Comment by masklinn

3 years ago

> From what I have gleaned, vTuber is a virtual YouTuber. The streams use an anime model a s behaviour.

Yes, basically instead of streaming as themselves vTubers stream as a persona, usually with an anime-style virtual avatar.

> And for some reason I feel creeped out now. There is something perturbing about the saccharin persona coupled with the pseudonym.

I've not found a vTuber I enjoyed (but the main vTuber community is japanese and japanese TV / entertainment is... a lot, and not my cup of tea).

However how is "Asahi Lina" and an animated cartoon avatar creepier than psychphysic and a random picture or manga snip on a forum 15 or 20 years ago? As far as I'm concerned it's the same principle moved from the media of text and images to that of audio and video.

> However how is "Asahi Lina" and an animated cartoon avatar creepier than psychphysic and a random picture or manga snip on a forum 15 or 20 years ago?

That's a really good question and I only have a cop-out answer.

I'm not the type to get the creeps.

But the immediate thought I had and commented else where was of Pennywise.

Which is really quite alarming!

I think the core was that Asahi in my mind is quite infantilised and the realisation that the person behind the persona is quite likely to be adult man.

Nothing particularly predatory here, but there is still a feeling of a false sense of security.

  • > Nothing particularly predatory here, but there is still a feeling of a false sense of security.

    What danger could an online persona possibly present to you? "[...]a false sense of security" implies there's a danger

    • There's no point thinking of this as a cognition the pilomotor response is a reflex.

      One that evolved before the dinosaurs were wiped out.

      I can only tell you my feelings, thoughts and emotions. Feel free to come up with a better explanation!

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