Influencers become famous for sharing intimate details about their lives, but then set boundaries to protect their privacy and mental health. This causes anger among followers who feel entitled to have their information omitted.pixabay
Tattle Life, an anonymous gossip forum, has been described as “the most toxic place on the Internet.” “Fake boobs, fake teeth, fake nose, fake life,” “No career, fake life.” She is still so empty! “She’s always a wedding guest but never the bride” are just some of the thread titles on the site.
People are increasingly turning to gossip forums like Tattle Life, Guru Gossip, GOMI (“Get Off My Internets”) and the Blogsnark subreddit to criticize the influencers they follow. In these forums, users feature everything from an influencer’s social media content to her appearance. Even relationships with friends, partners, and children are subject to scrutiny. However, the surprising phrase “I loved my girlfriend” is repeated throughout the forums.
Many of the forum users are former fans of the influencers they are now publicly criticizing. So why do we start hating influencers we once loved?
Influencers are great at building parasocial relationships with their followers. Although these relationships are primarily one-way, followers experience them as reciprocal. Your favorite influencers often feel like your friends, even if you’re not aware of their followers. However, our research on two prominent gossip forums shows that these quasi-social relationships can deteriorate, with love and adoration being replaced by feelings of hostility and hatred.
shatter the illusion of intimacy
Influencers typically rise to fame by sharing intimate details about their lives, but later set boundaries to protect their privacy and mental health. This can shatter the illusion of intimacy and cause anger among followers who feel entitled to the omitted information. One forum user observed:
You can’t share a relationship with your followers for the better part of a decade and then not handle the breakup properly. She has set boundaries and levels of privacy in her own life. You can’t suddenly change them without expecting a reaction.
When we feel excluded by influencers, our emotions can become increasingly hostile. But rather than simply unfollowing, many people turn to gossip forums to fill in the “gaps in the story” with their own theories, backed by “evidence” collected through extensive online research. .
The authors were dedicated to uncovering hidden details of influencers’ lives, from inspecting every detail of their posts to accessing company accounts. They praised theories that were proven correct, such as when a long-suspected pregnancy or breakup was announced, and celebrated their “detective work.”
Our findings show that in gossip forums, users can overcome feelings of exclusion by recreating the illusion of intimately knowing the influencer.
I feel ignored by influencers
Influencers create the illusion that their relationships with their followers are rewarded through likes and replies to comments. However, as your audience grows, the response typically slows down. Many influencers also delete comments or block comments containing certain keywords. Because of this, some followers feel ignored. One contributor to our study said:
I always see her asking questions on Twitter and Instagram. And her followers give her really great feedback and comments and even her recommendations and advice. She never replies or says thank you or just presses her little heart or her thumbs up button to say thank you.
Forum members perpetuated the belief that influencers read forums. They often interpret influencers’ social media content as an attempt to address criticism posted by forum members, saying, “Please make it more clear that you are addressing everything being discussed here.” I wonder if it’s possible!” were posted. “This was her speaking to us again.”
Posters often spoke directly to influencers, advising them on how to improve their content and repair relationships with their followers. One commenter added the following to a long list of suggestions:
If you’re reading these comments, I wanted to provide a constructive overview of why many of us used to watch your content and now don’t. I’m not a cat person, so I tried to explain it as simply and constructively as possible in a forum where comments aren’t deleted.
Our data shows that posting on gossip forums allows followers to feel seen and acknowledged by influencers in ways they don’t see outside of forums.
Sponsored content issues
As an influencer’s fame grows, they begin to profit from their followers through increasingly lucrative brand endorsements and partnerships. If influencers only post content with direct commercial benefit, their followers may feel exploited. One poster said: “I can’t believe she has the audacity to post such half-baked, inauthentic sponsored content when she’s been away for 5 weeks.”
Forums allow users to maintain detailed knowledge of an influencer’s content through other members’ posts without directly engaging with the social media content and supporting the influencer commercially.
Followers also expressed frustration that influencers did not clearly disclose paid advertising and used forums to facilitate mass reporting of non-compliant posts to the UK Advertising Standards Authority. By retaliating in this way, forum members were able to alleviate their feelings of being exploited.
Gossip forum users are often dismissed as trolls and bullies, but this doesn’t paint the whole picture. Our research provides insight into the attractiveness of these forums.
The strong parasocial relationship between followers and influencers means that even if the relationship turns hostile, they cannot simply walk away, but instead maintain the relationship and avoid lost intimacy. It means looking for other ways to recover.
If your own feelings toward your favorite influencer are starting to sour, try just waiting for the parasocial relationship to fade over time. Just as stalking your ex on social media can often do more harm than good, gossip forums are a tempting but often unhealthy temptation.
Rebecca Mardon, Marketing Reader; cardiff university; Hayley Cocker, Senior Lecturer in Marketing; lancaster universitymarketing professor Kate Daunt; cardiff university
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
