you look lonely, i can fix that.

Loneliness is the epidemic of our modern society - are livestreams becoming the answer?

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
2:29 China's exploitative virtual girlfriend industry
19:30 Korea's then comforting, now controversial mukbang genre
29:16 Japan's vtubers - a fantasy come to life
40:37 Conclusion

---xxx---
my gear!
note: below links contain affiliate links that help me out but come at no extra cost to you :)
- editing software: final cut pro

---xxx---
Sources referenced

Academic papers

Web articles

‌
BGM references & others
Doja Cat - Agora Hills (instrumental)

Anime used for transition slides: Serial Experiments Lain

Thanks for watching! :)

tags: video essay, cultural commentary, social commentary, internet analysis, analysis video, livestreaming, streamers, virtual youtubers, vtubers, vtuber, mukbang, nvzhubo, female streamer, virtual girlfriend, virtual industry, live, live chat, super chat, parasocial relationships, parasocial interactions, one sided relationship, societal pressure, china, korea, japan, east asia, east asia, loneliness, masculinity, anime, otaku, online friends, companionship, dating simulation, online, tzuyang, eat with boki, ludwig, gawr gura, hololive, nijisanji, vshojo, douyin, momo, bilibili, douyu, afreecatv, streaming, games, PK, twitch, twitch subs, twitch donations, madisyn brown, shanspeare, jordan teresa, withcindy, dark asia with megan, stephanie soo, edvasian, aini

[simon_]

Only 5 years in prison for selling a whole human being is crazy

[philip]

I am chinese but grew up in the western world. I recall once walking into my uncle's house and he was watching a female streamer on his phone. He was saying something creepy like "I won't let you rest hahaha!" and constantly spamming the like/donate button. I assume the streamer was doing some challenge per donation or something. I understand a bit more of what I saw now. My uncle was apparently a Da ge. He was like 50-60 and had 3 adult children and a wife still. He is quite wealthy so I dont think it affected him financially. But also I found it kind of weird he was doing it so publicly. He wasn't in his room or anything he was just sitting in the kitchen for anyone to pass by. So I guess its a normalized concept to chinese.

[aygulmemet]

My uncle used to do the same in his 40s. He wasted money on gambling and streamers. Now he's 50 and completely switched his attention to traveling instead. Good for him.

[ramielle]

Uruha Rushia was not terminated because of a relationship but because she shared internal company information with outside parties. In fact, the company came out and supported her when the "scandal" happened.

[maguritang]

As someone who has gotten in Korean livestreams in the past few years, this video is so freaking accurate. The parasocial relationship is on steroids and the "big brother" (or in Korean, "big hand") culture is rife within female streamers' broadcasts. It really is to the point where the main character of the show is the guy with the most money. Afreecatv, a Korean livestreaming service, even had a really messed up situation where a female streamer literally prostituted herself to her 'big brother's. Granted, all these guys had spent upwards of 100, 000 USD, and the main objective is money, after all, so I understand why the streamer did it, but the whole situation is incredibly disturbing.

[Kaz.]

Its so sad how even our emotions and social needs are completey shallow and commodified now, I was born into the internet era and stayed home from school a lot as a kid due to my mental and physical health and I feel like having primarily parasocial relationships to characters (youtubers and media characters) has left a mark on me for life, I still find it so much easier to just put on a video or play a game than to talk to any of my friends even though I know its not really healthy, but when youre tired after school and work its so much easier to rely on something that you can control and thats predictable rather than a complex real person

[arpan]

As an Indian, I will say that it's the same case in the subcontinent. I myself, due to my ongoing preparations for competitive exams, have reduced my physical interaction to zero, as they are more time consuming, instead whenever I need some refreshment, instead of dialing my friends, I just scroll a bit of reddit or watch an hour of youtube.

[kingjulian]

I have to emphasize that Uruha Rushia didn't get terminated because of the text message, but because she turned to a drama youtube to speak up for her and to verify her identity as the vtuber, she disclosed company details that she was contractually forbidden from giving out to third people leading to her termination.
I was a huge fan of her, she motivated me to start learning Japanese and now I can speak it quite well

[jiewolf]

The references are all cited and listed like a research paper! kudos~

[PanickinSkywalker]

Retired long time live streamer/virtual gf checking in! Absolutely love hearing your thoughts and perspectives on these subjects and reading peoples comments. I started “camming” in 2008 and recently retired from doing any online persona work in 2021. The industry has changed a lot over the years, but it’s also still the same. Even VTubing doesn’t feel foreign to me, even though I used my real face, I was still playing a character and creating a fantasy world for people. There’s a lot of fun to be had and from a financial perspective I definitely benefited, but I’ve also had to have years of therapy to deal with some of the effects it had on my mental health. So for the people wanting to get into streaming/content creation/influencing/online sw/etc, just proceed with caution. ♥︎♥︎♥︎

[ddeathshade]

That segment on China was downright horrifying. It's like hitting the bottom and breaking through it to fall into an endless abyss.

[KMO]

I have to say that this channel becoming one the best underrated commentary channels on (North) East Asian culture has been an amazing process.

[jamesjan]

amazingly researched video. there isnt an expectation for videos like this to have citations and precise, topic specific language but you went out of your way and were informative throughout the whole 43 mins with 3 well researched case studies 🥶🥶 youre cold with it girl

[ZooeyIsComfy]

As someone who spends about 80% of my time on youtube watching Vtubers, I wanted to comment on the point about having a "set personality", and I think fans who follow a Vtuber for a long time would agree with me here: It's quite common for a Vtuber who've been active for a while to break the mould initially set for them and behave in a manner that they feel more comfortable with.
Long time Vtubers especially feel much more like traditional streamers, foregoing much of the personality given to them in the "lore" since their debut. Not everyone's a fan of that, obviously, but I think many in the community do welcome the change.

And speaking of community, that's another aspect of watching Vtubers, particularly hololive, that I enjoy. Due to the nature of these streams (cute anime girls doing cute things), the stream chat and the community around them are often quite wholesome and positive. Weird and angry people exist everywhere of course, but I find myself having a much better time in chat here, compared to traditional streamers on Twitch, for example.

[Kalitayy]

As an Asian, the more I learn about Asian culture in general, the more I realize how depressing, dehumanizing and dystopian the whole thing is. When I was a kid, my mom went through a lot of bullying from her peers for raising me like a Western kid. It's not perfect, but that simply means that I felt genuine love and care from a mother, gave me guidance while also provide me the freedom of speech and expression, freedom to choose which goals to pursue, freedom to think for myself, and freedom to choose which people to form relationships with. I may not be well off right now, I feel blessed because I realized that every single positive things I experienced in my childhood is essentially a luxury. I even came to a realization that my mom was the only parent who treat her child like an actual human being, instead of a property like most Asian parents do.

She never put too much pressure on what I should do and what I should be, therefore I never put any pressure on anyone. She was an introvert so she noticed that I'm also an introvert, therefore she never put any expectations on me to form a relationship only for the sake of it. She believed that I was smart and would never be close to someone who could potentially harm me. As a result, I'm able to live and feel good about myself without having to put myself in a one-sided relationship. I'm also able to form genuine relationships whenever I want to, with whoever I want to.

Sure, I feel bad about myself for not being able to achieve my goals or maintaining a meaningful relationship with someone, but that's all on me. People come and go, but that's just life. Never have I ever been in a parasocial relationship and I feel thankful about it.

[Tannebi]

I know we are talking about livestreaming here but I want to bring out my experiences as a kpop fan when I was young. To be honest, para social relationship did made me feel good about myself as I didn't had friends growing up. My whole life revolve around my idol and if I missed any update from any of them, I would feel so guilty for not being a good fan. I was this close of being a delulu sasaeng but thank god I didn't had the financial condition to do it. I so feel strange on how I was able to bring myself back up from that state. Now I am much more in a healthy position with my love for kpop, like I was their videos and stuffs once in a while but I don't feel bad for not liking their post daily or skipping their insta live. But I do like to buy album for my collection but I don't feel like selling my kidney for it. I'll just wait when I get enough money.

[randomaether]

Online Social Media is the same as a picture of a nice warm comfy campfire, but without the heat, you cannot touch it afterall. This makes the coldness of loneliness even more palpable, how it creeps and hugs even tighter than before we could notice it there, we cannot subtitute the warmth of each other, unless we can stand this freezing wave and live on with the jails we made for each other.


TLDR without the pedantry:
Being online, makes it even easier to notice how lonely we are.

[lampdevil]

I was happy to see you add at the end of the VTubing segment that it's still new and developing, because that's true! In even just the past year or two, the tech and resources to start off as a VTuber have become considerably more accessible so prospective VTubers don't need to rely on the corporate path to even begin with it. A pleasant-looking pre-made customizable model can be had for around $50 USD, there are creators that provide free options, and if you're just excited to start streaming without showing your face there are multiple free software solutions that just require a microphone and a few still images of your character that'll do simple animations for you. We're going to see even more interesting things in the space, and it's already a pretty interesting space if you look outside the big agencies! I love Peanuts-kun's music and comedy, and he's just a little yellow peanut-looking guy.

[frogsty]

Great video. As a prior vtuber fan, it really helped me in a difficult time that was full of secrecy and not feeling supported to be part of a community. As my life has improved, I now realize it was incredible helpful to lift me out of a hole and helped me realize thru online friends that I need to find closer real friends by trying to build more irl friendships, and it has happened. I hope it happens to those who are in a rough spot because sometimes a vtuber is the only light we can see in a dark deep well.

[BioMatic]

slight correction 33:35 while the escandal was the inciting incident, it was not the stated reason for her termination. The stated reason was a breach of contract for disclosing sentive information to a third party, wich aparently happened when Rushia talkied to a japanese dramatuber.

Cover even made a public statement saying that they wouldnt meddle in their livers private life.