We’ve all had our share of celebrity crushes. It’s when you’re watching a movie, and a certain someone catches your eye – their hair, their smile, their style. Suddenly, you find yourself focusing on only them, awaiting their presence in the next scene, and God forbid someone gets a bit too close to them. Finally, when the movie’s over, you’ll feel fulfilled having invested time to discover the talented performance of this new actor, knowing that you’ll be stalking their Instagram later tonight.
Now before you feel attacked, know that this behaviour is normal. The way your crush gives you butterflies, the way they make you blush, the way you watch every single interview they’ve ever been in – it’s all part of what makes us human. We are intrinsically social beings, so we have an innate capacity to make connections, we benefit from regular interactions, and creating personal attachments satisfies our natural need for companionship. Plus, finding a celebrity you truly identify with joins you with a like-minded community.
Think about the international superpower that is ARMY, BTS’ fanbase. Not only does ARMY bond over the band’s music, but they’ve created a culture with inside jokes, niche memes, and fandom slang, as well as a comfier atmosphere to drool over 7 cute Koreans.
We all go through stages of celebrity crushes, whether it’s Timothée Chalamet in 2020 after seeing that edit, or Jacob Elordi now after catching Saltburn, it’s completely normal.
However, there’s a fine line between normal and neurotic. Parasocial relationships are so common due to social media making stars more accessible than ever: press tours, daily vlogs, livestreams, Stories, and Tik Tok just to name a few. With fans consuming that content almost every day, it’s easy for innocent lust to turn into an uncontrolled obsession.
Take the Beliebers who chased down Justin Bieber’s SUV like they were in the Fast in the Furious, or the case of Twitch star Niko who had a fan write a 246-page blog about her, and who can forget 1Directioner Allie marrying a cardboard cut-out of Harry Styles. The band actually ended up attending the wedding! Well, at least the cutouts.
Although these cases are rare, they are only growing in strength as we’re digitally advancing – considering Apple just launched their new VR headset, let’s just say Allie can now see her man in 4K. Therefore it’s imperative to address that type of behaviour: encourage this person to introspect into their attachment, make boundaries with their media time, and explore new hobbies.
While most celebrity crushes are normal – it’s a result of being human, hormones, and if you’re a woman, it could be part of literally any point in your monthly cycle – it can still be a problem for others, so be a friend and help them out.
However, there are those people who could care less about real life and feed into their obsession with people who have nothing to do with them. Let’s just hope they don’t have access to cardboard.