A few months ago, I wrote a piece called “Living in a social media influencer dystopian nightmare.” Ironically, it was the last thing I wrote before the pain in my hands got to where it is now. I’ve tried to sit at the keyboard, I’ve tried to write and work, but the truth is having non-diabetic idiopathic small cluster neuropathy feels like your hands are sitting in a boiling pot of water every minute of every day.
Up until today, I was doing my Twitch show a few times a week and then just managing the pain the rest of the time. I’ve been stuck on the fence trying to figure out what to do with content creation and how to balance being effective with not wrecking myself.
This morning, I posted a TikTok for the first time in a long time. It wasn’t anything special, just a simple text video that said:
What if some of the people who stopped helping didn’t stop caring… they just got overwhelmed?
Like I said, nothing special, but it’s already done about three times better than most of my other videos.
Then I went live. Someone came into chat and said, “Israel is committing war crimes and no one cares.” I told them I cared, and the response I got back was, “No one that matters. You’ve got 29 watcher (sic). You’re no one.”
If I was wired a little differently, that probably would’ve hit harder; asnd honestly, there’s a piece of that statement that’s not wrong. After seven years of streaming, I’m still sitting between 20 and 50 viewers most days. For all intents and purposes, that’s not exactly success. Even though an average of 35.5 viewers technically puts me in the top 0.74% of Twitch, it still doesn’t create the kind of impact I want.
What is that impact?
It’s not fame. It’s not numbers for the sake of numbers. It’s being able to actually help people in ways that matter. Real situations and real outcomes.
There’s a veteran out there who should be on disability. They should be home getting serious psychological care for what they’ve been through. Instead, they’ve bounced between nine jobs in seven years just trying to survive. The amount of money it would take to stabilize their situation is about $6,500.
There’s another veteran who got completely screwed by the system. Fifteen years ago they were denied a proper medical retirement. Now, in 2026, the VA says they owe money because of a miscalculation back in 2011. The VA’s solution is to just stop their disability pay for March, April, May, and part of June. That’s how we say thank you for your service. Fixing that would take exactly $9,039.69.
Then there’s a mother of four who is stuck in an abusive situation. Verbal, physical, psychological, and as recently as yesterday, rape. She can’t leave. No assets, destroyed credit, utilities not even an option because of debts left behind. For all the talk about systems that are supposed to help people like this, we can’t get her help. Getting her and her kids somewhere safe would take about $25,000. All in, that’s $40,539.69.
That’s it.
I’m not trying to solve some massive, abstract problem. I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to help seven people. That’s why I don’t quit on this. That’s why I keep doing content, even when it’s slow, even when it hurts, even when it feels like it’s going nowhere. I’ve been at this since June 16, 2017, and no, I haven’t figured out how to generate that kind of money yet. But there are people out there who do it every single day. So I’m going to keep trying until I figure it out.
Because if I can help those seven people, and one of them eventually helps seven more, then now we’re actually building something.
Imagine if people actually did that. Imagine if everyone just tried to help people.
Instead, it’s easier to jump into someone’s chat and tear them down because they only have 29 viewers. Think about it for a second. If I’ve got 29 people watching, and each of them brings three people, that’s 87. If I keep even half of those, I’m at 72. If 43 of those people bring three more, and I keep half again, now I’m at 136. That’s how this grows. Not overnight, not magically, just step by step. If people actually cared about changing things, we could start doing it like that. One link in the chain at a time. After those first seven people are helped, then what? I’m not talking about massive organizations, even if some of them do good work. I’m talking about ground level. Real people helping real people directly.
We don’t need millions to start making things better. We just need people who are willing to actually show up for each other. That’s the hard part though, because like I said this morning, a lot of good people aren’t uncaring, they’re just overwhelmed. It’s hard. It’s scary. It’s difficult to actually stay committed to change. So what do you think?
Can we fix this one family at a time, or are we already too far gone?
If you think we can actually make change, come find me, Twitch, Kick, links are at Jahlon.com