• PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca
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    3 months ago

    I mean… I can see it both ways.

    When people engage with content, they have expectations going in - they expect to know if the content is fictional, truthful, or intentionally ambiguous.

    For example, if someone watches a documentary and finds out it was all made up, they’d be right to be upset, because it presents itself as honest.
    Likewise if someone watches a fantasy movie, they don’t have the expectation of honesty.
    And if someone watches something like the Blair witch project, they go in knowing that it’s dubiously truthful. It’s a bit of a grey area because the deceit is part of the art.

    Streaming is similar, vtubers are obviously fictional - nobody really has expectations around what they’re really like.
    But if someone builds a following around being authentically themselves, and then it’s discovered that they’re lying about significant parts of their content, I can understand some degree of outrage.

    I don’t really watch streamers because the dynamic between streamers and viewers seems toxic AF, where streamers are kinda forced to pander and appear personable… But I still understand being upset when you find out what you got isn’t what you were sold