One of my ways of not feeling alone and bored during the pandemic is watching live streamers, particularly a YouTuber named “Sora The Troll”. Since travel was not allowed at that time that much, I enjoyed watching him walk around Japan, his home country, and listening to him talk about several hilarious stuff with us in the live chat of his video. Though we, his viewers cannot touch him or even guarantee that it is our comments that he will address next, I can surely say that it helped during times of boredom and isolation, not only during the pandemic but also during my stay here in Korea years afterward as a foreign student. Just playing the video while doing my assignment or doing my chores or hobbies is enough to make my day a little better.

This kind of interaction or relationship is called “parasocial” in the academic world, since it is mediated by technology and since the other person (in this case Sora) cannot usually return most of the interest or reply to the messages that we his numerous viewers are giving to him--see Horton and Wohl (1956) and Kowert and Daniel (2021) for more information on this “parasocial” phenomenon. In any case, we also connect with each other (fans) by replying to each other in the chat and even making our own Discord group and talk about anime, Japan, video games, and other otaku or weeb-stuff that is usually the topic of Sora’s videos. It is funny to think that in all the negativity that permeates the Internet, a cringe and funny Japanese YouTuber gave us some kind of weird but happy companionship.

Reference:

Horton, D., & Wohl, R. (1956). Mass communication and para-social interaction. Psychiatry 19(3), 215-229. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1956.11023049

Kowert, R., & Daniel, E., Jr. (2021). The one-and-a-half sided parasocial relationship: The curious case of live streaming. Computers in Human Behavior Reports 4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2021.100150

Sora the Troll. (n.d.). Home [YouTube channel]. YouTube. Retrieved March 18, 2025, from https://www.youtube.com/c/SoratheTroll