Aimee Puz, a student at Barry University, considers herself a Taylor Swift fan.
“Pretty close to the ultimate,” she said. “Top 5% on Spotify.”
Anything Swift does takes the world by storm – from sold-out concerts to a show-stopping engagement. Every accomplishment of Swift’s feels like a win for her fandom, named “Swifties.”
“She’s a few years older than me, so as I was going through my life, her music always related to what was going on,” Puz said. “When I was a teenager in high school, I had all the songs about the boys and the crushes, and then it transitioned to being a young adult and beyond now. No matter what she’s releasing, it always feels like I can relate to her music.”
Swift is known for her autobiographical lyrics and famously documents her romance, breakups and difficulties of dating in her music.
“It gives (fans) this sort of connection as if someone understands them, someone out there is going through the same thing,” said University of Florida professor Andrew Selepak.
This is called a parasocial relationship, a connection you feel to someone that you have never met before, and they don’t even know you exist.
It can be a positive thing, Selepak said. The celebrity can act as a role model and provide potential motivation for success.
“I think the way she carries herself in those times of adversity really shows us who she is as a person, and shows us as fans and people, it’s OK to be in the wrong, and it’s OK for someone to not like your outfit or music, and you can still respect their opinion,” Puz said.
But parasocial relationships can also have negative consequences.
“What they are doing is putting all this time and energy into concentrating on someone who will never know them, rather than putting time and attention into their actual lives into their actual relationships,” Selepak said.
It might look like mirroring that celebrity’s style, making their interests your interests, or just wanting to know every little thing about them. It’s made easy by social media, where we can find out everything we want to know with a click of a button.
“I had a fan page for one of my favorite artists when I was 13, 14,” said Barry University student Corey Sykes. “You really go and search for that information, try to be a detective … I hit reality at 16 and just thought maybe this is not for me, doing all of this is not favorable. Give these people their privacy, let them enjoy life instead of pushing the boundary.”
And that’s the secret, knowing that while they feel like a close friend, they are still a celebrity. But it doesn’t mean you can’t keep cheering them on.
“Yes, we may not all know Taylor Swift, but I think deep down we can all find some kind of connection with her and what’s going on in her life or what has gone on in her life,” Puz said.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.nbcmiami.com ’
