Celebrity Fan Culture (and Obsession) in Social Media
A reoccurring theme that I have noticed in many of my classmates’ presentations, posts, and papers is celebrity fan culture and how fan and celebrity “relationships” are heightened through the use of social media. Before the age of social media, fans interacted with their favorite celebs via one-way media such as magazines, television, or personal websites. But now we – the general public – aren’t limited to these mediums any longer. Now, we have been given Twitter to follow and tweet our favorite movie stars or fashion designers. We have Instagram to follow our favorite bands and pop stars. And Facebook and the list goes on…
However, the celebrity super fans don’t stop short of following their favorite stars. Teenage girls beg Justin Bieber for retweets until he finally concedes and thousands of users leave comments on Rihanna’s latest racy Instagram photo. This suggests that the fan culture still consists of a one-way communication model. This is not the case. Social media has given stars a new outlet with which to communicate to their billions/millions of adoring fans. Now, when celebs put information out, they get feedback instantly via these social media platforms. And they now have the opportunity to respond to feedback. For example, many celebrities play Q&A with their fans on Twitter or will respond specifically to negative media by confirming or denying rumors on their social media sites, such as the Biber smoking pot scandal.
But what’s the big deal? So we now have the ability to interact with the distant celebrities we worship for the monotonous chart-topping hits they churn out or the countless identical film roles they play, why do we care? Because not only is this a revolutionary step in fan culture but it also poses potential threats to our normal, uneventful lives.
Americans have always been a bit of a celebrity-obsessed culture, putting our movie stars and singers on pedestals. In fact, there is a name for the affliction called Celebrity Worship Syndrome. What this meant in the past was that maybe we saw our celebrity idol in a magazine and got down on ourselves for not being as thin or beautiful. However, now that we have been given the tools to interact on a deeper more personal level, does that make the celebrity idols more human or even more glamorous and unreachable? Now that we have the ability to talk to them on Twitter or Instagram, does it crush us more when we fail to receive a response? Have we potentially been handed our own self-destruct button for self-esteem and self-awareness?