One point raised near the end bears some repeating I think: people seem to sometimes underestimate the value that comes from giving people a space where they can be (semi-)anonymous. Specifically...
One point raised near the end bears some repeating I think: people seem to sometimes underestimate the value that comes from giving people a space where they can be (semi-)anonymous. Specifically how it allows people to experiment and express themselves without fearing that it will come back to haunt them.
Modern social media has done so much damage to society. They have pushed really hard to share your every thought and experience and to do it under you real name but a persons every thought is not...
Modern social media has done so much damage to society. They have pushed really hard to share your every thought and experience and to do it under you real name but a persons every thought is not appropriate to be seen by the public. There are so many times I can remember in the past having wrong opinions I don't support anymore and thankfully I don't use my real name online and I don't share usernames across websites so I can just forget about dumb stuff in the past and focus on myself today.
It almost feels like we've forgotten sometimes that being young also implies making a lot of mistakes, including mistakes that can be incredibly cruel or damaging. Not that people should be lot...
It almost feels like we've forgotten sometimes that being young also implies making a lot of mistakes, including mistakes that can be incredibly cruel or damaging. Not that people should be lot off the hook for it, on the contrary, but the currently developing worldview where every single misstep has to go on the permanent record and people are no longer judge by their capacity to change but rather their capacity to never make mistakes in the first place is troubling imo.
In a now-deleted twitter thread user @SwiftOnSecurity talked about how part of how they got into computers was because of 4chan and other anonymous boards, and how fundamental that space and...
In a now-deleted twitter thread user @SwiftOnSecurity talked about how part of how they got into computers was because of 4chan and other anonymous boards, and how fundamental that space and freedom to experiment and make mistakes was to them as a teen. I think for a while people just figured the toxicity these kinds of boards might attract was entirely due to a lack of consequence for it. But I think we've recently seen that anonymity is not the actual crux of this problem, people continue being just as toxic on Facebook where their real names are attached, and kids only ramp up their own cruelty to a point where "cyber bullying" now has it's own dedicated page on Facebook support.
Thanks for sharing the video, it's interesting since I have been curious about virtual idols' growing popularity. However I'm puzzled by your choice to frame the discussion as something about...
Thanks for sharing the video, it's interesting since I have been curious about virtual idols' growing popularity. However I'm puzzled by your choice to frame the discussion as something about "loneliness", "isolation", and a societal issue. It's bizarre you got that out of it, because I got almost the exact opposite impression from the video content. Perhaps the editing of the video itself, being a somewhat surreal/airy/lonely film style, influenced your perspective when watching it?
The video shows people going online and able to express themselves as virtual YouTubers where they may have felt uncomfortable expressing themselves before. People can choose to be their ideal selves. It shows people congregating both in real life and on the Internet to interact with and appreciate the characters. What's lonely about people getting together sharing common interests?
The phenomenon seems like a natural progression and culmination of recent tech trends like VR, motion capture, image processing, streaming. It's natural that people would take interest in the novelty of it. It looks like harmless fun to me.
For me, it had nothing to with the editing of the video or anything like that. Maybe the creator is expressing themselves, but what about the masses that watch it? Isn't it lonely, isolating,...
For me, it had nothing to with the editing of the video or anything like that.
The video shows people going online and able to express themselves as virtual YouTubers where they may have felt uncomfortable expressing themselves before. People can choose to be their ideal selves.
Maybe the creator is expressing themselves, but what about the masses that watch it? Isn't it lonely, isolating, depressing and just wrong to wither away in front of a screen where an anime character pretends to care about you? Is that really being our ideal selves?
The video strongly reminded me of this which is not that different than the vtuber stuff in my opinion.
The phenomenon seems like a natural progression and culmination of recent tech trends like VR, motion capture, image processing, streaming. It's natural that people would take interest in the novelty of it. It looks like harmless fun to me.
I could see it as "harmless fun" if we didn't have evidence to the contrary, especially in Japan. Products like this are actively harming isolated shut-ins by giving them one less reason to step outside. I don't think that's something to be encouraged.
By this line of thinking - TV, Netflix, video games, the proliferation of delivery-only restaurants, and the Internet itself - are all massive problems and failures of mankind, because they make...
Maybe the creator is expressing themselves, but what about the masses that watch it?
Products like this are actively harming isolated shut-ins by giving them one less reason to step outside.
By this line of thinking - TV, Netflix, video games, the proliferation of delivery-only restaurants, and the Internet itself - are all massive problems and failures of mankind, because they make staying home all day too convenient, and reach magnitudes more people than the niche of virtual YouTubers.
You're pointing at symptoms and calling them problems. People don't want to go outside for many possible reasons. Reasons ranging from personal (physical/mental health issues, low self esteem, desire of privacy) to societal (overcrowding, lack of institutions post-religion, poverty, targeted ostracism based on demographic).
In your other comments you keep implying there is a true solution out there. First, let's get rid of virtual YouTubers, sure. Then what? You can handwave and say "oh but of course I don't have the solution, it's something society has to tackle as a whole" but that's a copout. What is the solution then?
To me, again, virtual YouTubing seems like a harmless pastime. Future-minded people talk about how when mankind's basic needs are met (food, shelter) we'll need to increase production in the arts, otherwise people are sitting around with nothing to do, or otherwise rotting away in dead-end office jobs. Seems like virtual YouTubing is one small answer to that for some niche of people.
Sure, I agree with that (though "massive" is a tad over dramatic). I'm generally apprehensive about technologies that isolate, not unite people. Seeing a problem and having a solution are two...
By this line of thinking - TV, Netflix, video games, the proliferation of delivery-only restaurants, and the Internet itself - are all massive problems and failures of mankind, because they make staying home all day too convenient, and reach magnitudes more people than the niche of virtual YouTubers.
Sure, I agree with that (though "massive" is a tad over dramatic). I'm generally apprehensive about technologies that isolate, not unite people.
You can handwave and say "oh but of course I don't have the solution, it's something society has to tackle as a whole" but that's a copout. What is the solution then?
Seeing a problem and having a solution are two separate things and I don't see how doing the former makes me responsible for the latter.
Your other comment says: But if you can't expand on that, even a wisp of a hint of what "addressing the underlying problems" would look like, then it's just empty words. You're just pointing...
Your other comment says:
I don't think there are many improvements to be done on an individual level; it's the responsibility of society as a whole to take care of each other and address the underlying problems.
But if you can't expand on that, even a wisp of a hint of what "addressing the underlying problems" would look like, then it's just empty words. You're just pointing through your screen at this thing that is alien to you, asserting that is wrong without saying what is right.
OK, I'll spell it out. Humans are social animals that thrive in communities. In-person interaction - that is, seeing, talking, listening, touching, smelling are fundamental parts of the human...
But if you can't expand on that [...] this thing that is alien to you, asserting that is wrong without saying what is right.
OK, I'll spell it out. Humans are social animals that thrive in communities. In-person interaction - that is, seeing, talking, listening, touching, smelling are fundamental parts of the human experience. The "harmless" technologies you mention are more and more pulling people away from that. This isn't even a controversial opinion, it is very. well. documented.
So what would a solution look like? I don't know, I'm not a sociologist. I'm not qualified to give you a satisfactory answer. But it doesn't take someone with a degree to realize that whatever the solution is, it does not involve enabling anti-social behaviour.
Thank you for spelling it out. The fundamental difference we have is that you call this thing part of the problem, I call it a part of the solution. It's a natural consequence of recent history...
Thank you for spelling it out. The fundamental difference we have is that you call this thing part of the problem, I call it a part of the solution. It's a natural consequence of recent history (population booms after wars) and recent technological innovations. Going forward, the global workforce is only going to shrink as automation increases, and as long as the surplus population left over from that workforce remains alive, pastimes like this are only going to increase. What we see in Japan is what is beginning to happen the world over.
As you said, there are human desires driving all of us. Along with the physical ones you mentioned are more abstract things like desiring entertainment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of belonging, a sense of individual identity. I concede there is a tradeoff, giving up physical needs in exchange for abstract ones, if people are doing these things solely from the comfort of their homes. But if the alternative is giving up these abstract needs entirely, due to lack of viable alternatives for certain demographics of people, I'm scared to think what options they would turn to instead.
Rather than defeatist, I think this is people finding novel ways to satisfy their human needs, without hurting people around them, in a way that is being truer to themselves than forcing themselves to conform to mainstream society.
Thanks for your thoughts, I can definitely see where you are coming from and I even agree with you why these things are happening, but I don't think I'll ever be able to see it as a good thing. On...
Thanks for your thoughts, I can definitely see where you are coming from and I even agree with you why these things are happening, but I don't think I'll ever be able to see it as a good thing. On that, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
This was quite depressing to watch. The interview with the CEO of Activ8 where he readily admits this whole thing is for defeatist people who have given up on the real world and instead wish to...
This was quite depressing to watch. The interview with the CEO of Activ8 where he readily admits this whole thing is for defeatist people who have given up on the real world and instead wish to live in a virtual one is such a cynical and dystopian thing I’ve trouble understanding it.
It reminded me of this thing, which was also from Japan and similarly troubling.
I realize Japan is an insular and conformist society where associating your name and face with an "inappropriate" online identity can be a bad idea, but surely this can't be the solution? I'm all for self expression but not at the cost of pushing people into further isolation and loneliness. Can they not see how this will be immensely harmful to society as it gains popularity?
I think far too many people have fallen through the cracks of our modern societies (not just in Japan, but the world over) and so some of them choosing to escape into virtual identities and VR is...
I think far too many people have fallen through the cracks of our modern societies (not just in Japan, but the world over) and so some of them choosing to escape into virtual identities and VR is a totally understandable coping mechanism. Is it healthy? Probably not, but IMO it's still preferable to the old coping mechanisms of hard drugs/alcoholism. And IMO until our governments collectively start to finally make serious efforts to address the elephants in the room (worker conditions/rights/wages, mental health, poverty, housing and living conditions of the poor, etc..), the situation is only going to get worse with more and more people choosing to escape reality rather than face it.
p.s. If you think those videos you linked were depressing, here are some related ones for you that I guarantee are much worse:
Well said and mostly agreed. The "vtuber" stuff is definitely preferable to hard drugs and so on, but choosing the lesser of two evils here still seems defeatist. But the real solutions are the...
Well said and mostly agreed. The "vtuber" stuff is definitely preferable to hard drugs and so on, but choosing the lesser of two evils here still seems defeatist. But the real solutions are the ones you've mentioned, which I don't see getting addressed anytime soon.
I've seen the HK video, but I'll be sure to check out the rest. In the mean time, I want to share my favourite piece of writing on Japanese society: A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death.
I honestly don't quite know what to make of those statements, especially in combination, since the recognition of the unfortunate reality in the latter makes the view expressed in the first pretty...
The "vtuber" stuff is definitely preferable to hard drugs and so on, but choosing the lesser of two evils here still seems defeatist. But the real solutions are the ones you've mentioned, which I don't see getting addressed anytime soon.
I honestly don't quite know what to make of those statements, especially in combination, since the recognition of the unfortunate reality in the latter makes the view expressed in the first pretty callous IMO... no matter who you're referring to being the ones "choosing".
Some people genuinely have been defeated by life, whether through mental illness, physical disability, poverty, addiction, etc... or some combination of them, and them choosing to cope with their circumstance however they can, even if it isn't perfectly healthy, shouldn't be looked down on IMO. And even the people attempting to provide these virtual identities and VR environments shouldn't be looked at that way either, since at least they are providing a little bit of hope and some joy to the often profoundly hopeless and at least it's much less destructive (individually and to society) than all the other traditional escapist alternatives.
I suppose I don't accept that these barely 20 year old people are "defeated by life". All the reasons you've listed (mental illness, poverty etc) apply to most countries, but the scale of the...
I suppose I don't accept that these barely 20 year old people are "defeated by life". All the reasons you've listed (mental illness, poverty etc) apply to most countries, but the scale of the problem is much, much bigger in Japan. I'm questioning why - that doesn't mean I'm looking down on them, I just don't think sugar coating it ("it isn't perfectly healthy") is conducive to helping people.
it's much less destructive (individually and to society) than all the other traditional escapist alternatives.
Maybe individually, but on a societal level I don't think the long term effects are any better than other forms of anti-social behaviour.
Considering how many <30 year olds commit suicide every year, I think not accepting that people can feel and truly be defeated by life at that age even in first-world nations (let alone third...
Considering how many <30 year olds commit suicide every year, I think not accepting that people can feel and truly be defeated by life at that age even in first-world nations (let alone third world ones) is pretty naive. And calling someone's chosen coping mechanisms for that state of affairs "defeatist" is undeniably looking down on them. It may not be a totally incorrect assessment in some cases, but not all of them IMO, since not everyone is able to recover from the trials/tribulations life throws at them, no matter how positive they try to be, how hopeful they remain or how hard they try to overcome them.
I myself have suffered from severe panic attacks since I was 6 years old, was committed to a psychiatric facility when I was 16 after suffering a "nervous breakdown" (acute catatonia), and was hospitalized several more times in my 20s for the same issue and after one failed suicide attempt. 30+ years of professional treatment, medication regiments and psychotherapy, including attending several long-term inpatient programs, has yielded nothing but progressively worse and now entirely debilitating panic attacks and agoraphobia. About the only treatment option I have left untried at this point is electroconvulsive therapy which I am honestly starting to consider because of how bad the situation has become. And while I wouldn't say I qualify for the "defeated by life" label simply because I haven't totally given up yet and still have some hope remaining... I totally understand and sympathize with those that do, even people in their 20s.
And as to why it's the situation is potentially worse in Japan, I think that's pretty obvious as well. In general Japan is a very rigidly hierarchical and patriarchal society that highly values tradition, conformity, workaholism and stoicism, which is an absolute recipe for disaster when it comes to even recognizing (let alone treating) rising mental illness and societal epidemics like depression and social isolation.
I'm really sorry to hear about your personal history and I now understand how that shapes your perspective on this issue, but I don't think it invalidates my view on the large scale and long term...
I'm really sorry to hear about your personal history and I now understand how that shapes your perspective on this issue, but I don't think it invalidates my view on the large scale and long term societal effects of these kinds of technologies. Sure, they might very well provide a modicum of reprieve for some, but that's still just a bandaid. It doesn't solve anything - not even for the individual. All it makes is to further isolate and "contain" the issue, sweeping these people under the rug.
That's why I think it's defeatist to advocate for this tech. It trades long term structural damage for momentary bliss.
EDIT:
not everyone is able to recover from the trials/tribulations life throws at them, no matter how positive they try to be, how hopeful they remain or how hard they try to overcome them.
To be clear, I've never said the solution is to "think positive" or "try harder", so this feels like a strawman. I don't think there are many improvements to be done on an individual level; it's the responsibility of society as a whole to take care of each other and address the underlying problems. Will that happen anytime soon? Probably not. Does that mean non-solutions like vtubers are better? I don't think so.
Is providing relief and reprieve from people's desperate situations, even temporary though that may be, not valuable? Sure, escapism is a only band-aid solution and doesn't address the underlying...
Is providing relief and reprieve from people's desperate situations, even temporary though that may be, not valuable? Sure, escapism is a only band-aid solution and doesn't address the underlying problems that make people seek to escape reality in the first place, but IMO not everything needs to be a in service to a solution. And if that virtual reality band-aid allows them to hang on a little longer until a real solution hopefully presents itself, then that is undeniably beneficial.
And as to "sweeping these people under the rug" and the "societal effects" of this tech, they are already sufficiently under the rug (just watch the Manboo video I linked) but at least this virtual star and virtual reality tech allows those people to achieve some form of connection, artificial though it may be. Remove it and it won't magically make these people who have fallen through the cracks better or reconnect them, it will just remove one of the outlets they have for relief available to them.
p.s. regarding your edit
To be clear, I've never said the solution is to "think positive" or "try harder", so this feels like a strawman.
I never said you thought it was a solution but you did state people "choosing the lesser of two evils", referring to virtual identities and VR escapism, of being "defeatist"... and wouldn't the opposite of that be to not accept defeat, i.e. remain positive and try harder to succeed?
One point raised near the end bears some repeating I think: people seem to sometimes underestimate the value that comes from giving people a space where they can be (semi-)anonymous. Specifically how it allows people to experiment and express themselves without fearing that it will come back to haunt them.
Modern social media has done so much damage to society. They have pushed really hard to share your every thought and experience and to do it under you real name but a persons every thought is not appropriate to be seen by the public. There are so many times I can remember in the past having wrong opinions I don't support anymore and thankfully I don't use my real name online and I don't share usernames across websites so I can just forget about dumb stuff in the past and focus on myself today.
It almost feels like we've forgotten sometimes that being young also implies making a lot of mistakes, including mistakes that can be incredibly cruel or damaging. Not that people should be lot off the hook for it, on the contrary, but the currently developing worldview where every single misstep has to go on the permanent record and people are no longer judge by their capacity to change but rather their capacity to never make mistakes in the first place is troubling imo.
In a now-deleted twitter thread user @SwiftOnSecurity talked about how part of how they got into computers was because of 4chan and other anonymous boards, and how fundamental that space and freedom to experiment and make mistakes was to them as a teen. I think for a while people just figured the toxicity these kinds of boards might attract was entirely due to a lack of consequence for it. But I think we've recently seen that anonymity is not the actual crux of this problem, people continue being just as toxic on Facebook where their real names are attached, and kids only ramp up their own cruelty to a point where "cyber bullying" now has it's own dedicated page on Facebook support.
Thanks for sharing the video, it's interesting since I have been curious about virtual idols' growing popularity. However I'm puzzled by your choice to frame the discussion as something about "loneliness", "isolation", and a societal issue. It's bizarre you got that out of it, because I got almost the exact opposite impression from the video content. Perhaps the editing of the video itself, being a somewhat surreal/airy/lonely film style, influenced your perspective when watching it?
The video shows people going online and able to express themselves as virtual YouTubers where they may have felt uncomfortable expressing themselves before. People can choose to be their ideal selves. It shows people congregating both in real life and on the Internet to interact with and appreciate the characters. What's lonely about people getting together sharing common interests?
The phenomenon seems like a natural progression and culmination of recent tech trends like VR, motion capture, image processing, streaming. It's natural that people would take interest in the novelty of it. It looks like harmless fun to me.
For me, it had nothing to with the editing of the video or anything like that.
Maybe the creator is expressing themselves, but what about the masses that watch it? Isn't it lonely, isolating, depressing and just wrong to wither away in front of a screen where an anime character pretends to care about you? Is that really being our ideal selves?
The video strongly reminded me of this which is not that different than the vtuber stuff in my opinion.
I could see it as "harmless fun" if we didn't have evidence to the contrary, especially in Japan. Products like this are actively harming isolated shut-ins by giving them one less reason to step outside. I don't think that's something to be encouraged.
By this line of thinking - TV, Netflix, video games, the proliferation of delivery-only restaurants, and the Internet itself - are all massive problems and failures of mankind, because they make staying home all day too convenient, and reach magnitudes more people than the niche of virtual YouTubers.
You're pointing at symptoms and calling them problems. People don't want to go outside for many possible reasons. Reasons ranging from personal (physical/mental health issues, low self esteem, desire of privacy) to societal (overcrowding, lack of institutions post-religion, poverty, targeted ostracism based on demographic).
In your other comments you keep implying there is a true solution out there. First, let's get rid of virtual YouTubers, sure. Then what? You can handwave and say "oh but of course I don't have the solution, it's something society has to tackle as a whole" but that's a copout. What is the solution then?
To me, again, virtual YouTubing seems like a harmless pastime. Future-minded people talk about how when mankind's basic needs are met (food, shelter) we'll need to increase production in the arts, otherwise people are sitting around with nothing to do, or otherwise rotting away in dead-end office jobs. Seems like virtual YouTubing is one small answer to that for some niche of people.
Sure, I agree with that (though "massive" is a tad over dramatic). I'm generally apprehensive about technologies that isolate, not unite people.
Seeing a problem and having a solution are two separate things and I don't see how doing the former makes me responsible for the latter.
Your other comment says:
But if you can't expand on that, even a wisp of a hint of what "addressing the underlying problems" would look like, then it's just empty words. You're just pointing through your screen at this thing that is alien to you, asserting that is wrong without saying what is right.
OK, I'll spell it out. Humans are social animals that thrive in communities. In-person interaction - that is, seeing, talking, listening, touching, smelling are fundamental parts of the human experience. The "harmless" technologies you mention are more and more pulling people away from that. This isn't even a controversial opinion, it is very. well. documented.
So what would a solution look like? I don't know, I'm not a sociologist. I'm not qualified to give you a satisfactory answer. But it doesn't take someone with a degree to realize that whatever the solution is, it does not involve enabling anti-social behaviour.
Thank you for spelling it out. The fundamental difference we have is that you call this thing part of the problem, I call it a part of the solution. It's a natural consequence of recent history (population booms after wars) and recent technological innovations. Going forward, the global workforce is only going to shrink as automation increases, and as long as the surplus population left over from that workforce remains alive, pastimes like this are only going to increase. What we see in Japan is what is beginning to happen the world over.
As you said, there are human desires driving all of us. Along with the physical ones you mentioned are more abstract things like desiring entertainment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of belonging, a sense of individual identity. I concede there is a tradeoff, giving up physical needs in exchange for abstract ones, if people are doing these things solely from the comfort of their homes. But if the alternative is giving up these abstract needs entirely, due to lack of viable alternatives for certain demographics of people, I'm scared to think what options they would turn to instead.
Rather than defeatist, I think this is people finding novel ways to satisfy their human needs, without hurting people around them, in a way that is being truer to themselves than forcing themselves to conform to mainstream society.
Thanks for your thoughts, I can definitely see where you are coming from and I even agree with you why these things are happening, but I don't think I'll ever be able to see it as a good thing. On that, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
This was quite depressing to watch. The interview with the CEO of Activ8 where he readily admits this whole thing is for defeatist people who have given up on the real world and instead wish to live in a virtual one is such a cynical and dystopian thing I’ve trouble understanding it.
It reminded me of this thing, which was also from Japan and similarly troubling.
I realize Japan is an insular and conformist society where associating your name and face with an "inappropriate" online identity can be a bad idea, but surely this can't be the solution? I'm all for self expression but not at the cost of pushing people into further isolation and loneliness. Can they not see how this will be immensely harmful to society as it gains popularity?
What do you think ~?
I think far too many people have fallen through the cracks of our modern societies (not just in Japan, but the world over) and so some of them choosing to escape into virtual identities and VR is a totally understandable coping mechanism. Is it healthy? Probably not, but IMO it's still preferable to the old coping mechanisms of hard drugs/alcoholism. And IMO until our governments collectively start to finally make serious efforts to address the elephants in the room (worker conditions/rights/wages, mental health, poverty, housing and living conditions of the poor, etc..), the situation is only going to get worse with more and more people choosing to escape reality rather than face it.
p.s. If you think those videos you linked were depressing, here are some related ones for you that I guarantee are much worse:
Japan's Hidden Poor
Lost in Manboo (Residents living permanently in Japan's cyber-cafés)
Inside Hong Kong’s cage homes
And Unreported World is an excellent foreign affairs documentary programme dedicated to covering similar stories from all over the world. E.g. Ukraine's teens living underground to stay alive
Well said and mostly agreed. The "vtuber" stuff is definitely preferable to hard drugs and so on, but choosing the lesser of two evils here still seems defeatist. But the real solutions are the ones you've mentioned, which I don't see getting addressed anytime soon.
I've seen the HK video, but I'll be sure to check out the rest. In the mean time, I want to share my favourite piece of writing on Japanese society: A Generation in Japan Faces a Lonely Death.
I honestly don't quite know what to make of those statements, especially in combination, since the recognition of the unfortunate reality in the latter makes the view expressed in the first pretty callous IMO... no matter who you're referring to being the ones "choosing".
Some people genuinely have been defeated by life, whether through mental illness, physical disability, poverty, addiction, etc... or some combination of them, and them choosing to cope with their circumstance however they can, even if it isn't perfectly healthy, shouldn't be looked down on IMO. And even the people attempting to provide these virtual identities and VR environments shouldn't be looked at that way either, since at least they are providing a little bit of hope and some joy to the often profoundly hopeless and at least it's much less destructive (individually and to society) than all the other traditional escapist alternatives.
I suppose I don't accept that these barely 20 year old people are "defeated by life". All the reasons you've listed (mental illness, poverty etc) apply to most countries, but the scale of the problem is much, much bigger in Japan. I'm questioning why - that doesn't mean I'm looking down on them, I just don't think sugar coating it ("it isn't perfectly healthy") is conducive to helping people.
Maybe individually, but on a societal level I don't think the long term effects are any better than other forms of anti-social behaviour.
Considering how many <30 year olds commit suicide every year, I think not accepting that people can feel and truly be defeated by life at that age even in first-world nations (let alone third world ones) is pretty naive. And calling someone's chosen coping mechanisms for that state of affairs "defeatist" is undeniably looking down on them. It may not be a totally incorrect assessment in some cases, but not all of them IMO, since not everyone is able to recover from the trials/tribulations life throws at them, no matter how positive they try to be, how hopeful they remain or how hard they try to overcome them.
I myself have suffered from severe panic attacks since I was 6 years old, was committed to a psychiatric facility when I was 16 after suffering a "nervous breakdown" (acute catatonia), and was hospitalized several more times in my 20s for the same issue and after one failed suicide attempt. 30+ years of professional treatment, medication regiments and psychotherapy, including attending several long-term inpatient programs, has yielded nothing but progressively worse and now entirely debilitating panic attacks and agoraphobia. About the only treatment option I have left untried at this point is electroconvulsive therapy which I am honestly starting to consider because of how bad the situation has become. And while I wouldn't say I qualify for the "defeated by life" label simply because I haven't totally given up yet and still have some hope remaining... I totally understand and sympathize with those that do, even people in their 20s.
And as to why it's the situation is potentially worse in Japan, I think that's pretty obvious as well. In general Japan is a very rigidly hierarchical and patriarchal society that highly values tradition, conformity, workaholism and stoicism, which is an absolute recipe for disaster when it comes to even recognizing (let alone treating) rising mental illness and societal epidemics like depression and social isolation.
I'm really sorry to hear about your personal history and I now understand how that shapes your perspective on this issue, but I don't think it invalidates my view on the large scale and long term societal effects of these kinds of technologies. Sure, they might very well provide a modicum of reprieve for some, but that's still just a bandaid. It doesn't solve anything - not even for the individual. All it makes is to further isolate and "contain" the issue, sweeping these people under the rug.
That's why I think it's defeatist to advocate for this tech. It trades long term structural damage for momentary bliss.
EDIT:
To be clear, I've never said the solution is to "think positive" or "try harder", so this feels like a strawman. I don't think there are many improvements to be done on an individual level; it's the responsibility of society as a whole to take care of each other and address the underlying problems. Will that happen anytime soon? Probably not. Does that mean non-solutions like vtubers are better? I don't think so.
Is providing relief and reprieve from people's desperate situations, even temporary though that may be, not valuable? Sure, escapism is a only band-aid solution and doesn't address the underlying problems that make people seek to escape reality in the first place, but IMO not everything needs to be a in service to a solution. And if that virtual reality band-aid allows them to hang on a little longer until a real solution hopefully presents itself, then that is undeniably beneficial.
And as to "sweeping these people under the rug" and the "societal effects" of this tech, they are already sufficiently under the rug (just watch the Manboo video I linked) but at least this virtual star and virtual reality tech allows those people to achieve some form of connection, artificial though it may be. Remove it and it won't magically make these people who have fallen through the cracks better or reconnect them, it will just remove one of the outlets they have for relief available to them.
p.s. regarding your edit
I never said you thought it was a solution but you did state people "choosing the lesser of two evils", referring to virtual identities and VR escapism, of being "defeatist"... and wouldn't the opposite of that be to not accept defeat, i.e. remain positive and try harder to succeed?