveals 8,000 people-a-day tune in just to watch her working
- Nicole Onyia, 24, is one employee who live streams five hours of her working day
- The data analyst’s ‘body double’ stream is watched by up to 8,000 other workers
- ‘Body doubling’ means working alongside another person physically or virtually
Remote workers have taken to watching strangers online as part of the latest ‘body doubling’ trend.
Nicole Onyia, 24, is one such employee who live streams at least five hours of her working day on both TikTok and Twitch as part of the new fad.
The data analyst records the video as she works from home in a stream that is watched by up to 8,000 other workers per day.
‘Body doubling,’ which is also known as having an accountability partner, involves working alongside another person whether physically or virtually – and has rocketed in popularity in recent months.
Nicole Onyia, 24, is one such employee who live streams at least five hours of her working day on TikTok as part of the new fad
Nicole works from an aesthetically-pleasing desk set up and has calming music playing for ambience in the background in a practice she dubs as ‘working alone together’
Nicole has gained more than 100,000 followers on the video sharing platform by live streaming her working day between the hours of 10am and 3pm.
She works from an aesthetically-pleasing desk set up and has calming music playing for ambience in the background in a practice she dubs as ‘working alone together.’
The employee, who started body doubling about a year ago, said that she liked the office, but lived an hour away.
As an alternative, she can find people searching for workplace camaraderie almost instantly on social media.
She told Fortune: ‘It just made my heart happy in a weird way…
‘Being able to connect with people from around the world and we’re all working from home together, it’s a really fun feeling.’
Nicole, who has ADHD, added that talking to people during the live stream had also made her more confident in other areas, such as public speaking and hosting presentations.
She told the publication: ‘I always refer to it as utilizing social pressure… I have my regulars. It’s pretty cool.
The data analyst records the video as she works from home in a stream that is watched by up to 8,000 other workers
She has gained more than 100,000 followers on the video sharing platform by live streaming her working day between the hours of 10am and 3pm
The full-time employee, who started body doubling about a year ago, said that she likes the office but lives an hour away
‘And now I’ll have like 8,000 people watching me in one live stream. That’s absolutely bonkers to me.’
But Nicole is just one of dozens of TikTok users who have jumped on the bandwagon, with ‘body doubling live streaming’ so far receiving more than 24.1 million views.
The trend has taken off in recent months with the increase in remote working, leaving many employees struggling to concentrate and looking for community.
Experts have said that the practice was particularly beneficial to workers with ADHD as it provided motivation.
Billy Roberts, clinical director of Focused Mind ADHD Counseling in Columbus, Ohio, previously told CNN: ‘The idea is that the presence of another is essentially a gentle reminder to stay on task.
‘For folks with ADHD whose minds tend to wander and get off task, the body double somehow works as an external motivator to stay on task.
‘Some people work better with community support and just the awareness of other people around them… We all think and work differently, and there’s nothing wrong with that.’
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