As I was trying to figure out what topic to pick for this week’s Thursday though, I was inspired by a video I saw from the popular streamer Ludwig. He detailed the problems of parasocial interaction between him and his fans. Parasocial interaction is the one-sided relationship that a fan has with a famous or prominent figure where the person spends time, emotions, and energy on that relationship, however the prominent figure has no idea that the fan exists. The issue with the parasocial interactions is that some fans are trying to find their popular streams and becoming overall obsessed with them in order to fulfill their psychological need. In a video done by Patrick Atallah he discusses the issue that streamers like Ludwig have with these fans and how the platform itself influences some of the issues.

For people who do not know who Ludwig is, he is a very popular twitch streamer who has quickly risen to the top of the streaming platform since his beginning in 2018. He is one of the platform’s top streamers as he currently sits on over 25,000 paying monthly subscribers on the platform. With his success the main question is why many people so connect to him, this can be put to the fact that he is a good looking and funny figure that many people look for in a friend. This combined with the fact that most of his life is documented makes his viewers feel like they are around him constantly like a friend would be. This is the opposite for the streamer because as stated in the documentary Ludwig is just trying to entertain an audience and does not have a connection with any of his viewers and even calls them “Faceless chatters”. It is a difficult balance because for the individual fans he fills a void for them as someone to lean into as a friend even though it is a one-sided relationship.

With over 25,000 paying monthly subscribers it is hard to keep track of everyone and with so many people trying to fill this void the problem arises of people trying to go too hard to try and capture the attention of the streamer. To do this the viewers just use the live chat feature to say whatever they think will capture the attention of the streamer no matter how offensive. For many the chat is just a place to support the creator by sending kind words or emojis, however for others they try to be as funny or offensive as they can just so they can try to feel the void of getting attention from their “friend”. The other way people try to get the attention of the streamer is actually paying money to have their message or name read. On Twitch if you donate to the streamer a message is popped on the screen saying the person’s name and then whatever message is attached. For many this is a way to feed into that parasocial interaction and fulfill their need for that friend. 

I found the documentary to be very informative to not only the issue on Twitch but the issue of parasocial interactions. In the documentary Patrick talked to some of Ludwig’s real-life friends to give the viewers who watched a real-life description of who he is as a person and not just the person behind the screen. I found it to be very entertaining to watch in the way he talked extensively on the issue that Twitch has brought for their own content creators with the way their platform is set up. For streamers all across the platform they experience the same issue that Ludwig does, especially women streamers who have the parasocial interactions but also the people that go deeper and become stalkers. With these platforms it is scary to be a content creator because of these people who try to become friends with the figures and ultimately become obsessed. 

Twitch is only a small example of these kinds of parasocial interactions since it is ultimately the same issue for all celebrities and prominent figures in our society. These examples shown in the article are only small compared to the masses that have seen it become more dangerous and even having to get the authorities involved. For many people they just believe that becoming a celebrity you sign up for and sign up for the lifestyle of always being watched as a public figure. When we look deeper into it though we realize that they are still human beings and just like us they want to live a normal life.

Documentary Link: I’m Not Your Friend – A Twitch Documentary – YouTube