Celebrity crushes and following all the new trends regarding the newest music artist or influencers is nothing new when it comes to social media; it’s everywhere – everyone is following and essentially stalking the newest celebrity and has become normalized to know and watch everything. Social media, especially Instagram and X, formerly known as Twitter, make it easier than ever. Nowadays, instead of making and forming new relationships with people in the real world, teenagers prefer to daydream about being in a relationship with an influencer they know nothing about.

Parasocialism is the idea of forming a fake psychological relationship with someone, usually a celebrity, without either of them knowing each other. The idea of parasocialism is extremely common in online spaces with people believing they know everything about a celebrity or believe they are owed certain things from these influencers.

The newest upcoming artist, Chappell Roan, a queer pop-icon has been noted online to not take parasocial and crazy fans lightly and personally call them out, has upset her online fanbase for setting personal boundaries. Unfortunately, Chappell Roan had to deal with insane amounts of harassment and stalking from fans which led to her lessening her online and vocal presence.

“It’s weird how people think that you know a person because you see them online and you listen to the art they make … I’m allowed to say no to creepy behavior okay?” Chappell Roan stated on social media, “[…] I just need to lay it out and remind you, women don’t owe you ****,” she said on a now deleted Instagram post.

Chappell Roan calling out these insane fans did not go over well on social media, her original lengthy instagram post regarding these issues had to have comments turned off, in her own words, she wasn’t looking for any response. Later, she took down the entire post. Fans were outraged with her setting boundaries and couldn’t understand why Roan, a famous singer, “couldn’t handle the fame”.

Parasocialism is not just an online problem, it extends to the real physical world too. Fans will do anything to get their beloved influencers attention, whether it’s positive or negative. These parasocial fans will bring huge posters to musicians’ concerts declaring their love to them, and often having sexual and uncomfortable remarks on them.

The normalization of the obsession of internet personalities has gotten to the point where stalking has become physical harassment, Roan admitted to being physically assaulted in public from her ‘fans’ on TikTok. People, especially teenerages on social media, believe they are entitled or owed things from the influencers they are fans of.

It’s not just Chappell Roan either, another famous female musician; Taylor Swift also has a fair deal with crazy fans. However, the difference between these two is Swift has less harassment and more endorsement than anything. Although her fans, dubbed “Swifties’, don’t harass Taylor herself, the parasocialism aspect is still there: These fans go out of their way to harass and defend her to the very end.

Parasocialism and crazy fans have no doubt a very big effect on influencers’ and celebrities’ mental health, an iconic example would be Lady Gaga’s 2009 VMA’s performance, “paparazzi”. The performance details the experience of how paparazzi and by extension, insane fans, kill musicians and celebrities.

Nowadays cancel culture and parasocial fans go hand in hand, both play a major role in influencers career. One wrong move and they could lose any sort of belovedness from their fanbase. Unfortunately, Chappell Roan’s fanbase attempted to drag her on social media when she expressed boundaries online for not fitting the image of how a famous celebrity should feel or be treated.

When celebrities and internet personalities become famous, it is true that they lose a sense of privacy; they’ll always have fans watching their every move. However, that doesn’t take away the fact that celebrities are people too and have their own emotions. Just like normal everyday people, celebrities don’t owe people anything. Fans or not, everyone no matter how famous or important they might be, deserve to be treated with basic human decency and respect.