Difference between revisions of "Parasocial Internet Relationships"

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Development of Parasocial Internet Relationships
 
Development of Parasocial Internet Relationships
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As stated before, Parasocial Internet Relationships come into fruition from repeated occurrences of Parasocial Interactions. A Parasocial Interaction Event includes a Youtube Video, Twitch broadcast, Television episode, any many other forms of media where the persona is presenting themselves to an audience. A viewer will come to form an opinion about the persona from an interaction event and that opinion will be carried over into the “next parasocial episode”. REF Auter, Philip J. (1992), “TV That Talks Back: An Experimental Validation of a Parasocial Interaction Scale,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 36 (Spring), 173-81. Over time, a viewer can come to develop strong feelings about the internet persona, and believe they are familiar with the persona’s nature, similar to real social relationships where both parties are familiar with each other's behavior. Though Parasocial Internet Relationships can resemble real social relationships in this manner, they “typically consist of a much weaker bond”REFERENCE https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267374790_Forming_Parasocial_Relationships_in_Online_Communities. Horton and Wohl, the creators of the term Parasocial Interactions “de-
 
As stated before, Parasocial Internet Relationships come into fruition from repeated occurrences of Parasocial Interactions. A Parasocial Interaction Event includes a Youtube Video, Twitch broadcast, Television episode, any many other forms of media where the persona is presenting themselves to an audience. A viewer will come to form an opinion about the persona from an interaction event and that opinion will be carried over into the “next parasocial episode”. REF Auter, Philip J. (1992), “TV That Talks Back: An Experimental Validation of a Parasocial Interaction Scale,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 36 (Spring), 173-81. Over time, a viewer can come to develop strong feelings about the internet persona, and believe they are familiar with the persona’s nature, similar to real social relationships where both parties are familiar with each other's behavior. Though Parasocial Internet Relationships can resemble real social relationships in this manner, they “typically consist of a much weaker bond”REFERENCE https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267374790_Forming_Parasocial_Relationships_in_Online_Communities. Horton and Wohl, the creators of the term Parasocial Interactions “de-
 
scribed this type of interaction as creating the illusion of intimacy
 
scribed this type of interaction as creating the illusion of intimacy
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and Now,” Human Communication Research, 13 (Fall), 34-
 
and Now,” Human Communication Research, 13 (Fall), 34-
 
8. The second theory is called personal construct theory, which proposes that viewers come to form a parasocial relationship with an online persona by using the same relationship-forming process from their real world connections. The last theory is called social exchange theory, which suggests that the reason parasocial internet relationships come to fruition is through a cost and reward system; the viewer pays a low cost but receives a higher reward. For example, a viewer of a Youtuber does not need to provide much besides their time in the interaction event, but may receive high entertainment value out of the event.
 
8. The second theory is called personal construct theory, which proposes that viewers come to form a parasocial relationship with an online persona by using the same relationship-forming process from their real world connections. The last theory is called social exchange theory, which suggests that the reason parasocial internet relationships come to fruition is through a cost and reward system; the viewer pays a low cost but receives a higher reward. For example, a viewer of a Youtuber does not need to provide much besides their time in the interaction event, but may receive high entertainment value out of the event.
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Parasocial Internet Relationships can be strengthened by the communication capabilities of the platforms they reside on. For example, YouTube viewers are able to communicate with their favorite YouTuber by commenting, liking, sharing, or sending emails. Twitch viewers are able to communicate with streamers through participating in chat, subscribing, or donating. Oftentimes, Twitch subscriptions are accompanied by the streamer thanking the subscriber on stream, and donations carry a message in which the streamer will read out loud. On Instagram, followers can communicate with a persona through commenting, liking, sharing, or direct messaging. Instagram also gives the persona the ability to post stories, often used to share short snippets of one’s day, which gives viewers an inside look at the persona’s personal life, which can lead to further strengthening of the parasocial relationship.
 
   
 
   
 
Marketing Usages of Parasocial Internet Relationships
 
Marketing Usages of Parasocial Internet Relationships
Parasocial Internet Relationships have shown to be a highly effective form of marketing. Popular personas handle audiences that reach up to millions of people, which equates to an extremely large pool of people to sell a product to. The resemblance of a parasocial relationship to a real-life relationship, in that a party is invested in the other in an intimate manner, also factors into the effectiveness of marketing. Credibility also goes a long way in marketing, as certain online personas are seen as specialists in a certain field by their viewers, so their word is trusted highly by the viewers who watch them.  
+
 
 +
Parasocial Internet Relationships have shown to be a highly effective form of marketing. Popular personas handle audiences that reach up to millions of people, which equates to an extremely large pool of people to sell a product to. The resemblance of a parasocial relationship to a real-life relationship, in that a party is invested in the other in an intimate manner, also factors into the effectiveness of marketing. Credibility also goes a long way in marketing, as certain online personas are seen as specialists in a certain field by their viewers, so their word is trusted highly by the viewers who watch them. Rasumussen suggests that in a Parasocial Internet Relationship, the celebrity becomes a “regular person” or “relatable character to an audience,” and thus the viewer sees the “trustworthy girl next door” talking about an time they love uing rather than a “flawless-faced celebrity” advertising a product REF RASMUSSEN. Studies were performed on undergraduate students at a Midwestern university to explore the presence of parasocial relationships between a viewer and a popular Youtuber and the effectiveness of Youtubers marketing beauty products REF RASMUSSEN. From the studies, it was found that there was a “significant association between YouTube celebrity popularity and feeling as though the celebrity was the viewer’s friend.” It was also found that participants deemed both highly popular and moderately popular YouTubers as credible sources. However, regarding purchasing decisions, it was found that 68% of participants shown a video from the more popular YouTuber reported “they would likely purchase a product reviewed by the speaker,” while that number dropped to 53% for the group that was shown a video from the less popular YouTuber.  
 
   
 
   
 
Many companies nowadays have taken note of the marketing effectiveness of Parasocial Internet Relationships and have made sponsorship deals with popular personas to help sell their products. For example, Matthew “WARDELL” Yu and Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik are popular professional players and Twitch streamers of the online tactical shooter VALORANT. In their Youtube channels of over 327,000 and 177,000 subscribers, respectively, they often use a portion of their videos to advertise products from Logitech, a popular company for gaming peripherals. In multiple of their videos, they advertise a gaming mouse called the Logitech G Pro Wireless. Currently, the G Pro Wireless is one of the best selling mice on Amazon, with close to 10,000 ratings. There have also been instances where a brand sponsors an online celebrity to sell a product where the celebrity is not considered a specialist in, but the celebrity garners an audience group which is a target group for the brand. Jimmy “Mr. Beast” Donaldson is currently one of the most popular Youtubers on the platform with over 89 million subscribers, and consistently garners views reaching over tens of millions per video. One of his recent videos, titled “$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life!”, is a gameshow style video where he invites hundreds of contestants to participate in a game modeled after “Squid Game”, a Korean made television show which exploded in popularity during 2021. Mr. Beast uses the middle portion of the video to advertise a game called “Brawl Stars”. The video currently has over 210 million views, and the game has over 21 million votes on the Google Play Store and 178 hundred thousand reviews on Apple’s app store.  
 
Many companies nowadays have taken note of the marketing effectiveness of Parasocial Internet Relationships and have made sponsorship deals with popular personas to help sell their products. For example, Matthew “WARDELL” Yu and Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik are popular professional players and Twitch streamers of the online tactical shooter VALORANT. In their Youtube channels of over 327,000 and 177,000 subscribers, respectively, they often use a portion of their videos to advertise products from Logitech, a popular company for gaming peripherals. In multiple of their videos, they advertise a gaming mouse called the Logitech G Pro Wireless. Currently, the G Pro Wireless is one of the best selling mice on Amazon, with close to 10,000 ratings. There have also been instances where a brand sponsors an online celebrity to sell a product where the celebrity is not considered a specialist in, but the celebrity garners an audience group which is a target group for the brand. Jimmy “Mr. Beast” Donaldson is currently one of the most popular Youtubers on the platform with over 89 million subscribers, and consistently garners views reaching over tens of millions per video. One of his recent videos, titled “$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life!”, is a gameshow style video where he invites hundreds of contestants to participate in a game modeled after “Squid Game”, a Korean made television show which exploded in popularity during 2021. Mr. Beast uses the middle portion of the video to advertise a game called “Brawl Stars”. The video currently has over 210 million views, and the game has over 21 million votes on the Google Play Store and 178 hundred thousand reviews on Apple’s app store.  
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Online personas have also applied their relationship with audiences to market products from their own brands. Jose “Teachingmensfashion” Zuniga, a Youtuber who makes videos teaching male audiences how to dress better, started his own fashion company called “ESNTLS” which sold basic fashion pieces. The channel currently has over 5.6 million subscribers. Bradley Martyn is a Youtuber who focuses on making videos about bodybuilding and lifestyle. In May of 2017, Martyn released a video titled “ALL OF THIS IN THE ZOO GYM” to his audience of around 1 million subscribers at the time. In the video, Martyn advertises his commercial gym called “ZOO CULTURE”.  
 
Online personas have also applied their relationship with audiences to market products from their own brands. Jose “Teachingmensfashion” Zuniga, a Youtuber who makes videos teaching male audiences how to dress better, started his own fashion company called “ESNTLS” which sold basic fashion pieces. The channel currently has over 5.6 million subscribers. Bradley Martyn is a Youtuber who focuses on making videos about bodybuilding and lifestyle. In May of 2017, Martyn released a video titled “ALL OF THIS IN THE ZOO GYM” to his audience of around 1 million subscribers at the time. In the video, Martyn advertises his commercial gym called “ZOO CULTURE”.  
 
   
 
   
Popular Internet stars have come under fire in the past for promoting products to their audience.  
+
Controversy over Parasocial Internet Relationships
.
+
 
 +
.Popular Internet stars have come under fire in the past for promoting products to their audience. Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter is a popular YouTube gaming streamer with over 3.6 million subscribers on her platform. In October of 2021, Hofstetter came into controversy over a skin care brand she co-founded and was promoting called “RFLCT”. The aim of “RFLCT”’s products was to help protect skin against blue light, a type of light emitted from PC and cellphone screens. However, news came out that the research behind the effectiveness of these products were very limited, and the credibility of the products and Hofstetter came into question. Online attacks were soon to follow; in his article “YouTuber Valkyrae’s skincare fiasco proves online drama doesn’t produce accountability”, Nathan Grayson describes the attacks as coming from fans who are “sick of feeling like their favorite video game content creators are trying to take advantage of them, regardless of whether that’s the creator’s true motive” REF https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/10/28/youtube-valkyrae-rflct-streamer-drama/. Hofstetter eventually stepped away from her support of “RFLCT”.
 +
 +
In July of 2020, popular Twitch streamer Imane “Pokimane” Anys came into controversy over the parasocial relationships she held with her Twitch audience of 8.9 million followers. At the forefront of the criticism directed at Anys was Youtuber Calvin “LeafyIsHere” Vail. Vail uploaded a video titled “Content Nuke: Pokimane” which proposed an argument that “Anys isn’t funny, entertaining, or even hot” REF https://www.wired.com/story/drama-youtube-pokimane/. Vail’s argument brought along a wave of online support stating that Anys’s viewers were simply “delusionally lovestruck” individuals who were emotionally invested in her without knowing the details of her romantic life, which she had kept private in the past. This controversy also propelled a movement on Twitter: #pokimaneboyfriend was included in 9,600 tweets only five hours after Vail’s initial video was uploaded REF https://www.wired.com/story/drama-youtube-pokimane/. Pokimane later uploaded a Youtube video titled “my overdue apology” addressing the controversy. Vail’s video was blocked from showing ads due to Youtube’s policy of prohibiting “ads from showing on content that is demeaning or insulting,” but that action was later undone.
 +
 +
Another example of controversy comes from Charli D’Amelio, a TikTok star who rose to immense fame as a 16 year old posting videos of her dancing on the video-sharing platform. In late 2020, her family published a video of them having dinner with James Charles, a popular beauty and LGBT Youtuber, with the food being served by a personal chef. Certain portions of the video were scrutinized and used to criticize the D’Amelios; in one part, Charli’s sister Dixie was seen gagging in reaction to eating the food, in another part Charli asked if there was “Dino nuggets” she could eat in front of the chef, and in a later part Charli expressed “her desire to reach 100 million followers on the anniversary of hitting her first million”, which many fans took as an act of ungratefulness REF https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/11/24/21611531/charli-damelio-tiktok-chef-dinner-followers. Reactions to this video included comments which stated: “this made me so mad bye,” “did their parents not teach them manners,” and “my god - the immaturity”REF VOX. D’Amelio lost nearly a million followers during the aftermath of the video, and she later went on Instagram Live to address the controversy over the video. During the live session, D’Amelio stated that fans “blatantly disrespecting the fact that [she’s] still a human being is not okay at all,” that she was receiving “death threats and violent messages,” and that she’s “still a person no matter how many followers [she has]”REF VOX.

Revision as of 02:30, 29 January 2022

Parasocial Internet Relationships are a type of relationship that exist between an internet persona and their audience. These relationships are often seen as one-sided as individual audience members can become deeply invested in the internet persona, while the persona rarely engages with any individual audience member on a deep level. The internet persona can “include several types of media figures(or personae) such as presenters, actors, or celebrities”.REFERENCE https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267374790_Forming_Parasocial_Relationships_in_Online_CommunitiesThe concept of Parasocial Internet Relationships stem from Parasocial Interactions, which was a term created by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in 1956. Horton and Wohl define Parasocial Interactions as the "pseudo-intimate relationship between the audience and media personalities". Over time, repeated Parasocial Interactions can develop into Parasocial Internet Relationships[1]. These relationships can be found on various social media platforms where an individual can present themselves to a group of audience such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter. Parasocial Internet Relationships have been proven to be an extremely effective form of social media marketing, as the persona's relationship with their audience enables word-of-mouth opinion sharing on a large scale, with many personas' audience base reaching millions of followers. Popular internet celebrities have also come into controversy in the past in regard to having a large audience, as critics believe that the celebrities are in a position of power where the viewers provide immense value, often monetary, and the celebrities offer very little in comparison.

Development of Parasocial Internet Relationships

As stated before, Parasocial Internet Relationships come into fruition from repeated occurrences of Parasocial Interactions. A Parasocial Interaction Event includes a Youtube Video, Twitch broadcast, Television episode, any many other forms of media where the persona is presenting themselves to an audience. A viewer will come to form an opinion about the persona from an interaction event and that opinion will be carried over into the “next parasocial episode”. REF Auter, Philip J. (1992), “TV That Talks Back: An Experimental Validation of a Parasocial Interaction Scale,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 36 (Spring), 173-81. Over time, a viewer can come to develop strong feelings about the internet persona, and believe they are familiar with the persona’s nature, similar to real social relationships where both parties are familiar with each other's behavior. Though Parasocial Internet Relationships can resemble real social relationships in this manner, they “typically consist of a much weaker bond”REFERENCE https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267374790_Forming_Parasocial_Relationships_in_Online_Communities. Horton and Wohl, the creators of the term Parasocial Interactions “de- scribed this type of interaction as creating the illusion of intimacy at a distance”. REFERENCE https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267374790_Forming_Parasocial_Relationships_in_Online_Communities Parasocial interactions have been studied through the lens of homophily, which is “the tendency for friendships to form between people that are alike in some designated respect”REFERENCE https://www.researchgate.net/publication/267374790_Forming_Parasocial_Relationships_in_Online_Communities. From these examinations, it was found that “attitude homophily was the best predictor of parasocial interaction”, while physical appearance and background, the other two traits of homophily, were “not correlated as strongly”. REFERENCE Turner, John R. (1993), “Interpersonal and Psychological Predictors of Parasocial Interaction with Different Television Performers,” Communication Quarterly, 41 (Fall), 443-53 However, other studies have concluded that homophily is not the best predictor of parasocial interactions, instead social attraction was found to be “the most determining factor” of such interactions REFERENCE pkpadmin,+Journal+manager,+JSMS+article+submission+template+Rasmussen (1).pdf. According to Rasmussen, the social attraction in parasocial relationships boils down to physical appearance and personality, and the viewers in these relationships may see these traits as “admirable and hope to acquire similar features”. Research has also been done to explore how attachment styles play into the development of Parasocial Internet Relationships. Attachment styles are split into three categories: secure individuals, “who hold a variety of positive expectations that will result in relational interactions and outcomes”, anxious-ambivalent individuals, who are “driven by their fear of being alone and disappointment that their partners do not live up to their idealized expectations”, and avoidant individuals, “who have a difficult time trusting others, and often engage in behaviors designed to keep others at a comfortable distance”REFERENCE pkpadmin,+Journal+manager,+JSMS+article+submission+template+Rasmussen (1).pdf. From this research, it was determined that that anxious-ambivalent individuals were the most likely to develop parasocial bonds with a persona, while avoidant individuals were the least likely to develop any relationship with a persona REF Cole, Tim and Laura Leets (1999), “Attachment Styles andIntimate Television Viewing: Insecurely Forming Relation-ships in a Parasocial Way,” Journal of Social and PersonalRelationships, 16 (4), 495-511. In their research article “Attachment Styles andIntimate Television Viewing: Insecurely Forming Relation-ships in a Parasocial Way”, Tim Cole and Laura Leets brought up three relational development theories that may add to to the explanation of how Parasocial Internet Relationships develop. The first theory is called uncertainty reduction theory, which theorizes that a relationship develops through participating parties learning each other’s characters and being able to predict the other’s behaviors, and as the certainty of their predictions increase the strength of their relationship also increases REF Berger, Charles R. (1986), “Uncertain Outcome Values in Predicted Relationships: Uncertainty Reduction Theory Then and Now,” Human Communication Research, 13 (Fall), 34- 8. The second theory is called personal construct theory, which proposes that viewers come to form a parasocial relationship with an online persona by using the same relationship-forming process from their real world connections. The last theory is called social exchange theory, which suggests that the reason parasocial internet relationships come to fruition is through a cost and reward system; the viewer pays a low cost but receives a higher reward. For example, a viewer of a Youtuber does not need to provide much besides their time in the interaction event, but may receive high entertainment value out of the event.

Parasocial Internet Relationships can be strengthened by the communication capabilities of the platforms they reside on. For example, YouTube viewers are able to communicate with their favorite YouTuber by commenting, liking, sharing, or sending emails. Twitch viewers are able to communicate with streamers through participating in chat, subscribing, or donating. Oftentimes, Twitch subscriptions are accompanied by the streamer thanking the subscriber on stream, and donations carry a message in which the streamer will read out loud. On Instagram, followers can communicate with a persona through commenting, liking, sharing, or direct messaging. Instagram also gives the persona the ability to post stories, often used to share short snippets of one’s day, which gives viewers an inside look at the persona’s personal life, which can lead to further strengthening of the parasocial relationship.

Marketing Usages of Parasocial Internet Relationships

Parasocial Internet Relationships have shown to be a highly effective form of marketing. Popular personas handle audiences that reach up to millions of people, which equates to an extremely large pool of people to sell a product to. The resemblance of a parasocial relationship to a real-life relationship, in that a party is invested in the other in an intimate manner, also factors into the effectiveness of marketing. Credibility also goes a long way in marketing, as certain online personas are seen as specialists in a certain field by their viewers, so their word is trusted highly by the viewers who watch them. Rasumussen suggests that in a Parasocial Internet Relationship, the celebrity becomes a “regular person” or “relatable character to an audience,” and thus the viewer sees the “trustworthy girl next door” talking about an time they love uing rather than a “flawless-faced celebrity” advertising a product REF RASMUSSEN. Studies were performed on undergraduate students at a Midwestern university to explore the presence of parasocial relationships between a viewer and a popular Youtuber and the effectiveness of Youtubers marketing beauty products REF RASMUSSEN. From the studies, it was found that there was a “significant association between YouTube celebrity popularity and feeling as though the celebrity was the viewer’s friend.” It was also found that participants deemed both highly popular and moderately popular YouTubers as credible sources. However, regarding purchasing decisions, it was found that 68% of participants shown a video from the more popular YouTuber reported “they would likely purchase a product reviewed by the speaker,” while that number dropped to 53% for the group that was shown a video from the less popular YouTuber.

Many companies nowadays have taken note of the marketing effectiveness of Parasocial Internet Relationships and have made sponsorship deals with popular personas to help sell their products. For example, Matthew “WARDELL” Yu and Yassine “Subroza” Taoufik are popular professional players and Twitch streamers of the online tactical shooter VALORANT. In their Youtube channels of over 327,000 and 177,000 subscribers, respectively, they often use a portion of their videos to advertise products from Logitech, a popular company for gaming peripherals. In multiple of their videos, they advertise a gaming mouse called the Logitech G Pro Wireless. Currently, the G Pro Wireless is one of the best selling mice on Amazon, with close to 10,000 ratings. There have also been instances where a brand sponsors an online celebrity to sell a product where the celebrity is not considered a specialist in, but the celebrity garners an audience group which is a target group for the brand. Jimmy “Mr. Beast” Donaldson is currently one of the most popular Youtubers on the platform with over 89 million subscribers, and consistently garners views reaching over tens of millions per video. One of his recent videos, titled “$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life!”, is a gameshow style video where he invites hundreds of contestants to participate in a game modeled after “Squid Game”, a Korean made television show which exploded in popularity during 2021. Mr. Beast uses the middle portion of the video to advertise a game called “Brawl Stars”. The video currently has over 210 million views, and the game has over 21 million votes on the Google Play Store and 178 hundred thousand reviews on Apple’s app store.

The sponsorship deals between brands and personas can be incredibly lucrative for both parties, with the brand’s products reaching audiences of millions and celebrities earning upwards of six figures to advertise the products. L’Oreal, a popular company selling beauty, makeup, and cosmetic products, paid celebrity Beyoncé $5 million to advertise “at-home hair color and L’Oreal lipsticks” REF RASMUSSEN. Beyonce holds over 235 million followers on Instagram, and each of her posts garners millions of likes and engagements. Lebron James, a professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association, is another celebrity figure who is paid a tremendous amount of money from major companies. In the past decade, the NBA has made a massive presence in the social media space, with Instagram accounts like “House of Highlights” sharing short clips from NBA games to an audience of over 31 million followers. Within this online-era shift, Lebron James has stood in the forefront as one of the most popular basketball figures in the league. James has played in 17 consecutive NBA All-Star games, a special basketball game held once a year in which fans vote in a limited set of players, which are often their most popular players. James also has an Instagram account with over 110 million followers. In 2015, James signed a lifetime contract with Nike, a popular sports brand, which pays him 32 million dollars annually REF https://www.forbes.com/sites/justinbirnbaum/2021/10/14/lebron-james-scores-on-725-million-springhill-deal-with-nike-redbird-and-fenway-sports-group/?sh=d5587fe702d0. From 2015 to 2021, Nike’s annual revenue increased from 30 billion dollars to over 44 billions dollars REF https://www.statista.com/statistics/241683/nikes-sales-worldwide-since-2004/.

Companies have also employed fictional characters in their marketing tactics, as Parasocial Relationships extend to include fictional characters who have garnered adoration from the fans who watch them. Iron Man, a Marvel comic book superhero, has appeared in 9 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe(MCU) with Robert Downey Jr. portraying the superhero. “Avengers: Endgame”, an MCU film released in 2019 with Iron Man as one of its main characters, grossed 2.798 billion dollars in the global box office, which currently stands as the second highest grossing film of all time REF https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avengers:_Endgame#Box_office. Iron Man’s immense popularity with fans was employed by game developer company Epic Games in their video game “Fortnite”. In Fortnite, players can purchase skins for the appearance of their in-game character, and Iron Man was a skin that was made available in 2020 which garnered immense popularity. A Youtube video called “How to UNLOCK IRONMAN SUIT in Fortnite Season 4 Tier 100 Skin” from Youtuber “GamingWithGarry” is a video which explains how to unlock the Iron Man skin once the prerequisite purchases were made. The video currently has over 1.1 million views. Epic games has also utilized the mass viewership of the National Football League, whose 272 games in the 2021 season averaged 17.1 million viewers “across television and digital platforms” REF https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/33050695/nfl-regular-season-ratings-increase-10-percent-last-season. Between November and December of 2021, Epic games sold 3.3 million NFL-branded skins which totaled to around 50 million dollars in sales REF https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2021/05/11/epic-reveals-it-made-50-million-from-one-set-of-fortnite-skins/?sh=1602009d3903.

Online personas have also applied their relationship with audiences to market products from their own brands. Jose “Teachingmensfashion” Zuniga, a Youtuber who makes videos teaching male audiences how to dress better, started his own fashion company called “ESNTLS” which sold basic fashion pieces. The channel currently has over 5.6 million subscribers. Bradley Martyn is a Youtuber who focuses on making videos about bodybuilding and lifestyle. In May of 2017, Martyn released a video titled “ALL OF THIS IN THE ZOO GYM” to his audience of around 1 million subscribers at the time. In the video, Martyn advertises his commercial gym called “ZOO CULTURE”.

Controversy over Parasocial Internet Relationships

.Popular Internet stars have come under fire in the past for promoting products to their audience. Rachell “Valkyrae” Hofstetter is a popular YouTube gaming streamer with over 3.6 million subscribers on her platform. In October of 2021, Hofstetter came into controversy over a skin care brand she co-founded and was promoting called “RFLCT”. The aim of “RFLCT”’s products was to help protect skin against blue light, a type of light emitted from PC and cellphone screens. However, news came out that the research behind the effectiveness of these products were very limited, and the credibility of the products and Hofstetter came into question. Online attacks were soon to follow; in his article “YouTuber Valkyrae’s skincare fiasco proves online drama doesn’t produce accountability”, Nathan Grayson describes the attacks as coming from fans who are “sick of feeling like their favorite video game content creators are trying to take advantage of them, regardless of whether that’s the creator’s true motive” REF https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/2021/10/28/youtube-valkyrae-rflct-streamer-drama/. Hofstetter eventually stepped away from her support of “RFLCT”.

In July of 2020, popular Twitch streamer Imane “Pokimane” Anys came into controversy over the parasocial relationships she held with her Twitch audience of 8.9 million followers. At the forefront of the criticism directed at Anys was Youtuber Calvin “LeafyIsHere” Vail. Vail uploaded a video titled “Content Nuke: Pokimane” which proposed an argument that “Anys isn’t funny, entertaining, or even hot” REF https://www.wired.com/story/drama-youtube-pokimane/. Vail’s argument brought along a wave of online support stating that Anys’s viewers were simply “delusionally lovestruck” individuals who were emotionally invested in her without knowing the details of her romantic life, which she had kept private in the past. This controversy also propelled a movement on Twitter: #pokimaneboyfriend was included in 9,600 tweets only five hours after Vail’s initial video was uploaded REF https://www.wired.com/story/drama-youtube-pokimane/. Pokimane later uploaded a Youtube video titled “my overdue apology” addressing the controversy. Vail’s video was blocked from showing ads due to Youtube’s policy of prohibiting “ads from showing on content that is demeaning or insulting,” but that action was later undone.

Another example of controversy comes from Charli D’Amelio, a TikTok star who rose to immense fame as a 16 year old posting videos of her dancing on the video-sharing platform. In late 2020, her family published a video of them having dinner with James Charles, a popular beauty and LGBT Youtuber, with the food being served by a personal chef. Certain portions of the video were scrutinized and used to criticize the D’Amelios; in one part, Charli’s sister Dixie was seen gagging in reaction to eating the food, in another part Charli asked if there was “Dino nuggets” she could eat in front of the chef, and in a later part Charli expressed “her desire to reach 100 million followers on the anniversary of hitting her first million”, which many fans took as an act of ungratefulness REF https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2020/11/24/21611531/charli-damelio-tiktok-chef-dinner-followers. Reactions to this video included comments which stated: “this made me so mad bye,” “did their parents not teach them manners,” and “my god - the immaturity”REF VOX. D’Amelio lost nearly a million followers during the aftermath of the video, and she later went on Instagram Live to address the controversy over the video. During the live session, D’Amelio stated that fans “blatantly disrespecting the fact that [she’s] still a human being is not okay at all,” that she was receiving “death threats and violent messages,” and that she’s “still a person no matter how many followers [she has]”REF VOX.