Affective liquidity, synthetic bonds: VTubers as posthuman mediators of digital intimacies
Published online on December 24, 2025
Abstract
New Media & Society, Ahead of Print.
This study explores how VTubers, or virtual YouTubers, redefine digital intimacy by blending human performance with digital artifice. Through a 9-month digital ethnography and 21 interviews with VTuber fans, we identified two key processes. First, the ...
This study explores how VTubers, or virtual YouTubers, redefine digital intimacy by blending human performance with digital artifice. Through a 9-month digital ethnography and 21 interviews with VTuber fans, we identified two key processes. First, the ...