I don't really know much about any of those people, so I couldn't really comment on them specifically. I did listen to that song by the Decemberists you mentioned to see what it was like. It has a decently catchy tune and more of an understandable message than most of what I listen to, which is mostly just songs I like the sound of haha. I would tend to be unable to say what they were actually about, and regardless I tend to just make up my own meanings for the words, when I understand them at all.
Regarding image, I think I was a bit too vague, because I can see how my statements could be parsed as talking primarily about physical appearance, but what I really meant is the whole package of how a person is perceived (by appearance, yes, but also what kind of personality and behavior others perceive them as having).
I definitely think that social media has a place in all this, too. In many respects, it amplifies celebrity culture, which I think is one of its more troubling aspects. This doesn't mean that just anyone can be a celebrity of course, but there are certainly more people who have some degree of "celebrity status". On the other hand, I think one positive to come out of social media is that the wider range of viewpoints available in that space. I think the celebrity political spectrum in, say, Hollywood is considerably less varied than on social media.
I do think parasocial relationships are common on social media in much the way that people have such relationships with celebrities. To me the defining feature of parasocial relationships is an extremely lopsided sense of regard and investment in the other person, where one party may obsess over the other's every word, and the other party barely knows they exist. In today's world, I think this kind of relationship has become more common as more people feel a sense of alienation towards others, though I don't have enough information to know how much of that is backed up by evidence and how much is simply my perception. But it does seem quite possible. Social media does seem to have the potential to both bring people together and push them further apart.
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Date: 2020-02-12 09:07 am (UTC)I don't really know much about any of those people, so I couldn't really comment on them specifically. I did listen to that song by the Decemberists you mentioned to see what it was like. It has a decently catchy tune and more of an understandable message than most of what I listen to, which is mostly just songs I like the sound of haha. I would tend to be unable to say what they were actually about, and regardless I tend to just make up my own meanings for the words, when I understand them at all.
Regarding image, I think I was a bit too vague, because I can see how my statements could be parsed as talking primarily about physical appearance, but what I really meant is the whole package of how a person is perceived (by appearance, yes, but also what kind of personality and behavior others perceive them as having).
I definitely think that social media has a place in all this, too. In many respects, it amplifies celebrity culture, which I think is one of its more troubling aspects. This doesn't mean that just anyone can be a celebrity of course, but there are certainly more people who have some degree of "celebrity status". On the other hand, I think one positive to come out of social media is that the wider range of viewpoints available in that space. I think the celebrity political spectrum in, say, Hollywood is considerably less varied than on social media.
I do think parasocial relationships are common on social media in much the way that people have such relationships with celebrities. To me the defining feature of parasocial relationships is an extremely lopsided sense of regard and investment in the other person, where one party may obsess over the other's every word, and the other party barely knows they exist. In today's world, I think this kind of relationship has become more common as more people feel a sense of alienation towards others, though I don't have enough information to know how much of that is backed up by evidence and how much is simply my perception. But it does seem quite possible. Social media does seem to have the potential to both bring people together and push them further apart.