Besides the cringe invoked by seeing poor people defending those millionaires from wealthy “blue on Wikipedia” parents, could it be the sign of a community loss? Maybe it’s too bold to say this, but I feel like people, being unable to form and support real life relationships in vicious life-work cycle and everything done to us, they rely on celebrities, who are one click away. It’s even worse with youtubers, imo. Singers and actors might seem distant from a regular person, as they are, but youtubers are like your neighborhood buddy. I would love to hear what you are thinking about this, maybe I’m overanalyzing.
I don’t think you’re overanalyzing at all, but I don’t have much novel to say about the subject I think. It definitely seems like there’s a correlation between the dwindling of meaningful real-life relationships and social events and a society’s celebrity obsession, even better when it’s someone who can point out your comment and say something “to you” through a screen. The CPC is taking steps to combat obsessive celebrity culture and I think it’s the right call, I wonder how far those steps translate to parasocial relationships. I know the social media ban on “effeminate men” that western media loved to hype up as homophobic was actually an attack against online influencers telling their (usually young) audiences that they have to get plastic surgery and whiten their skin to be attractive, so it’s cool to see that they’re cracking down on some of the more obviously harmful parasocial relationships.