{"id":179,"date":"2019-05-05T20:14:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-05T12:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/?p=179"},"modified":"2019-05-05T20:19:15","modified_gmt":"2019-05-05T12:19:15","slug":"from-fans-to-sisters-expectations-of-intimacy-within-youtuber-fandom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/2019\/05\/05\/from-fans-to-sisters-expectations-of-intimacy-within-youtuber-fandom\/","title":{"rendered":"From Fans to \u201cSisters\u201d: Expectations Of Intimacy Within Youtuber Fandom"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Abstract<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For micro-celebrities such as popular\nYoutubers, social media platforms can be used to grow an audience. However,\nsharing one\u2019s life on the internet requires careful balancing of private and\npublic information. As much as authenticity is needed to build a loyal fanbase,\nYoutubers can find their privacy being infringed when fans come to believe that\nthey can expect the same level of connection with their celebrity idol as they\nwould a friend they know personally. This paper looks at how these expectations\nof intimacy develop, and the strong emotional connections that can form through\nonline social networks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Introduction<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The advent of social media platforms has allowed fandoms greater access to their idols, and to each other. Whilst this has helped fandoms to grow more quickly, and has allowed celebrities greater opportunity to connect with their fans, it also raises important questions of privacy and self-disclosure. Whilst celebrity-fan relationships existed long before the internet, the rise of participatory internet culture and social networking sites such as Twitter and YouTube have changed this relationship, and audiences can be seen as wanting more. This is particularly apparent with online based \u201cmicro-celebrities\u201d such as YouTubers. For professional YouTubers there is an expectation of authenticity and transparency in their work, as well as an expectation of being constantly accessible across social media platforms. This paper will explore the relationship between popular YouTube personalities and their viewers, and look at the ways that emotional attachments can form though use of social networks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    2. Expectations of Intimacy from Influencers<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In December of 2018 popular Youtuber James\nCharles bought a new house in Los Angeles. As is a common practice for YouTubers,\nCharles made and uploaded a \u201chouse tour\u201d video, where he walked his fans\nthrough his new home and pointed out some of its features. Unfortunately,\ndespite the outside of the house not being shown, and the exact area not being\ndisclosed, the images captured proved sufficient for a select few of Charles\u2019\n(then) 11 million strong YouTube audience to investigate and ultimately find\nhis address. This lead to an unknown number of fans showing up uninvited to\nJames Charles\u2019s house over a period of several weeks, eventually prompting a\npublic statement from Charles stating in no uncertain terms that he would not\ninteract with anyone who came to the house uninvited, and asking fans to stop\ncoming to the house immediately. What followed was a heated discussion online\nabout the nature of being \u201cinternet famous\u201d. Whilst most fans agreed that\nshowing up uninvited was inappropriate, some also took to Twitter to call out\nCharles as being ungrateful, petty or rude. Several users also condemned the\ntrespassing, but went on to say that these occurrences should be expected by\nany person who has such a large online audience (DeFranco, 2018).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This expectation of availability is not unique to the James Charles case, nor is the trespassing. In 2017 the address of the \u201cTeam Ten House\u201d (home to several YouTubers with large audiences) was leaked on Google maps, resulting in dozens of fans showing up each day. Whilst most mainstream celebrities will also have had experiences of fan\u2019s approaching them at inappropriate times or places, the expectation of being constantly available, and fans being \u201cowed\u201d time and attention is much more evident when looking at those who earned their fame online, and particularly with YouTubers. The YouTube famous can be described as micro-celebrities, that is, a person who is famous within a certain community of people (Raun, 2018). This can be contrasted to the idea of a \u201cmainstream celebrity\u201d which is a title associated more with those who earned their fame through legacy media, such as film or television (Abidin, 2019). With the growing popularity and influence of successful YouTube personalities, one could argue that the differences between a mainstream celebrity and a YouTube celebrity are lessening, however there are still some observable differences in fan expectation. Perhaps the biggest difference between the mainstream celebrity of eras past, and a micro-celebrity within the YouTube community, is the expectation of authenticity and transparency that fans hold for their YouTube idols. In order to build their audience and garner support, micro-celebrities such as Youtubers must connect with their viewers on a personal level, this involves sharing personal or private information about themselves and their lives, and signalling availability by connecting with fans on social media (Raun, 2018). This is all part of maintaining the scarce resource that is attention in the online space. However, for professional YouTubers this creates a tension between sharing enough of their life to maintain and grow an active audience, and maintaining enough privacy that they are still able to separate work from non-work life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    3. Why Do Fans Feel Entitled? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In the case of James Charles there was no\nsmall amount of backlash when he clearly stated his boundaries concerning when\nand where fans should approach him. This sense of entitlement to a celebrity\u2019s\ntime can be seen as a result of the development of parasocial relationships. A\nparasocial relationship is a one-sided, pseudorelationship that can form\nbetween any media persona and a viewer (Brown, 2013). Typically, it consists of\na viewer developing a false sense of intimacy, mimicking feelings of\nfriendship, with a celebrity they have never met. For humans, emotional\nconnection is usually essential for the enjoyment of any piece of media (Brown,\n2013), and thusly parasocial relationships have arguably existed for a least as\nlong as mass media has. A particularly early example is that of singer and\nradio personality Kate Smith, who in 1943 raised an incredible $39 million\ndollars for the war effort during a marathon radio show. Scholars observed that\nSmith\u2019s listeners responded to her calls for them to buy war bonds as if a\nfriend had asked them (Brown, 2013). Today, social media platforms have\nexacerbated these types of feelings for fans towards celebrities. Most\nmainstream celebrities make use of a least one social media platform, and many\nfans may feel closer to their favourite pop stars or actors by following them\non Twitter and receiving glimpses into their day to day activities. However,\nwhen looking at Youtubers and vloggers it is important to remember that these\ntypes of creators often share details about their lives in the content they\nmake for the platform, that is, sharing is a part of their work. If they are\nactive with engaging with fans on social media on top of this, as most\nsuccessful creators are, it is even easier to see how a fan\u2019s perception of\ntheir accessibility may be altered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Advances in internet communication technology\nhave also changed the way we communicate in a more general sense. For example,\nsocial media allows us to communicate with our loved ones no matter where in\nthe world they are, and for most people the idea of maintaining an intimate\nrelationship though the internet, such as communicating with a family member\nwhilst being separated geographically, would feel quite normal. This is what\nLeisa Reichelt coined as \u201cAmbient intimacy\u201d that is; \u201cbeing able to keep in\ntouch with people with a level of regularity and intimacy that you wouldn\u2019t\nusually have access to, because time and space conspire to make it impossible.\u201d\n(2007). Apart from allowing a person to keep tabs on people they know and have\nmet, this can also lead to fans viewing their idols as \u201cintimate strangers\u201d\nwhom they may feel a sense of entitlement towards when it comes to knowledge of\ntheir lives, or even contact with them, in the same way they would a friend or\nfamily member (Duffett, 2013).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The strong emotional connection that popular Youtubers have with their fans has long been observed in the context of their marketing power. However more recently scholars have searched for a reason that YouTube as a platform would foster such a strong connection and one of the potential answers is limbic resonance. Limbic resonance describes the human capacity for empathy and non-verbal communication, and is activated in the brain when we are around other people. Watching content on YouTube, particularly in the straight-to-camera vlogging style, mimics being co-present with another person, in a way that watching an actor on television or a popstar performing does not, and supports the development of a deeper emotional connection (Gahan, 2014). As much as these strong emotional connections may go some way to explaining extreme fan behaviour such as the trespassing experienced by James Charles, it is worth noting that these undesirable behaviours are exhibited by a relatively small percentage of a very large fan base. This phenomenon arguably occurs not just because of the emotional connections that contact through social media foster, but also because of the ease of spreading information , communicating and collaborating though social media networks. Whilst fandoms were still organised and active in the pre-internet days, social media sites have allowed fans to connect with each other, share information and bond over shared interests on a scale and at a speed not seen previously. Utilising these networks is what allowed fans to collectively find James Charles\u2019 address, which ultimately lead to online fan behaviour manifesting in the physical world. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    4. Emotional Connection in Fandoms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Being a part of an online fandom is a\npositive and social experience for many people. Identifying with a fandom can\nallow people to make friends through a shared interest and also provide a\npositive feeling of self-definition (Brown, 2015). Fans in the online age have\neven more opportunities to be social, Brown explains; \u201cAudience involvement is\nnot merely a lone psychological enterprise; it involves interaction with\nothers, including discussing favourite personae, reading their tweets, sending\nthem text messages, watching them through media with friends, and personally\nattending their events with others\u201d (2015). In the context of YouTube, being a\npart of a fan community can provide people with a sense of belonging, which is\nparticularly important to young viewers. YouTubers often give a name to their\nfollowers which increases this feeling of belonging in much the same way as a\nteam or club, which can also be seen as an extension of self-branding. To\nrevisit the example of James Charles, fans of Charles are called \u201csisters\u201d and\ncan purchase \u201csister\u201d merchandise to display their affiliation with the fandom\nin their daily life. Another common feature of large and active internet\nfandoms is the fans identifying with the celebrity through a shared sense of\nbeing different, or an outsider. As a young male in the beauty scene James\nCharles is in the minority, and he encourages his young viewers to express\nthemselves and be true to themselves regardless of public opinion. Influencer\nmarketing expert Brittany Hennessy explains; “The popularity of\nnon-traditional social media stars like James Charles is great because it\nreally gives their audience a chance to just feel like they can express\nthemselves and they don\u2019t have to conform to a specific box,” (in Hawkins,\n2019). In a similar way fans of Lady Gaga have expressed the positive benefits\nthey get out of participating in her fandom online. Lady Gaga\u2019s fans (named\n\u201cLittle Monsters\u201d) helped her become the most followed person on Twitter for\nseveral years. When interviewed, fans expressed that identifying as a Little\nMonster helped them to embrace all parts of themselves, even aspects of their\npersonality that might be considered \u201cweird\u201d and participating in the fandom\nhelped them feel that they could truly be themselves. In this way fans\nidentifying with a celebrity and participating in a fandom can help them to\nfeel empowered and included, even if they otherwise feel excluded from\nmainstream society (Click, Lee & Holladay, 2013). This emotional connection\nis a powerful driving force in creating a large and loyal fanbase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    5. Conclusion <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    In conclusion, online fanbases have several\nunique features which set them apart from pre-Web 2.0 notions of fandoms and\nfan behaviours. The relationships between fans and their celebrity idols,\nparticularly online micro-celebrities, have changed in response to the\nincreased level of accessibility, or appearance thereof, provided by a large\nsocial media presence. With YouTubers, the inherent expectation of transparency\nand authenticity of content uploaded to the platform exacerbates the audience\u2019s\nexpectation of access to the Youtuber\u2019s private life. Furthermore, the\nformation of parasocial relationships between the viewer and the YouTube\npersona can result in an erroneous belief that the persona is a friend rather\nthan a stranger, and can lead to the fan treating them as such. Taking part in\na fandom and identifying with a star online is a positive experience for many\npeople, and the increased social tools provided by the internet aid the speed\nof growth of fan communities. However, as much as it is now easier than ever\nbefore to grow a following quickly, it is also more important than ever for\nonline micro-celebrities to carefully balance their privacy and their public\npersona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    References:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Abidin,\nC. (2019). What is an internet celebrity anyway?. In C. Abidin, Internet\nCelebrity: Understanding Fame Online (1st ed., pp. 1-18). Bingley, UK: Emerald\nPublishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Brown,\nW. (2015). Examining Four Processes of Audience Involvement With Media\nPersonae: Transportation, Parasocial Interaction, Identification, and\nWorship. Communication Theory<\/em>, 25<\/em>(3), 259-283. doi:\n10.1111\/comt.12053<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Click,\nM., Lee, H., & Holladay, H. (2013). Making Monsters: Lady Gaga, Fan\nIdentification, and Social Media. Popular Music And Society<\/em>, 36<\/em>(3),\n360-379. doi: 10.1080\/03007766.2013.798546<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    DeFranco,\nP. (2018). The James Charles Privacy Problem Is Actually Much Bigger<\/em> [Video].\nRetrieved from https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9eCGmC5dRi4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Duffett,\nM. (2013). Understanding fandom<\/em> (p. Chapter 9). New York:\nBloomsbury Academic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Gahan,\nB. (2014). Brendan Gahan – Limbic Resonance – The Science Behind The Success of\nYouTubers. Retrieved from\nhttps:\/\/brendangahan.com\/limbic-resonance-science-behind-success-youtubers\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Hawkins,\nS. (2019). Make-up artist, influencer James Charles opens up about beauty\ncareer and bullies. Retrieved from\nhttps:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/Entertainment\/make-artist-influencer-james-charles-opens-beauty-career\/story?id=61924967<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Raun,\nT. (2018). Capitalizing intimacy. Convergence: The International\nJournal Of Research Into New Media Technologies<\/em>, 24<\/em>(1), 99-113.\ndoi: 10.1177\/1354856517736983<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Reichelt,\nL. (2007). Ambient Intimacy. Retrieved from\nhttp:\/\/www.disambiguity.com\/ambient-intimacy<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This work is licensed under a Creative\nCommons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Abstract For micro-celebrities such as popular Youtubers, social media platforms can be used to grow an audience. However, sharing one\u2019s life on the internet requires careful balancing of private and public information. As much as authenticity is needed to build a loyal fanbase, Youtubers can find their privacy being infringed when fans come to believe… Continue reading From Fans to \u201cSisters\u201d: Expectations Of Intimacy Within Youtuber Fandom<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[80,24,79,81,82,21,52,42,78,77],"class_list":["post-179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-social","tag-beauty-blogger","tag-influencers","tag-james-charles","tag-parasocial","tag-privacy","tag-social-media","tag-social-networking-sites","tag-social-networks","tag-vlogging","tag-youtube"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179\/revisions\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/networkconference.netstudies.org\/2019Curtin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}