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Key points
- A desire to connect with celebrities is normal, and recent research finds fan/celebrity relationships are more positive than previously thought.
- Attachment theory has been expanded to apply to the sense of security people get from attachment to celebrities they admire.
- New social media apps like Cameo and Clubhouse allow fans to have a more personal connection to celebrities who inspire them.
Fans have always been eager to connect with the people who inspire and entertain them, whether it was through organizing fan clubs, writing fan mail, or braving long lines at conventions for autographs or photo ops. While some researchers have viewed attraction to celebrities as problematic, especially if it’s as extreme as “celebrity worship,” recent research by Gail Stever and colleagues has found that fan/celebrity interaction is often reciprocal, symbiotic, collaborative, and beneficial to both parties. Attachment theory has been expanded to apply to the sense of felt security an individual gets from attachment to a media persona they do not know in face-to-face life, understanding this desire to connect as normal instead of dysfunctional.
Humans have an innate need to be seen and known and recognized, part of our earliest attachment relationships, and this extends to people who we may not know personally but admire anyway. Fans are often inspired by their favorite celebrities, deriving real benefits from following the examples of celebrities who have shared their struggles with things like mental health challenges or addiction. These benefits may be more powerful when the celebrity recognizes the fan individually and provides a personal message of inspiration. Recognition by a celebrity is also a source of gratification, elevating the fan’s social status and providing at least a few moments of excitement. However, for most fans, access to celebrities is limited.
Social media like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook have provided some ability to interact with celebrities for more than a decade but can be frustrating for fans who are eager to be noticed. Actors, musicians and other entertainers with many followers are unable to reply to most of their messages, so social media interaction is usually one-way. The one-sided relationships that result have been termed “parasocial relationships,” characterized by the fan knowing a great deal about the celebrity and maybe even feeling like they “know” them as a result, while to the celebrity, the fan is a stranger.
Two New Apps Are Changing the Fan/Celebrity Relationship
Several newer online platforms are changing that, allowing fans to interact with celebrities in a less one-sided way. These platforms reflect the changing nature of celebrity as well. In a culture that manufactures reality TV stars and social media influencers, today’s celebrities are promoted as both special and completely ordinary, celebrated for their unique accomplishments but also treated as “normal people” who have the same problems and challenges as the rest of us. This view creates a sort of intimacy between celebrities and fans, which can lead fans to want to have a closer connection.
The new social networking platform Clubhouse is a sort of old-school “chat room," except people actually talk instead of type. Clubhouse follows the norms of actual clubhouses in that it’s by invitation only. Discussions are moderated and there’s a certain sense of specialness from knowing you were granted admission to the club. The app is not just for celebrities – there are all sorts of discussions divided into “rooms” of speakers and listeners, but some high-profile celebrities have utilized it to chat with fans or surprised people by randomly showing up in a chat room. The New York Times likened it to a podcast with audience participation or the modern version of an old-fashioned party line. Right now, after only a year of existence, Clubhouse is small and exclusive enough to provide some of that elusive access that fans crave.
Cutting Out the Middleman to Bring Fans and Celebrities Together
The other platform that is providing a more personalized (and slightly more reciprocal) experience for fans is Cameo. Unlike Clubhouse, Cameo was set up specifically as a way to connect fans and celebrities – for a fee. Celebrities from Jack Nicklaus to Sarah Jessica Parker have taken to Cameo to send their fans personalized video messages, ranging from happy birthday wishes to inspiring stories to poetry readings. The most famous people can charge $1,000 or more for a few-minute recording, but many of the celebrities who make Cameos are less famous, with a niche audience that is eager to connect with them. The Guardian recently profiled British actor and comedian James Buckley of The Inbetweeners, the most prolific Cameo performer last year, who charges a much more reasonable fee. At one point, he was recording 37 videos a day for the app.
One of the things that has made Cameo popular with fans is its tendency not to take itself too seriously – or for the performers who use it to do so either. Especially in this era of microcelebrity, interacting with celebrities who seem more like ordinary people, as skeptical of “celebrity” as the rest of us, is satisfying. Working actors and musicians and writers who don’t consider themselves “famous” are often quite popular on Cameo, much to their surprise. Far from the one-way parasocial relationship, fans can relate to these Cameos without feeling in awe of a famous person. Cameo founder Steve Galanis told The New York Times that his goal was to bridge the gap for people who are more famous than rich, as well as to cut out the “middle man” of agents and publicists, connecting the stars with fans more directly both economically and psychologically.
The View from the Celebrity Side
I spoke to actor Chad Lindberg (Supernatural, The Fast and the Furious) about doing Cameos for his fans. An early adopter of social media and Twitter, Chad was also one of the first to sign on to Cameo.
Lindberg: I love it! Sometimes Cameo will send me the reaction videos and it could be from an adult or a kid who’s a "Fast and the Furious" fan, or a "Supernatural" fan, and to see their reaction and to see them hearing you say their name and be very personal with them, there’s nothing like that. I wish that Cameo existed before I got into the business.
He went on to say that it would have been amazing to have this kind of connection with a celebrity or actor when he was growing up. Lindberg also said that Cameo has been a godsend to him in multiple ways, allowing him to connect with fans and also to support himself doing it.
The ability to connect with fans, he said, is meaningful to him.
Lindberg: I can give something that is truly special to people. I go all-in when I do a Cameo, I try to give them their worth. There’s not one Cameo that’s not about love and not about building that person up. No matter what, no matter who you are, what you believe in, I will always send you a really positive message. It’s such a brilliant idea, I wish it had come along sooner.
Fans seem to agree, as the popularity of both Clubhouse and Cameo have increased over the past year. Perhaps in the isolation of the pandemic, the chance to connect with a role model or a personalized message of hope and inspiration from an admired celebrity is more valued than ever before.
References
Furedi, F. (2010) Celebrity culture. Sociology, 47, 493-497
Hartmann, T. & Goldhoorn, C. (2011). Horton & Wohl revisited: Exploring viewers’ experience of parasocial interaction. Journal of Communication, 61, 1104-1121
Maltby, J., Day, L., McCutcheon, L.E., Houran, J. & Ashe, D.D. (2006). Extreme celebrity worship, fantasy proneness and dissociation: Developing the measurement and understanding of celebrity worship within a clinical personality context. Personality & Individual Differences, 40 (2), 273-283
Stever, G. (2016). Evolutionary theory and reactions to mass media: Understanding parasocial attachment. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 6 (2), 95-102
