Somewhere between admiration and obsession, celebrity culture has blurred the line between merely watching someone and fully believing we know them. In a time when many spend innumerable hours scrolling, liking, watching, and obsessing, parasocial relationships and egregious power and class imbalances fester among users, creating unhealthy habits and deleterious behavior, revealing concerning societal values.
Parasocial relationships are no longer harmless admiration — they are evolving into emotional entitlement, where audiences feel owed access, explanations, and vulnerability from people they do not know. For example, Demetra Dias, a well-known TikToker who rose to nearly five million followers with style videos, gym routines, and get-ready-with-me-like videos, recently became a hot topic on the app after rumors circulated about her relationship status.
Dias, who eventually responded to the influx of comments demanding to know what happened with a confirmation that she and her boyfriend broke up, was subjected to online harassment over a situation that never belonged to or concerned her audience in the first place. Users speculated in her comments, accusing her of cheating and even harassing one of her fellow classmates, whom they presumed she cheated with.
Aside from the relentless nature of the internet and online critics spewing hate from behind a screen, Dias’ circumstance, though not isolated or unique, reveals a much more pronounced and concerning behavior — an overt obsession with influencers and celebrities and an entitlement to their experiences.
While celebrities have always been the center of attention, scrutiny, acclaim, harassment, and speculation, the new wave of influencers and micro-influencers spurring from apps like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube has taken it to the next level.
While it’s true that these influencers willingly choose to publicly share their lives with millions online, a boundary is crossed when people start to perceive this as intimacy and feel entitled to a stranger’s emotional vulnerability. Though already frequent with “fan-girl” culture among celebrities, now ordinary people are often randomly subjected to mass followings and become victims of similar, much more frequent harassment due to the accessibility of social media apps like TikTok.
Ultimately, social media collapses the boundary between public figure and perceived friend, with individuals feeling they really know someone despite seeing only staged, edited, and curated clips.
Many of these figures, like Dias herself or, more notably, Charli D’Amelio, achieved public acclaim simply by being attractive. Social media users’ obsession with these figures reflects loneliness, comparison, and fascination with wealth and beauty, perpetuating a visible power imbalance in society.
It’s not just digitally parasocial; it’s a physical spectacle
But even more so, this power imbalance then feeds into the already existing idolization of celebrities and famous figures. Following the recent Santa Barbara International Film Festival, my Instagram was flooded with stories of people waiting outside the venue, crammed together, and standing for what I can only assume was a very long time, just to wave at notable figures like Jacob Elordi, Sydney Sweeney, and Michael B. Jordan.
These few seconds of eye contact often came with a picture that was sure to be uploaded and reposted, receiving incessant likes and “oh my gosh’s.” While I am not trying to be a buzz-kill, and I understand that it’s exciting for many to see their favorite actors or artists, it’s worth noting how dystopian these relationships come across as.
Parasocial relationships often emerge not from obsession alone, but from a desire for connection in an increasingly isolating digital world. Watching someone’s daily routines, heartbreak, and successes can create a comforting illusion of familiarity — a feeling of being included in a life that exists just out of reach.
Unsurprisingly, the algorithm makes users victims once again: the more users engage with someone’s life — through comments, speculation, and reposts — the more it reinforces that perceived closeness, quietly encouraging deeper attachment.
Additionally, celebrities and influencers are rewarded and praised for their authenticity and vulnerability, thereby creating a cyclical pattern: the more real someone appears online, the easier it becomes to forget that the relationship remains fundamentally one-sided.
Society uses celebrities as vessels for aspirational living, repeatedly stalking their socials, following their every move, and being sure to know their latest relationship drama. Public figures are idolized and revered so much that they are, ironically, dehumanized, representing an unattainable parasocial fantasy and aspiration.
There’s More to it
But in a time where many are struggling to get by, unemployment and job markets are a concern for many, families are ripped apart, and many live in a state of precarity and uncertainty, this obsession over individuals with an egregious amount of wealth and privilege cannot and should not be chalked up to just “fan-girl” behavior. Instead, it’s dystopian — feeling much more like the districts from the Hunger Games or another futuristic novel than a harmless interest.
Watching curated luxury, travel, and seemingly effortless success can feel comforting — a brief departure from the pressures of everyday life. Yet, it reveals extreme inequality as excessive wealth so frequently showcased creates a quiet desensitization to disparities that would otherwise feel jarring.
There is something unsettling about how the acts of watching, liking, commenting, and waiting behind barricades are exactly what keep individuals at a lower status and power imbalance while contributing to a public figure’s prosperity.
Though the fascination is not inherently harmful, its intensity raises questions about what values and circumstances are being avoided, redirected, or normalized in the process. It’s not bad to like celebrities and enjoy the spectacle of glamour, but it’s important to acknowledge the full picture and recognize the harms in these parasocial relationships, which lead to egregious disparities, obsessive behavior, and the unfair treatment and harassment of public figures alike.