Celebrity Obsession

A trend I’ve noticed over the past decade is the increased obsession with celebrities and influencers. It’s not a surprise either. Access to the internet has increased the amount of information distribution channels. You can easily click through hundreds of daily articles about rumors and the latest gossip about your favorite or least favorite celebs. Most of them have their personal social media platforms now where you can see carefully crafted Instagram posts or shower tweets that should have just stayed shower thoughts.

With the high and easy access to such information has drastically increased the ceiling for fans and haters alike, creating a new age of obsession among the general population. Celebrity worship can be easily be seen across all social platforms. It’s normal to like certain celebrities or idols, too. They often have skills, charisma, or looks that most of the population doesn’t possess. But, the level of worship has become uncanny over the past few years.

The biggest area I can point to that exhibits this problem is in the K-pop industry. Fans treat their favorite idols as their gods, going out of their way to defend them to the death as if they were a family member. The smallest criticisms will receive a lengthy response by a fan defending every single action and attacking the criticizer. Fans creating funny edits of their fancams will receive over-the-top responses like “stop joking about *insert favorite idol* and respect their privacy, how would you like it if this was you.” These responses are commonly followed by a 1000-word comment by the original poster about how the post was supposed to be light fun and just a meme, and how they care about their favorite idol as well. There’s also no doubt to me that many fans fall into both of these categories.

Whenever a celebrity makes a widely recognized mistake, these die-hard fans will go out of their way to reinterpret the mistake as a positive trait, often leaving long PSAs about how “people make mistakes” and how you’re probably worse in every regard. These standards probably only apply to their beloved idol and nobody else. They will worship even the most mundane things about their favorite idol, gushing on about how amazing it is that their favorite idol uses some random brand of toothpaste. At the same time, many of these fans seem to keep their idols to impossible standards, lashing out if their idol doesn’t do the things they expect them to do.

Average BTS fan pic.twitter.com/AE00KcTCxO

— Everything Out Of Context (@EverythingOOC) August 8, 2023

I recall seeing on Instagram how fans sent a protest truck over to HYBE’s headquarters to protest how ENHYPEN’s choreography of their new song, Bite Me, featured the seven members each dancing with a female backup dancer¹:. I can only speculate the reason for this outrage, but regardless of whether it’s because of jealousy or control, this is degenerate behavior. It’s become all too common for fans to intrude into the personal lives of their favorite celebrities, where their actions start becoming predatory and obsessive. Here are just a few examples:

• BTS members V and RM bowed on their live, begging their fans not to visit them at their military enlistment to respect their privacy²
• People sending hate to actress Han So-hee, who featured in BTS Jungkook’s music video, “Seven” ³
• Oli London getting plastic surgery to look like BTS Jimin (has since realized his mistake)⁴
• Stalking idols to their personal addresses via stalker taxis (not even joking)⁵

This idolization culture exists in the West as well, from Kanye to Taylor Swift to the Kardashians. The crazy “fans” will do anything for their celebrity and will fight endless useless battles on the internet for the attention of absolutely nobody. It’s one of the main contributors to toxicity on the internet, where people are compelled to take sides in non-existent controversies simply because crazy fans decided to compel them into existence. However, this culture seems to be the most pervasive in Asian countries. In the K-pop industry, I’m sure the management factors these thought processes into their decisions. It’s too common to see idols apologizing for completely normal things, knowing that their reputation is at stake because of the demonic nature of some of their fans. Some examples:

• BTS Jungkook apologizing for hanging out with a female friend ⁶
• Twice Tzuyu forced apology for holding a Taiwanese flag on television (she’s from Taiwan) ⁷
• Riize Seunghan apologizing after fans found out he had a girlfriend ⁸
• Backlash over Exo’s Chen for getting married and starting a family ⁹

A lot of fans will defend their idol for trivial accusations. However, many of these fans are equally obsessive over the idol, writing long paragraphs about how their idol must be protected at all costs and can make their own decisions. Even if they are right, the pure investment of an overwhelming online defense and care for the celebrity is also alarming. These fans aren’t their family, girlfriend/boyfriend, or their guardian. A counter-reaction can still be harmful even in good faith. The best idea is just to move on with your life because there is no point in convincing crazy fans. Unfortunately, idolization culture is so pervasive in so many places that it has become a negative reinforcement loop–where celebrities succumbing to the crazy fans causes the same fans to become emboldened.

Celebrity idolization is perfectly normal. After all, we have to have some people in the public that we can all look up to. As an Asian pop fan myself, I love talking to my friends about the latest songs and idols. We love talking about new movies, new public scandals, and our favorite media stars. But at some point, there has to be a ceiling of what can be deemed normal. We can’t enter a territory where we no longer view these celebrities as people. They may be special in some ways, but at the end of the day, they are human like the rest of us. They have quirks and flaws, and we should be mindful of them. They aren’t specimens to be unconditionally oggled at nor are they objects of constant public outrage. We need to take them for how they are, for better or for worse. Even today, the crazy stans I talk about are likely a tiny fraction of all of the fans. But, it’s surprising how much noise this small group of people can drum up, and it’s a shame that they become the public perception of what true fans actually are. The more attention they get, the more prevalent they become.

At the end of the day, you can’t help but feel bad for everyone. Normal fans have to deal with the antics of crazy fans. Crazy fans are in a delusional world where anything is justified so long as it is for their favorite idol. And for the idols, at the cost of fame and fortune, they are faced with a reality where they cannot really live a normal life. Their relationships and personal life become public business. They have to deal with dumb PR decisions to appease the fans, often with disregard for their morals or personal views. It’s a difficult road to navigate because their decisions are no longer personal, but where they have to consider the management and the public. Everything they do will be worshipped, scrutinized, and ripped apart. In a world full of crazies, there is nothing an idol can do to appease everyone, and often something will be sacrificed. And usually, the sacrifice is their sanity.

Lesson to be learned: Don’t look at the comments on Kpop fan account TikToks. Doesn’t matter whether the TikTok was good, offensive, boring, bad, or hilarious. They will ruin your life.