You read the title correctly, a Chinese man was revealed to have donated a grand total of $550,000 to a single twitch streamer over the span of 2024. This money was obtained in various ways, most notably from using his family’s life savings and also theft. Why? The reasoning is rather unorthodox, but the man whose surname is Hong donated all this money solely in the hopes that this twitch streamer would call him “brother”. It is perplexing to say the least that such an unusual motive drove Hong to commit crimes, starve himself, and seemingly take any length he can to reach this goal. Hong became obsessed with this unidentified twitch streamer at the beginning of 2024. This modern far-fetched situation may provide a greater insight into the direction our society is heading and perhaps a warning sign as to what the future may look like.
During 2024 when Hong was obsessed with this particular twitch streamer, he took roughly 40% of the money in his family’s savings account and used every dollar of it to donate to the twitch streamer. Twitch is a platform where influencers are free to live stream content for fans and usually do so routinely. Viewers can watch streams for free and may choose to voluntarily donate money with a short message to support the twitch streamer. Hong took this feature to the extreme and perhaps the most depressing part is that even as of today, the twitch streamer in question still has not fulfilled Hong’s request by saying “brother”.
After Hong stole money from his family’s life savings his access to the savings became restricted. Hong then resorted to stealing copper and then selling it to recycling stations. This was possible for Hong because he worked in a hardware industry which made access to copper more possible for him. It did not take long for the factory to notice a chunk of materials missing and notified police on October 15. Almost immediately after the investigation began Hong turned himself in. Hong confessed to at least 40 separate copper thefts.
Delving deeper into Hong’s motive, he said that he did not even care to meet the twitch streamer in person or anything, he only wanted to hear her say the one word. Hong truly did use every dollar he stole to the streamer because he claimed to live off of steamed buns as his only food source since he had no money leftover for anything else. No further explanation is provided as to whether Hong was so determined to hear the streamer say this one word out of a place coming from a fetish, result of prior traumas, or a mix of those reasons. Either way, to dedicate one’s life to living parasocially through watching a streamer and desperately sending massive donations to make them say something, are signs of serious loneliness.
Hong’s case is a bizarre one but is hopefully not one that becomes more common in the near future. As we further advance with technology and life is supposed to be as easy as it’s ever been, rates of loneliness and depression are as high as ever as well. Somehow with an exponentially increasing population on earth more people are feeling lonely which leads to unhealthy attachments to online relationships and social media. Specifically, streaming addiction is a rising problem. The normalization of instant satisfaction and appeal to the brain’s reward system is the cause of how streaming addiction begins. Dopamine release is comparable to receiving a “high” from drugs, it is highly addictive and in worst cases this can turn into an obsession. Although most people will likely never resort to stealing family savings and copper to fund a twitch streamer they have never personally met, the importance of human connection and avoidance of living chronically online can be taken away from Hong’s story.
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Hi Eddie. This was really such a wild story to read, and honestly kind of sad too. It really shows how extreme parasocial relationships can get when someone feels lonely or disconnected in real life. The fact that Hong gave away over half a million dollars just to hear the word “brother” is shocking, and it makes me think about how streaming platforms can sometimes make unhealthy attachments worse. I agree with you that this points to bigger issues like loneliness and the addictive nature of online validation.
While this article covers a rather extreme example of technology’s impact on individuals in society, it does beg the question: how will AI impact our society’s capacity for relationships? This extreme example of a parasocial relationship reminded me of the fact that there are now platforms and apps that allow one to engage in parasocial relationships with an AI. The AI has the ability to react and engage with the user, mimicking real interaction. I can see major platforms have already taken the road of exploiting the lonely but this is going to bring it to a whole new level.
Hi Eddie. I definitely agree with you that this case speaks to our need for human connection. It is a testament to what can happen when people find themselves lacking it. There is no doubt that this story is a bizarre one. More than anything it’s sad. I think streaming platforms like Twitch sees that there is a general loneliness epidemic and are capitalizing on it. These streamers step in to fill the void for lonely people like Hong not realizing (or maybe they do) the damage they are doing. Watching a streamer is certainly no substitute for genuine human connection, as Hong’s case demonstrates.
I think this story is a good example of the influence that modern technology has on people. I think Hong’s case is a rather extreme and bizarre one, but it does shed light on technology’s power. In this case, it had the power to cause an individual to commit crimes that not only affected him, but also his family. Though it is not a crime in itself, I think the streamer’s actions could be questionable. I can’t help but think that they might have avoided saying “brother” in order to get more donations. I also think that modern technology has the power to create a false reality. Moreso in the way that maybe Hong felt he was a part of the streamer’s life. Hong’s addiction ultimately leaves me with a lot of unanswered questions.
Hi Eddie! This story is really interesting, as I think it shows us how common parasocial relationships have become with the rise of “influencer culture”. Many obsess over these online figures, doing anything to feel that moment of recognition they’ve been waiting for. I see this happen a lot on TikTok nowadays, with people sending hundreds of dollars via livestream to their favorite creators to simply get a “thank you [username]” or a follow back. People don’t care how much they spend, they just care about that feeling of gratification. I think this is a byproduct of how online our social world has become, and has worsened following COVID-19, as now the younger generations are growing up having social media be one of their top forms of communication – almost with them all being “chronically online”.
Hey Eddie, this is a fascinating and bizarre story, thank you for sharing. As social media and technology continue to advance and our society continuously becomes more and more dependent on it, we have seen very strange side effects. It is mind-blowing that Hong spent all of his and his family’s savings in hopes of getting the attention of a certain Twitch streamer and getting her to say one simple word. To me, this definitely sounds like a fetish of some sort. I wonder if the Twitch streamer was indeed paying attention but didn’t say the word on purpose because she knew he would continue to donate to her until she did.