>>49036070Do you people really go from the binary state of 'friend' to 'nothing'? In fact, I think there's some fundamental misunderstanding of the idea of friendship here that is just a giant cognitive blindspot.
You cannot be a friend with someone who, through sheer numbers alone, cannot interact with you as a unique individual. She can't remember your birthday and throw a party for you, nor can she take you out to a bar when you're sad your dog died. She can't put you up for the night if you have a fight with your parents and storm out, or try to hook you up with one of her friends. Someone who doesn't even have the option of doing these is not a friend.
She might indeed care for her chat, respond to individual chat messages and opinions, remember these opinions for future streams, be unhealthily addicted to and even experience withdrawal without them, but that's still not friendship. It is a unique relationship that we still don't quite have words for. It's not even wholly parasocial since there's clear persistent relationship with something as an group-entity, but it's not the viewer. It's a perceived hive-mind of viewers.
