“Take the Keys to the Happy Hob Hotel”: Live-Streaming, Yingyeo Culture, and Affective Support

Abstract

Material conditions under global neoliberalism have increased youth precarity, and live-streaming has emerged as a form of “gig work” for young people as they broadcast their lives and social activities onto digital platforms. Studies have demonstrated that live-streaming often acts as a site of exploitation by corporate interests and self-commodification via platform capitalism where streamers adjust their behavior to serve the interests of capital accumulation. This article examines a subgroup of game streamers, “challenge runners,” who impose rules to increase gameplay difficulty thereby pursuing excellence in “unproductive” actions that relieve neoliberal isolation—categorized by the Korean youth cultural practice of yingyeo. By examining two popular British and Korean Twitch.tv challenge runners, The Hob and Lynn respectively, their streams and fan interactions, I identify how—in response to conditions under global neoliberalism—youth create meaningful relief through pursuing “valueless” behavior and affective support.