Stephanie Soo, a 23-year-old Korean-American living in Los Angeles, started her YouTube career in March of 2017. Now, she has 1.41 million subscribers, drives a Tesla, and is living in a $2.29 million Sherman Oaks house. How did her relatively ordinary life change so drastically in just two years? To put it simply, she did it by eating food, a LOT of it and in front of a camera too. This is part of the emerging Mukbang craze that’s happening around the world and Soo is on the forefront of it. Originating from South Korea, Mukbang is known to be a live eating show in which a person will binge-eat large amounts of food while sometimes talking or interacting with an audience. As a prominent Mukbang youtuber, Soo has over 650 videos with approximately 250 million views collectively. Her videos generally consist of her eating a variety of different foods while retelling crime and horror stories, cracking inappropriate jokes with her fiancé, and spilling interesting and exciting events from her day to day life. Her audience, also known as the “Phanie Pack” consists of adults ranging from avid ASMR and Mukbang viewers to people who just want to pass time by hearing her stories. By looking at her popular video titled, “SPICY KOREAN RICE CAKES + KIMBAP + FRIED SEAWEED ROLLS MUKBANG | GIVEAWAY | EATING SHOW”, it is evident that her own unique Mukbang style, the humorous and playful banter she has with her fiancé, and the extensive amount of personal information she shares with her audience makes her channel’s video
watching experience satisfying, entertaining, and overall appealing to today’s viewers.
Soo isn’t like any other Mukbang channel. Unlike many of the popular South Korean Mukbang youtubers that stay silent and focus on the eating sounds, Soo talks throughout her videos. In this specific video, she answers questions and tells stories about her relationship with her fiancé while cooking and eating Korean rice cakes, Kimbap, and seaweed rolls. Just like any other niche celebrity, Soo is “able to use social media to amass enough fans to support [herself] through [her] online creative activities while remaining unknown to most and ignored by mainstream media” (Marwick, 2015). She is widely known and supported in the niche community of Mukbang viewing on Youtube and is therefore able to continuously create eating shows every day for her loyal viewers. However, her unique style of telling interesting stories during her videos also helps her appeal to viewers outside the immediate Mukbang community. I personally know a handful of people who only tune in to Soo’s videos for her juicy stories about murder or her latest argument with her fiancé. In addition, viewers who watch solely for the eating are surprised and possibly entertained by her story-telling, something not many Mukbang youtubers provide in their videos.
Soo’s fun and humorous banter with her fiancé is also a unique and appealing characteristic of her videos. Many Mukbang youtubers create videos alone and talk to the camera by themselves. However, Soo and her fiancé do Mukbangs together now, where they constantly tease and make jokes about one another. While it is possible that Soo and her fiancé have a strong relationship off camera, I do believe that their playful and fun relationship seen on camera is carefully constructed to appeal to her audiences. For example, when her fiancé complements her cooking, Soo replies, “He’s being nice to me today for no reason. I’m a little suspicious”, while smiling at him. Throughout the video, they consistently engage in fun and playful conversations. However, showcasing only the positive aspects of a relationship on screen is constructing a specific image for her audience to see. Marwick (2015) says, “Micro-celebrity is something one does... typically involved self-conscious, carefully constructed personas.” But who wants to see the bad sides of a relationship anyways? Soo is constructing her relationship so that it’s fun and comfortable for her viewers to watch.
Another defining characteristic of Soo’s videos is her openness with her viewers which is achieved by sharing an extensive amount of personal information in her videos. This is another reason why Soo is so popular among her viewers. Abidin (2015) states, “The allure of influencers is premised on the ways they engage with their followers to give the impression of exclusive, intimate exchange.” For example, at around 12 minutes into her video, Soo starts telling a story about when her neighbor severely dented her car, in which she responded in an extremely dramatic and angry manner. Soo communicates this story to her viewers as if she was telling a story to her close friend and therefore creates a connection with her audience. In addition, Soo says, “I’m a very emotional person. I think everyone can agree to that on here.” And goes on to explain the dynamics of her relationship with her fiancé. The disclosure of these stories make Soo seem personable and close with her audience.Horton and Wohl would state that this type of content produces, “one-sided interpersonal connections and an illusion of intimacy with their audience through conversational small talk that appears informal, casual, and responsive” (Abidin, 2015). As a viewer of Soo’s videos myself, I also feel as if I know her like a friend because of all the information I learned from watching her videos. This illusion of intimacy causes her audiences to feel a perceived intimacy with Soo and keeps them wanting to watch more of her content.
Stephanie Soo’s popularity can only grow from here and her content will continue to serve procrastination for many young adults across the world. Her unique Mukbang style, the playful banter she has with her fiancé, and the close connection with her audience all help to appeal to a variety of viewers. Whether the Mukbang craze will continue is still unknown; However, Soo’s unique characteristics will certainly keep her “Phanie Pack” satisfied and entertained for now.
Sources:
Abidin, C. (2015). Communicative <3 intimacies: Influencers and perceived interconnectedness. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, & Technology 8. Retrieved from: http://adanewmedia.org/2015/11/issue8-abidin/
Marwick, A. (2015). You may know me from YouTube: (Micro)-celebrity in social media Pp.
333-350 in A Companion to Celebrity, edited by P. David Marshall and Sean Redmond. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc
watching experience satisfying, entertaining, and overall appealing to today’s viewers.
Soo isn’t like any other Mukbang channel. Unlike many of the popular South Korean Mukbang youtubers that stay silent and focus on the eating sounds, Soo talks throughout her videos. In this specific video, she answers questions and tells stories about her relationship with her fiancé while cooking and eating Korean rice cakes, Kimbap, and seaweed rolls. Just like any other niche celebrity, Soo is “able to use social media to amass enough fans to support [herself] through [her] online creative activities while remaining unknown to most and ignored by mainstream media” (Marwick, 2015). She is widely known and supported in the niche community of Mukbang viewing on Youtube and is therefore able to continuously create eating shows every day for her loyal viewers. However, her unique style of telling interesting stories during her videos also helps her appeal to viewers outside the immediate Mukbang community. I personally know a handful of people who only tune in to Soo’s videos for her juicy stories about murder or her latest argument with her fiancé. In addition, viewers who watch solely for the eating are surprised and possibly entertained by her story-telling, something not many Mukbang youtubers provide in their videos.
Soo’s fun and humorous banter with her fiancé is also a unique and appealing characteristic of her videos. Many Mukbang youtubers create videos alone and talk to the camera by themselves. However, Soo and her fiancé do Mukbangs together now, where they constantly tease and make jokes about one another. While it is possible that Soo and her fiancé have a strong relationship off camera, I do believe that their playful and fun relationship seen on camera is carefully constructed to appeal to her audiences. For example, when her fiancé complements her cooking, Soo replies, “He’s being nice to me today for no reason. I’m a little suspicious”, while smiling at him. Throughout the video, they consistently engage in fun and playful conversations. However, showcasing only the positive aspects of a relationship on screen is constructing a specific image for her audience to see. Marwick (2015) says, “Micro-celebrity is something one does... typically involved self-conscious, carefully constructed personas.” But who wants to see the bad sides of a relationship anyways? Soo is constructing her relationship so that it’s fun and comfortable for her viewers to watch.
Another defining characteristic of Soo’s videos is her openness with her viewers which is achieved by sharing an extensive amount of personal information in her videos. This is another reason why Soo is so popular among her viewers. Abidin (2015) states, “The allure of influencers is premised on the ways they engage with their followers to give the impression of exclusive, intimate exchange.” For example, at around 12 minutes into her video, Soo starts telling a story about when her neighbor severely dented her car, in which she responded in an extremely dramatic and angry manner. Soo communicates this story to her viewers as if she was telling a story to her close friend and therefore creates a connection with her audience. In addition, Soo says, “I’m a very emotional person. I think everyone can agree to that on here.” And goes on to explain the dynamics of her relationship with her fiancé. The disclosure of these stories make Soo seem personable and close with her audience.Horton and Wohl would state that this type of content produces, “one-sided interpersonal connections and an illusion of intimacy with their audience through conversational small talk that appears informal, casual, and responsive” (Abidin, 2015). As a viewer of Soo’s videos myself, I also feel as if I know her like a friend because of all the information I learned from watching her videos. This illusion of intimacy causes her audiences to feel a perceived intimacy with Soo and keeps them wanting to watch more of her content.
Stephanie Soo’s popularity can only grow from here and her content will continue to serve procrastination for many young adults across the world. Her unique Mukbang style, the playful banter she has with her fiancé, and the close connection with her audience all help to appeal to a variety of viewers. Whether the Mukbang craze will continue is still unknown; However, Soo’s unique characteristics will certainly keep her “Phanie Pack” satisfied and entertained for now.
Sources:
Abidin, C. (2015). Communicative <3 intimacies: Influencers and perceived interconnectedness. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, & Technology 8. Retrieved from: http://adanewmedia.org/2015/11/issue8-abidin/
Marwick, A. (2015). You may know me from YouTube: (Micro)-celebrity in social media Pp.
333-350 in A Companion to Celebrity, edited by P. David Marshall and Sean Redmond. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons Inc
As a fan of “Mukbang,” I really enjoyed your post. I, however, have never seen any contents from Stephanie Soo. I only watched contents from those niche youtubers that rather remain silent and focus on the eating sounds. From time to time, when they are live streaming, they do communicate with the audience by reading their comments and reacting to those, but I have not seen any youtubers that construct their contents in a way that Soo does. Considering how those who practice micro-celebrity often produce an illusion of intimacy with their audience to attract more audience (Abidi, 2015), I think how Soo is sharing her personal stories and exhibiting relationship with her fiancé are effective means of differentiating herself from other youtubers in the same field. In South Korea, where Mukbang originated, however, the government has been attempting to regulate such contents. Diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, and hypertension prevalence have been increasing in South Korea, especially prevalent among teenagers. The government argues that contents that encourage binge are somewhat responsible for such a phenomenon. Although the policy regulating Mukbang has been criticized for various reasons, I do not think the government is entirely wrong in this case. If you look at some of the Mukbangs, one person finishes twenty or more servings by him or herself. Mukbangs portray such massive binge eating as normal or healthy behavior, which is in most cases not true. I am not trying to argue that the South Korean government should certainly regulate those contents, but I do believe that youtubers who practice Mukbangs should be aware of the potential consequences they might be generating and act accordingly.
ReplyDelete- Roy Lee
I really enjoyed your post on Stephanie Soo. Although I have never watched Soo's videos, I am familiar with the Mukbang community. I actually also wrote my blog post on a Mukbang YouTuber, whose name is Yuka Kinoshita. I think that there is a surprising amount of similar features that we both found in their videos even though they live in two different countries and face two different audiences. From the same Mukbang theme for their channel to their efforts to create intimacy with their viewers through stories and humor, we can really argue if Mukbang, after all, is just an online performance instead of an actual representation of the YouTubers in this niche community. Soo is also an interesting person to look at when we want to analyze the Mukbang trend because it was started in Korea and mainly gained popularity in the neighboring countries. However, we seem to see that Mukbang is increasingly becoming a trend in countries outside of Asia like the United States. I think it would be really interesting for future scholars to analyze why Mukbang is so appealing to audiences across countries that have vastly different cultures.
ReplyDelete-Vivian Wang
This post was especially interesting to read! As someone who really enjoys watching YouTube videos, but has never quite gotten into Mukbang videos, by the time I finished reading your post, I went to Susan Soo’s YouTube channel and watched a few of her videos. I totally understand the hype! I thought it was really interesting how you talked about how Soo is different than a lot of other typical Mukbang YouTubers. When I think back on any of the short preview clips of Mukbang videos that I have seen on my Twitter feed, they were always silent and, in my opinion, not entertaining. I think that, like you mentioned, what sets her apart from other Mukbang-ers is how open she is with her viewers about her personal life and in showing her fiancé on camera. I really liked how you incorporated Abidin and that she argues that this allure of influencers comes from how they engage with followers with this perceived intinate exchange. This also reminded me of when we talked in class about Horton and Wohl and their argument of parasocial relationships as well as Goffman regarding front stage vs. back stage. Parasocial relationships are the relationships that viewers establish with the influencers they watch where they feel connected because they are able to see the back stage to the lives of these microcelebrities. Soo definitely shows the back stage to her life as you highlight in her paper with examples such as her stories about her neighbor denting her car or arguments with her fiancé. Regardless, it is clear to see why Soo has gained such a great following especially when considering it from the perspective of the scholars you mentioned as well as other scholars we discussed in class. And with all of that in mind, this was definitely a really interesting read! I found a new YouTuber to watch and I think you did a really good job at unpacking her role in popular culture and incorporating different scholars.
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