# Social Alienation

The Price of Cyber-Intimacy: China’s ‘Old Man’ Scams and the Commodification of Loneliness

The 'Beng Laotou' phenomenon in China involves young scammers soliciting small 'milk tea' payments from middle-aged men in exchange for virtual attention. Driven by a crisis of loneliness and emotional alienation, this trend has evolved into a industrialized gray market that monetizes the psychological voids of modern urban life.