The documentary to me, rather felt like a sci-fi film because of the way it was edited, but it deep dives into the reality of China has started to depend more on technology and how live-streaming has become a popular career path for the younger generation. By first watching it, it made me wonder who on earth would spend so much money online to gift a gift to those streamers who they do not even know personally, but later, it somehow made me think that it was one of the acts the “riches” would do to impress people, and also a way of connecting with the society.
And though a lot of people, especially young people, want to become successful streamer who earns huge amounts of money “easily” in the shortest time yet the documentary touches on the side that is not shown well such as how the young woman streamer, Shen Ma has to go through sexually harassing comments and hates that she faces on a daily basis. It also displays how competitive it is to achieve fame and to keep the audiences who send money and gifts. To me, the idea of communicating with people through online platforms gives certain people the courage to say whatever they want no matter if it hurts others feeling or not, and because they can be anonymous people become harsh with their words.
Speaking of online platforms, with the invention of the internet, it has become easier to connect with people around the world. And as I mentioned before, letting people share their thoughts about someone anonymously, lets people say things without any filters. One example of this is a platform called Ask.fm. This platform lets people ask whatever they want to ask from someone they follow on the site and they can ask the question anoymously if they want to. Despite the fact that this helps people to ask questions thatrthey have wanted to ask from someone, it also creates toxic situation as some people use it in a not positive way such as insulting and bully way. Overall, while watching this documentary, it gave me an understanding of that there is always two sides in every scene. Meaning, while internet has its advantage, it also has its disadvantages coming with it.
