23-year-old Imane “Pokimane” Anys is the largest streamer on Twitch. She recounts that a fan suddenly appeared near the house where she streams. The fan apparently mistook her for a friend, as she had thanked him for a donation on Twitch.
Who is Pokimane? There are relatively few female streamers on Twitch with more than 1 million followers. Pokimane is by far the largest streamer on the platform with 3.9 million followers.
- Pokimane has been on Twitch since 2013.
- In 2018, she had her breakthrough with Fortnite, where she later received her own emote. That year, during the Fortnite hype, she gained 1.9 million followers.
- In 2019, Pokimane became a variety streamer. She played a range of games. Most of her time in 2019 was spent in “Just Chatting,” where she reacted to videos or interacted with the chat.
In contrast to streamers like Alinity, who regularly cause outrage, Pokimane is quite free of controversies. She maintains the image of the nice girl next door.
Fan was apparently “not quite there in the head”
She now recounts this encounter: In a stream on February 8, Pokimane talks about a fan who appeared near the OfflineTV streaming house from which she streams.
Pokimane says: “You are my community. And in a sense, we are friends because we interact. But for this guy, it was much more than that.”
Apparently, the fan had donated Twitch currency Bits to her. Pokimane had thanked him during the stream, without giving it much thought.
However, the fan understood it as him being friends with Pokimane and that she knows him personally. Thus, he apparently wanted to visit her at the streaming house and showed up near the house.
“It was hard to deal with because I could see in his eyes that he didn’t understand it at all. Just because I respond to Bits and thank you, doesn’t mean I know you personally or that you can show up at my house.”
Pokimane recounts the incident
Pokimane describes the fan as “not quite there in the head” and the experience as “creepy.”
Twitch problem: Parasocial interaction
This is how Pokimane explains the boundaries: Pokimane explains that while this fan’s behavior is extreme, she encounters the underlying problem frequently: viewers believe they are friends with streamers because they interact with their community in chat. They then send messages and similar things.
Pokimane talks about “parasocial interaction.” This term describes when people build a relationship with an unreachable figure, such as a star or an avatar, communicating with them as if they are real and a part of their lives.
Pokimane wants to avoid being seen this way.
Pokimane says that sometimes she would like to talk more personally with individual members of her community. However, she avoids contacting community members outside of her streams to prevent these kinds of reactions. Pokimane says that there is only losing in this situation:
- When you approach people kindly and reach out to them, they immediately think: “Oh, she’s writing to me. She must like me.”
- If you don’t write to people, you will be viewed as snobby. Then it’s said that she is a “bitch.”
Pokimane states that when faced with this choice, she is simply a “safe bitch,” a bitch that is safe.
“Real friends” and “viewers”
This is what’s behind it: You can tell by the way Pokimane phrases things that she is cautious about the subject and aware of her role.
Because this “parasocial interaction,” where the streamer is a part of the viewers’ lives without the streamer having real personal contact, is part of the fascination of live streaming. Streamers want to be a part of their viewers’ lives and talk to fans as if they are friends. They share anecdotes from their lives and let fans watch and participate. In doing so, they incorporate viewers into their program.
It is common to thank individual fans for donations and highlight them to establish personal contact and create a bond. Additionally, streamers also answer fans’ questions or respond to their answers in chat.
In the case of some fans, this personal connection seems to work too well.
In a particularly severe case, a lovesick fan broke into a YouTube couple’s home.
A young fan once wanted very close social interaction with Pokimane:
