Why Do Facebook Commenters Think the World's Biggest Celebrities are Reading Their Comments?
This guy is NOT reading your Facebook comments.
The tantalizing promise of social media is that it is the great leveler, a democratizing force where peasants can talk to kings and anonymous nobodies can become cultural forces purely on the basis of their Twitter feeds.
In many ways that is a false promise. You can tweet at Donald Trump or Joe Biden or Kanye West but there’s next to no chance that they will respond unless you’re already part of their world.
Trump was so erratic, unpredictable and in desperate need of constant validation during his presidency that sometimes he would re-tweet random cultists’ effusive praise. This delighted the lucky few and gave hope to Trump’s army of worshippers that maybe, just maybe, the Gods would smile upon them and their hero would share their thoughts with the world as well.
Her neither.
We’re seeing something similar with Elon Musk now. He’s similarly so erratic, unpredictable and in desperate need of constant validation that he regularly responds to random people on Twitter, particularly crypto-bros and his beloved fellow far-right -wing trolls. At this point he needs them as much, if not more, than they need him. The mere possibility, no matter how small, that their God might notice them and shine his light in their direction, is enough to keep Musk fans filling the internet with sycophantic propaganda.
But Musk and Trump are the exceptions in that generally famous people do not interact with the non-famous on the internet in any real way.
A lot of folks do not seem to realize that. I make a perverse habit of reading the comments for Facebook posts announcing concert or books or movies because I am fascinated by the psychology behind a lot of them.
For reasons I have never quite figured out, a shockingly vast percentage of the public labors under the delusion that the rock stars whose shows are advertised on Facebook zealously read all the comments even if they never respond to them.
Tom Hanks isn’t checking for you either.
I am forever baffled and amused by people who respond to a Facebook post that KISS will be doing a cruise in the Caribbean with, “Love you guys! You were the first show that I ever went to!“Cold Gin” was the first dance at our wedding and when we were at Kiss Convention 1996, we won Kiss bingo! Ha ha! Probably not gonna be able to afford the cruise because I got laid off after throwing out my back but rock and roll all night and party every day in my place!”
What makes people think that Gene Simmons is sitting at a computer with a Frappuccino, reading all 1047 of the comments for a Facebook post about Kiss playing a stadium in Wichita next year?
Rock stars may be desperately in need of validation, not unlike Donald Trump and Elon Musk, but they’re not so thirsty that they make a point of reading ALL of the comments for every Facebook post promoting something they’re doing.
Here’s a life hack for y’all. Stop addressing Facebook comments to famous people. They’re not reading them. They’re not going to respond to them. They don’t know you exist.
Kiss, however, is DEFINITELY reading all your social media posts.
Odds are good that your “relationship” with your favorite musicians is entirely parasocial. They loom large in your mind and your imagination. They have no idea you exist. That’s how it’s supposed to be! “Telling” The Foo Fighters about how great they are and how much you’re looking forward to their show isn’t going to close the impossibly vast gulf between you and them.
Then agin, it’s possible that the weirdoes who ostensibly think they’re communicating directly with rock stars and other super celebrities in comments sections of Facebook know on some level that their words are doomed to go un-read by their subject but feel compelled to “talk” to them anyway the way we pray to God despite knowing that he also will not answer us directly unless we’re the MyPillow Guy.
What are celebrities if not secular Gods? They are figures of romance, glamour and power who lead lives of wealth and privilege. It might seem like we can touch them via social media but that is just a shimmering illusion and not anything resembling an actual relationship or bond.
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