#173 - Emotional Thirst Traps & Life Lessons with James Tang AKA Your Internet Boyfriend

First of All

With times as crazy as these, we need all the support we can get. Deep conversations with friends, a good book, a tranquil walk through a park, a home cooked meal, meditation...and a social media persona moonlighting as our ultra caring significant other. Enter our Internet Boyfriend and charming FOA guest this week, James Tang. In this episode, Minji catches up with her friend James, the creative soul behind the viral TikTok character "Your Internet Boyfriend" who caught some attention for his sincere and clever emotional thirst traps. And oh did the parched online audience show up for the empathy, acts of service, and undivided attention via loads of direct eye contact. James' content happened to be a point of joy and levity in Minji's dark pandemic days, and together they reverse engineer how this character was inspired through James' acting background and the astoundingly low bar for dating these days...and perhaps since forever. They discuss how this persona is received across both male and female audiences, James' insights from "dating" so many people on the Internet, as well as how this character has truly helped people come to realize some important things for themselves.

Links:
https://www.instagram.com/jamesthetang/
https://www.tiktok.com/@jamesthetang
https://twitter.com/jamesthetang

Follow Minji On:

• Twitter (@minjeeeezy)
• Instagram (@minjeezy)
• Clubhouse (@MinjiChang)

▫️ Music featured in this episode include "Uzutrap" by Uzuhan and “Special” by Andy Yu
▫️ Follow the show on Instagram and Twitter and support our Patreon
▫️ This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective

Audio Engineer @marvinyueh
Producer @AnnaSun
Social Media Manager @JulianaDeer

Mentioned in this episode:

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"Inheriting" is a show about Asian American and Pacific Islander families, which explores how one event in history can ripple through generations. In doing so, the show seeks to break apart the AAPI monolith and tell a fuller story of these communities. In each episode, NPR’s Emily Kwong sits down with one family and facilitates deeply emotional conversations between their loved ones, exploring how their most personal, private moments are an integral part of history. Through these stories, we show how the past is personal and how to live with the legacies we’re constantly inheriting. New episodes premiere every Thursday. Subscribe to “Inheriting” on your app of choice

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