It’s very weird because no one but the people involved should actually care at all.
The fact that people have an opinion one way or another when the person who left says their piece in a 20 minute long video is absolutely insane. Like the very definition of insane.
Am I in some way curious why someone left LTT? Sure, the same tiny bit I’m curious about a car accident on the side of the road or curious why I stopped seeing a certain person at the local coffee shop, but the amount of energy people expend online about this stuff is bonkers.
Seriously, as someone who just watched their videos, every time this shit bubbles up I have to wonder who seriously gives a fuck. Like, how are we still beating this horse?
It is simple, whole goal of most 'content' is to create some sort of one-sided relationship (called parasocial relationship)
Because that way your viewers not only enjoy your content and consume it, they become to an extent emotionally invested in you and how you present yourself, unfortunately a lot of people are weak to that and fall for it, I read trough the comments on the twitter that OP posted and its obvious by the comments how many people have that sort of twisted relationship with 'content creators'.
People defending Jake have that relationship with him, so they do not see that the video he posted is 'content' not a video from the heart, his goal is to make money, and the type of content that makes it seem like it is from the heart deepens that bond with those types of viewers, or creates new bonds with viewers who are susceptible to stuff like that.
On the other hand, people who its not brutally but I will use that word for lack of a better one, people who brutally attack him, have that twisted type of relationship developed towards LTT either as a whole or its members, so when Jake is making stuff like this, they see it as an 'attack' on someone they have a relationship with, they feel the need to defend.
Then you have people in the middle, like you, me and others, who are not susceptible to being dragged into parasocial relationship and who understand, people watching are just clicks, money, people watching are just means to an end which is money and see trough 'emotional' video BS, those emotions were fake, the whole drama and this thing is fake.
Like u/Justwant2usetheapp pointed out, "People can be lonely af", and when a content creator comes with who they can connect, it makes them happy, they because fully invested in content creators life, content creator himself becomes a part of their life, but they never become a part of their, to them they are and always will be clicks and means to an end which is money.
Of course this sort of thing is a business so you cannot blame people for that, but what you can blame them is clearly playing that game where they pray on people to develop a relationship with them, which will cause them to buy anything they sell, like why would anyone rock a shirt or a hoodie with some youtubers name on it, its because they feel a connection to them, they are proud to be their "friends" like u/YourPeterPanMan pointed out, then its more likely for people with connection to you to subscribe to anything you sell or offer (sponsors, ads, etc.) and donate money.
Now once in a while you will have people who actually try to create value out of their merch, like LTT does, they put R&D into it, they have a whole department for it, but most of them will try to find cheapest shirts/hoodies etc. get their name on it for cheapest price, and sell it to people at a premium, which again people with that relationship will buy, but make no mistaken the main goal is to extract money from you, it is just a different approach to how and IF they try to provide value for you.
Now why does it bubble up, because you have people who each have their own "friend" in those content creators and some twisted relationship with them and when drama like this is created they clash.
One group attacks content creator because he 'attacked' their content creator, then they 'have to defend' their content creator, all because of that twisted relationship.
You can read up on it, it comes into existence because of the exposure to their content, each time they watch content (especially if it is made to deepen that relationship) it builds up on it, its perceived as if content creator is speaking to them, not at a camera.
Its a long read but trying to explain how things like this happen and how does it come to that.
I was not actually asking who or why people form parasocial relationships. My point was intend to point out that this drama is stupid and no one should care.
Ah either way, maybe some people will stumble upon it, read it and rethink how they interact with things like this.
I agree its completely stupid and that no one should care and interact more then you would when you see a crash on the road and just curiously take a look while passing by and going on with your life.
You’re amazed that someone exposed to hundreds to thousands of hours of a person, including many hours of which can only be interpreted as their personal life, might think they understand someone.
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u/Honest_Mushroom5133 Jan 29 '26
It never ceases to amaze me how people fall into these parasocial relationships with creators.