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Is it dangerous that people see YouTubers as "their friends"?
- Thread starter Chairmanchuck
- Start date
DerekOfTheDykes
Member
Without a doubt. You don't know them, they don't know you, and the vast majority of them probably don't WANT to know you. I think a lot of people are going to bring up the milkshake duck angle, but honestly it isn't great for the youtuber either. There's a very fine line between fandom and obsession, and projecting friendship onto internet strangers is a very uncomfortable position for the person on the receiving end.
Chairmanchuck
Member
Dont some streamers even have that "If you donate 5$, I say your name" kind of stuff?
Solid SOAP
Member
People? Adults? Yes.
Kids? Normal, I guess. Parents just gotta own up and let em know that they aren't. Kids are always gonna be doing and saying weird shit though, so long as it doesn't seep into their young adult and full adult years I'd say the kids should be fine.
Kids? Normal, I guess. Parents just gotta own up and let em know that they aren't. Kids are always gonna be doing and saying weird shit though, so long as it doesn't seep into their young adult and full adult years I'd say the kids should be fine.
Vanguard771
Member
Bingo. If you don't want to take time to be a parent, don't have kids. And if you already have kids and worry about not having enough time for yourself, reevaluate your priorities.
A lot do. It drives donations.
I'd say generally it's something less than friends but more than entertainers/audiences.
Astral Dog
Member
I like my YouTubers
bahamut zero
Member
I feel sorry for this boy.
lowhighkang_LHK
Member
Sometimes? Dude thats the whole point. It's borderline scary.
JrBaconCheeseburger
Member
It's only off select titles if I am not wrong.
Lord Radik
Member
Not sure about YouTube but Ive always felt like Jim Nantz was my friend.
Chairmanchuck
Member
I am just saying that YT channels should follow the same law in a country that TV-stations, radio-stations etc. already follow.
Hate-Speech e.g. in Germany. Gambling. Donation-laws etc.
Why shouldnt Internet videos follow the same laws?
Lord of Ostia
Member
I mean, it's pretty obvious that's the entire reason for tips and donations. Nearly every streamer reads out their donations for that very reason.
DarkChronic
Member
I've actually thought about this before - I consume so much Giantbomb material that they really do feel like friends. It's super weird.
I have a healthy social life, so it has never become an actual concern for me. It's more of a fascination and cultural oddity. Weird how you can become so "close" with people you never interact with.
I have a healthy social life, so it has never become an actual concern for me. It's more of a fascination and cultural oddity. Weird how you can become so "close" with people you never interact with.
isn't that whole "hook" of the phenomenon, though. it's interactive and personable. even the most cynical and astute viewer is onboard for that experience.
i don't think it's any more dangerous than imaginary friends or daydreaming about One Direction taking you to the prom, or whatever. unless the kid is seriously maladjusted s/he grows out of it
i don't think it's any more dangerous than imaginary friends or daydreaming about One Direction taking you to the prom, or whatever. unless the kid is seriously maladjusted s/he grows out of it
Yeah. I don't see the appeal, but then again, my social life is okay and I never got into idol or celebrity culture.
This is depressing.
Silvergun-Blue
Member
Reminded me of this.
Seriously though, people have always developed strange attachments to things they shouldn't. Ever heard teenage girls talk/argue about boyband members? Or maybe when People refer to the team they support as "we"
I remember the folk at a place I used to work at talking about soaps, if I didn't know any better I'd genuinely think they were talking about family members.
Seriously though, people have always developed strange attachments to things they shouldn't. Ever heard teenage girls talk/argue about boyband members? Or maybe when People refer to the team they support as "we"
I remember the folk at a place I used to work at talking about soaps, if I didn't know any better I'd genuinely think they were talking about family members.
SixMachine
Member
It would be hard for me to consider people who showed me Neil Breen's ballsack to be friends.
The bad channels yeah, there's also a lot of good streamers having a good channel and audience that just likes to donate, some even ask not to be named when donating.
Then there's the rotten apples that complain their name isn't showing on screen when donating and complaining.
The posts I'm the most proud of are the ones that go ignored
autoduelist
Member
We live in an age where some people are perfectly happy having webcam girlfriends [bought and paid for]. There are plenty of studies and articles on how social interaction has changed since the advent of social media and apps. I don't know that this is avoidable in the grand scheme of things.
People have closely identified with celebrities for a long time. Any of the famous stalker cases are prime examples, but obviously there are plenty of cases that are nearly as creep but don't go to the same lengths [ie, a person sitting on their couch thinking an actor is their friend, or people unable to separate an actor from their role].
This is a problem with entertainment media - some humans clearly aren't capable of dealing with modern media in a healthy manner. To that end, yes, this is a problem because parents leaving their kids to youtube [or other media] are effectively allowing this to run rampant... without proper guidance, anything can be a problem, and with more exposure, more cases will veer towards the 'extreme' side of things.
The only answer is, as usual, better parenting. Unfortunately, that seems to be too much to ask of many parents.
People have closely identified with celebrities for a long time. Any of the famous stalker cases are prime examples, but obviously there are plenty of cases that are nearly as creep but don't go to the same lengths [ie, a person sitting on their couch thinking an actor is their friend, or people unable to separate an actor from their role].
This is a problem with entertainment media - some humans clearly aren't capable of dealing with modern media in a healthy manner. To that end, yes, this is a problem because parents leaving their kids to youtube [or other media] are effectively allowing this to run rampant... without proper guidance, anything can be a problem, and with more exposure, more cases will veer towards the 'extreme' side of things.
The only answer is, as usual, better parenting. Unfortunately, that seems to be too much to ask of many parents.
He has no problem calling people 'faggots' and got banned from League of Legenda for telling many people to kill themselves and overall bring super toxic.
Enjoy.
Yes, absolutely. That and the maxim of "never meet your heroes" simultaneously hold.
On one hand, the internet lets you develop a weird sense of one-sided familiarity with someone whose work you enjoy, which can manifest in creepy fan behavior and a very strong feeling of entitlement toward their effort and time.
On the other, that same fake-closeness allows folks to really marinate in the habits, attitudes, and worldview of someone who could turn out to be really nasty and hateful. People, often impressionable and young ones, join communities where really terrible stuff is normalized, but it happens in an insidious way because their online life is often compartmentalized from how they interact with others in real life. That is, of course, until it isn't compartmentalized anymore and that behavior bleeds into meatspace as well.
There are a lot of possible terrible outcomes, and they're all happening all the damn time.
On one hand, the internet lets you develop a weird sense of one-sided familiarity with someone whose work you enjoy, which can manifest in creepy fan behavior and a very strong feeling of entitlement toward their effort and time.
On the other, that same fake-closeness allows folks to really marinate in the habits, attitudes, and worldview of someone who could turn out to be really nasty and hateful. People, often impressionable and young ones, join communities where really terrible stuff is normalized, but it happens in an insidious way because their online life is often compartmentalized from how they interact with others in real life. That is, of course, until it isn't compartmentalized anymore and that behavior bleeds into meatspace as well.
There are a lot of possible terrible outcomes, and they're all happening all the damn time.
SuperStiltzkin
Member
Reminded me of this.
Hahahaha..ha......*sigh*
Yes,
Totalbuiscuit says a bunch of dumb offensive shit, has done dumb terrible things, and is strait up kind of a terrible person because of all that stuff.
He said this nugget of truth though
" I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND" talking to his audience, telling them they should not trust youtubers, because they are glorified salesmen selling them a product and the audience is consumers.
Totalbuiscuit says a bunch of dumb offensive shit, has done dumb terrible things, and is strait up kind of a terrible person because of all that stuff.
He said this nugget of truth though
" I AM NOT YOUR FRIEND" talking to his audience, telling them they should not trust youtubers, because they are glorified salesmen selling them a product and the audience is consumers.
Yes, and it's the main reason I find most 'professional' twitch streaming to be kind of sad and exploitative by nature.
Yep, and it's always felt really gross to me since the streamer knows exactly what they're doing. It's always uncomfortable when you see a large donation get made in a stream and the streamer awkwardly showers the person with praise, which is likely the main reason the person donated to begin with. Stream interaction is a good thing, but not when it turns into this cycle of people paying money just to hear the streamer say their name and acknowledge them for a second.
Sometimes I can't help but feel like the entire thing is built to take advantage of lonely people.
Yep, and it's always felt really gross to me since the streamer knows exactly what they're doing. It's always uncomfortable when you see a large donation get made in a stream and the streamer awkwardly showers the person with praise, which is likely the main reason the person donated to begin with. Stream interaction is a good thing, but not when it turns into this cycle of people paying money just to hear the streamer say their name and acknowledge them for a second.
Sometimes I can't help but feel like the entire thing is built to take advantage of lonely people.
People making faulty assumptions about the level of intimacy they have with any given person is old news, and the internet is just a "new" frontier for that
The only effective counter is to make sure people have the wherewithal to realize no, the president/senator/activist/sexy celebrity/funny youtuber/writer you think understands you doesn't actually know or care who you are .And even if they wanted to, it'd be impractical for them to do so.
The only effective counter is to make sure people have the wherewithal to realize no, the president/senator/activist/sexy celebrity/funny youtuber/writer you think understands you doesn't actually know or care who you are .And even if they wanted to, it'd be impractical for them to do so.
Giftofgab24
Member
I'd say so. It's like the same thing as thinking strippers are actually attracted to you.
It doesnt apply to normal celebrities though. Celebrities dont talk to their audience like Youtubers do. Its even worse with Streamers where you can directly interact with them and they say they are your friends.
Its on a level of interaction and personalization that hasnt quite been seen before. You feel like you know everything about these peoples lives, they give you access to it all it, access to their thoughts and home life everything almost everything it seems. Its unfiltered, and raw.
These people have a great amount of influence on their fans, its how people work. Its dangerous for both.
hemo memo
Gold Member
It's dangerous that grandparents let their parents let their kids watch yt & twitch all day.
Reminded me of this.
The Easy Allies are my allies too!
It's what happens with the youtube format where channels can be driven by one person's personality in front of a camera, and that they interact with their audience more because the platform allows it. Not that much different from other TV though that kids can get sucked into, especially if they don't have many friends in their real-life...or musicians that always say "you" in their song so they can generically act like they're speaking to anyone listening.
I think now people view youtubers in such extremes now. Too many apologists that think they're amazing and perfect, and then people that think they're a terrible influence that should be silenced.
I think now people view youtubers in such extremes now. Too many apologists that think they're amazing and perfect, and then people that think they're a terrible influence that should be silenced.
Scientists found that on a psychological level, people have the same reaction to seeing people on a TV show as they do when seeing their real life friends.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/imaginary-friends/
It really is, though. You won't make the big money on Twitch until you start finding your niche, and catering to the lonely portion of it.
Kaleinc
Banned
The internet age has certainly exasperated a problem that has always existed, this concept that people have a hard time differentiating entertainers from friends. Usually occurs in those that have terrible social skills.
The YouTube/twitch streamers and internet celebrities prey on people like this. They go and refer to them as friends and these people believe them and build the social network around these people that you or I would make in real life.
The YouTube/twitch streamers and internet celebrities prey on people like this. They go and refer to them as friends and these people believe them and build the social network around these people that you or I would make in real life.
QuantumSquid
Member
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