A New Kind of Streamers

Good day Hiveans,

Today I bring you a quick post about streaming technologies and some aspects of AI that are changing the way millions of people produce and consume content. I confess that I find it fascinating and disturbing at the same time.

A thread by Chinese Twitter user Naomi Wu has gone viral in which she tells how some streamers from her country get together to broadcast in wealthy neighborhoods because, according to her, they receive more donations (the algorithm gives them more visibility based on proximity).

pexels.com / RODNAE Productions
Arranged in a row and with the circular lamps on their heads as halos, or nimbus, it looks like an alley full of angels. I'm not sure if they do it to get closer to the rich, because looking for the story in the Chinese media I read that the girls agreed to broadcast together in the city of Guilin and form an "Internet celebrity street".

Apparently, they have been installed under a bridge for about a year (literally) causing inconvenience to the neighbors, like a small army of digital beggars trying to get attention (although some earn thousands of dollars a day).

In recent months, there has been a lot of news about alleged “streamer farms” in China, many of them quite tabloid. In reality, they refer to a school for streamers in which more than 200 girls are trained in the art of seducing the audience through their channels on social networks.

In The New York Times they did an excellent report in which you can see how they explicitly train them to search for rich men and tell them things like these:

They are lonely and are looking for a spiritual connection. They can send you gifts without telling you anything. He arrives and watches the live stream for a while. At first, he just watches you. But suddenly you say the right thing, you sing the right song. And then the donations start coming in.

The report has wonderful details, such as when two streamers comment that viewers often ask about the books on the shelf, which are all made of papier-mâché. Because in this sky of cybernetic cherubs everything is fake.

One of the fans says something that I think is key to the success of the streaming formula in general, also applicable to other streaming and YouTube phenomena. The boy feels that the presenter of the channel is his "friend". And in a certain way, that is why thousands of teenagers follow these leaders, and spend hours hooked on their channels; because they make them feel that they are part of a huge group of “friends”.

I think virtual relationships can replace real ones, says the kid. It is worth giving it a spin.

Posted using PALnet