Fan Culture and Parasocial Relationships

Fan Culture and Parasocial Relationships

This article relates to Snowglobe

For those living in the dystopian world of Soyoung Park's Snowglobe, the main source of entertainment is reality television shot within a climate-controlled dome. The lives of the actors on these shows are on 24-hour display to be consumed obsessively by the fans in the icy world beyond the dome's barrier. Every detail of the stars' lives is known to their fans; every major and minor moment displayed on screen, with limited or no privacy available to them. Such is the price of their comfort. Part of the reason Chobahm can even step into the life of her favorite star Goh Haeri is because she knows Haeri's life intimately – the entire thing has been broadcast, and rewatched over and over again by many. The relationships that viewers have with their favorite reality stars in the shows depicted in the book might seem extreme, but what Park has set up in this dystopian YA thriller is built on the realities of contemporary celebrity and fan culture – and the parasocial relationships that can come out of this culture.

It is no secret that social media has brought fans even closer to their favorite celebrities, be they music artists, actors, or reality stars. The little glimpses of who they are as people behind their various acts make their fans feel like they can relate to their favorite celebrities on a different level – they aren't just entertained by them, they are like them. They might like the same things, for instance, resulting in the fan imagining they might get along well if they could ever spend time together. But that kind of logic is reflective of a parasocial relationship. This is a one-sided relationship, where, in the case of celebrities and their fans, the celebrity does not know about the individual fan's existence, but that individual fan might be investing a high degree of time, interest, and emotional energy into the celebrity. In other words, the fan builds a connection with their idealization of the celebrity as a whole person, and not just the entertainment they produce.

On the one hand, this seems like it could be something innocuous – a bit like an imaginary friend who is rooted in reality. But as Park shows, there is something dark at the heart of an entertainment culture that fosters these kinds of relationships. Celebrities often feel obligated to be hypervisible to their fans via social media; they might be encouraged to be so by their management or manipulated by the terms of their contracts. The celebrities lose privacy, choice, and any sense of their own personhood when the worth of their lives is based solely on the content they produce. This dynamic comes to a head in Snowglobe when Goh Haeri is desperate to leave the safety of the dome, knowing how much of her life is a lie, and several of the other actors are brutally discarded when they no longer have value to the show producers.

In the real world, parasocial relationships have been connected to cases of stalking, as has happened in a high-profile way to Taylor Swift, and have become mental health concerns for both fans and those they worship, as seen when Selena Gomez very publicly took a step back from social media. Soyoung Park is a Korean novelist, and there are hints of the particular qualities of Korean fan culture (which have gone global with the rise in popularity of K-Pop music and Korean television dramas) in Snowglobe. An article about fan culture in the Korea Herald from August 2023 includes a quote by a former cultural psychology professor who describes a phenomenon akin to parasocial relationships: "Korea's fandom culture is related to the concept of 'us,' (when fans) develop love (for a celebrity) they sense narrowing of gap between each other, and form a close psychological relationship. In other words, once this sense of bond is established, the mind works as if the person (the celebrity) is no longer a stranger."

It's a problem for everyone if not having privacy or a personal life becomes normalized, especially when the web of who actually makes money off of this kind of voyeurism is complicated at best. While the parasocial relationships are only a small part of the dark underbelly of Snowglobe, without that kind of entertainment environment Chobahm would never be able to step into Goh's literal shoes. Against the backdrop of a frigid world, Park warns readers about where the current cultural landscape might lead us.

Teenage girl listening to music, courtesy of cottonbro studio via Pexels

Filed under Cultural Curiosities

This article relates to Snowglobe. It first ran in the March 6, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.

This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access become a member today.