Fan Behaviors

In America, celebrities are everywhere. They're on magazine covers on shelves at the grocery store, they're dancing on your For You Page on TikTok, they're sharing their thoughts on Twitter, and they're on your TV screen. The only reasons that celebrities are as famous as they are is because of two things: money and dedicated fans, with talent being more of an afterthought. Some celebrities even got their start with little to no money, with modern day rags-to-riches stories; popular examples include Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and Oprah Winfrey. Without fans, most celebrities would have never become as famous as they did.

Why and how do celebrities become famous, and how does celebrity worship come to fruition? Sociologist Paul Hollander relates this to American society and how celebrity worship is seemingly engrained into the culture here in the U.S. Hollander describes the culture of celebrity worship in America by highlighting how many people try their best to simply meet celebrities by going to places that they frequently visit. People engage in “celebrity-watching” as a pastime activity, perhaps to add excitement to their lives or to elevate their social status, Hollander notes. He also states that in order to become famous, you don’t necessarily have to be talented artistically – you just have to be noticeable and physically attractive, and having money and connections helps. You also don’t have to be heroic or even morally sound; as long as you can generate publicity, you can become famous.³

People who are interested in celebrities are often that way because they want to see how the other half lives – those with glamorous lives and plenty of wealth are intriguing. Social media has brought celebrity worship to new heights; celebrities having public Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook accounts allows fans to interact with them in completely new ways. No longer do people have to mail letters to a P.O. Box address to tell their favorite celebrity how much they mean to them - they can simply reply to their latest social media post. People can even connect with other fans living all over the world, forming communities and building friendships all on the basis of sharing a favorite celebrity/celebrities. However, these types of connections can lead to consequences.

People may deny their impact, but it's undeniable: stans get things trending. Every day on Twitter, you can go to the top trends in America or other countries and there is always at least one celebrity-related topic in the top five. Sometimes very random-seeming phrases or words trend, and when you click on the hashtag you'll usually see passionate fans explaining the context behind the trend. A prime example of this happened in 2016, which was an incident where angry EXO fans trended a hashtag that implied Miley Cyrus had died, when she was still very much alive. According to The Guardian journalist Michael Cragg, this started because Beliebers (Justin Bieber’s fanbase) and EXO-Ls (EXO’s fanbase) were arguing over who is more famous – the aforementioned American singer or the Korean boy band. A Miley Cyrus fan got involved and said rude things about K-pop fans, so the arguments went from there, leading to the hashtag’s creation.⁴ As mentioned earlier, fans of celebrities nowadays have constant access to said celebrities due to social media, and that the lines and power dynamics between stars and fans have been blurred because of this. Beliebers even trended a hashtag in anger over Bieber deactivating his Instagram account - a personal choice that non-celebrities all over the world make every day. Fans crossing the line with celebrities is unfortunately all too commonplace. But even more common is fans crossing the line with each other.