One day, you come across a celebrity’s interview. Their answers make you think they’re really funny and down to earth. They seem quite interesting (and gorgeous) so you go and follow them on Instagram. The more you learn about them, the more intense the feeling that you’d get along pretty well.
“We would be great friends, I just know it”, you think absent-mindedly, or even, “I feel we would make such a great couple”. And the more you follow their lives, the more intense that feeling becomes.
You know that they’re not aware of your existence and that you’ll never even meet them IRL, but you still can’t help but keep nurturing this one-sided…thing.
Welcome to the celebrity worship era. You’ve fallen into the pit of a parasocial relationship.
Social media has made celebrity obsessions overwhelmingly common
Parasocial relationships are nothing new; they became a thing long ago (the term actually traces back to 1956) but now that Instagram and Tik Tok have made it so easy to follow other people’s lives, they are more common than ever.
By giving 24-hour access to celebrities’, Instagrammers’, and creators’ profiles, the media practically prompts you to spend your time and emotional energy on people who don’t know or care about you.
It’s a smart marketing move.
When you see a person you admire share daily stories that inform you about their whereabouts and moods and reveal personal and intimate details about them, it’s easy to fall into the illusion that you’re part of their life — and become invested.
And it’s even easier for that investment to slowly turn into an unhealthy obsession.
“I’m your number one fan” — Celebrity worship syndrome is real and dangerous
You’re allowed to admire a person’s accomplishments, voice, talent, or even looks. I think we have all put up posters of our favorite athletes/actors/singers on our bedrooms’ walls when we were kids or teenagers.
But becoming overly invested in a celebrity’s both professional and personal life goes beyond admiration — it’s a real, obsessive, addictive disorder.
We’re talking about a dangerous syndrome.
You start getting influenced and shaping your life around a person with whom you’ve never had or ever will have a meaningful interaction; a person who doesn’t even know (and likely will never learn) your name.
You buy everything they advertise. You start making lifestyle changes based on the celebrity’s image — which, more often than not, is fake — and intertwine your identity with their identity. They succeed at something, you’re overwhelmed with joy. They have a failure, you feel unbearable sadness.
You become so invested in your perception you can’t even entertain the thought that you’re overidentifying with a person that might not be the best of role models.
It’s sad.
Even if that person is a good role model, why center your whole life around them? Why count the hours until their next social media post and live stream or have a file on your PC with hundreds of their photos?
And don’t get me started on the beauty-related issues that arise with celebrity worship.
For example…British influencer Oli London spent $140,000 on 18 cosmetic procedures, to resemble his favorite K-pop Jimin, from BTS. Tech analyst Sarah Schmidt spent £20000 and underwent nine surgical procedures to look like Ivanka Trump. Reality TV star Toby Sheldon spent $100,000 on plastic surgery to look like Justin Bieber.
And the list goes on.
The mental health implications are too great to ignore
Parasocial relationships with celebrity idols have bad consequences on your mental health.
You might have the illusion that (obsessively) following a particular famous person is good for you because you might feel inspired by their Instagram posts, or be ecstatic whenever they’re about to release a new song or a new movie. That one-sided relationship you’ve cultivated might serve as a useful distraction from your daily life.
In the short term, it might look like that connection you have with them has a positive influence on your daily life. In the long term, however? The mental health implications are far greater than you imagine.
According to this study, which examines the clinical aspect of celebrity worship, cultivating a parasocial relationship with a celebrity (i.e., becoming obsessed with them) has been linked with:
- having concerns about body image and therefore, be more prone to cosmetic surgery
- exhibiting narcissistic features
- having addictive tendencies
- becoming a compulsive buyer
- developing depression, anxiety, and social dysfunction.
You also have media addiction, interference with real-life relationships, maladaptive daydreaming, and a lack of interpersonal boundaries.
When will enough be enough?
Where does all of this stop?
I think we should stop worshipping celebrities. I think we should think twice before hitting the “follow” button. I think we should teach our kids to read more books and spend less time on TV and Instagram. I think we should tell them more often they’re good enough — more than enough. I think we must make it understood that beauty is in the eye of the beholder; that there’s no universal beauty, and that beauty standards differ around the world — and are subject to change.
I think we should be more vocal about the harmful effects of celebrity worship and be more mindful of what is happening around us. If your sister, cousin, boyfriend, or girlfriend has a bedroom full of posters of a particular influencer, or a memo card full of folders filled with that influencer’s photos, maybe you should talk to them about it.
It’s your turn. What do you think should happen, if we want to end this toxic cycle of celebrity worship and parasocial relationships?
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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.
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