When It Comes to Fandom, Parasocial Behavior Will Always Rear Its Ugly Head

Regardless of the year, decade, or era, people will always love their celebrities and idols. With the way the entertainment industry works, many people end up developing a bond with their favorite stars, and that’s ok. Whether it be for their body of work or their personality, people will often form a liking, favoritism, bias, or even a crush on a certain individual. Yet, we’ve seen time and time again how this admiration has led some fans down the unfortunate path of forming a parasocial relationship.

For anyone familiar with fandom spaces, parasocial fans are nothing new. We perceive a certain level of closeness to people because we see them, consume their content, admire them, and become fans of them. Without ever meeting them, we form attachments to these public figures, a bond or connection that informs how we view and treat them. And it’s through this environment that fosters fans who take things a step too far and ruin what should be a good thing.

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Wanting Too Much

With the way the world works, people will inevitably be exposed to celebrity content. And while there’s nothing inherently wrong with that, because of social media and the entertainment industry’s own actions, fans tend to feel that they know their favorite celebrity a lot more than the average consumer. However, this can also lead some to form an intense, and, more importantly, a one-sided attachment to public figures.

Parasocial behavior among fans is not a novel concept, and to this day, it’s still an issue that continues to drive fandom discourse online. It’s the reason why Liza Soberano’s comments on love team culture in the Philippines a few years ago have now found a more receptive audience recently. It has also become an issue among certain sections of the Heated Rivalry fandom with some attacking one of the show’s stars, François Arnaud, based on rumors of his personal life.

And speaking of personal life, this parasocial behavior is often driven by just that, regardless of how open the celebrity is about it. You can always count on a dating scandal to get fans to probe, scrutinize, and judge by turning the smallest of details into issues and using them as fuel for their takes and proof to verify their assumptions.

This behavior, usually driven by passion and intense emotions, can lead down a slippery slope of obsession that twists the truth to fit a fan’s narrative. Parasocial behavior leads some to mistake rumors and theories as fact, and lash out when reality doesn’t subscribe to the world they built in their minds. After all, with the way fan culture has evolved over the years and stanning/shipping real people has become more widespread these days, fans feel that their favorite celebrity owes them for the time, money, and support they have invested in them. However, support does not mean entitlement, and crossing lines to get mad at a celebrity for not following a scenario that isn’t grounded in reality is never okay.

The Dangers of Expectations

For all the discourse it has caused, stan culture still has its benefits. For many people, it has led them to find actors, musicians, content creators, and personalities they enjoy watching. It led them to discover passions and hobbies they may not realized they liked. It has also led people to connect with communities, form connections, and make friendships. But participating in these spaces also means approaching terminally online territory and dealing with a certain perception of closeness that some feel warrants celebrities to embody the fantasies they’ve imagined for themselves.

With that, no longer do some see public figures as people to admire, but commodities. A false sense of intimacy is established that leads some to think that they can engage in behavior that goes beyond the expected. Spaces and communities dedicated to talking about a certain movie, show, or artist end up devolving into witch hunts targeting celebrities and even private individuals for not walking the figurative tightrope. Yes, they are in the public eye, but prying into a celebrity’s personal life or drawing conclusions from premises crosses a line.

The reality is that what we see is what they show us, and what they don’t should ideally be kept as that, private. While celebrity and idol culture have had a hand in perpetuating entitled fans to think they are owed the moon and the stars, we also have the power to resist harmful practices. Many fans have, in fact, called out toxic fans and advocated for proper fan etiquette that’s rooted in reality.    

Healthy Stanning

At the end of the day, supporting and stanning celebrities, like with most acts, requires critical thinking. Unless there is a close personal relationship established with the personality, we really do not know our idols, and we should put an asterisk on the unyielding support we give them. Celebrities should not have that much power over you and your life to the point where what they do in their personal lives affects you deeply. This level of overinvestment can only lead to harmful practices and foster mindsets that go beyond the norm. Idols are still real people, and assuming you may know who they fully are just from what they post online and what they say in public interviews isn’t the way to go.

It’s natural and even understandable to go the extra mile as a fan. But you still are a person first before a fan with morals and values that go above spending an unhealthy amount of time scrutinizing someone based on a narrative that twists facts. And fandom should be fun. You become one because you like them or what they do, not to judge every aspect of their life. Being a fan is still a choice, after all, and you have the choice to build boundaries, set limits, manage expectations, and, if all else fails, just log off and touch some grass. So respect your favorite celebrity, and respect yourself.  

Featured Image and Art by Brie Ventura