Part 3: How are you famous?
A subculture on social media has been created revolving around those people who have met the most celebrities. As previously mentioned photos with celebrities have become status symbols. Even more so, photos with the right celebrities are even more valuble. These celebrity stalking celebrities have made the practice even more common and also a valued past time. They have created a following and have themselves become celebrities.
This phenomenon of a “celebrity stalking celebrity” has transformed the practice of meeting a celebrity. The number of and frequency at which these celebrities are meeting celebrities puts them at a different level. One might consider it similar to the actions of a stalker. The dictionary defines “stalker” as “a person who stealthily hunts or pursues an animal or another person”. That is essentially what these fans are doing. Consider this — these fans find out flight information and meet celebrities at airports. They figure out hotel reservations, dinner plans, apartment buildings. If they did this to any “normal” civilian it would be considered stalking and there would be a restraining order filed against the person in question. There is even a fan who is known by the name Stalker Sarah. Not only do people know her by this name, she even refers to herself by this name and made it her Instagram handle. The stalking nature of meeting celebrities has become an idealized activity that people want to be a part of even though it is a questionable practice.
So what defines the line between “Stalker” and obsessed fan? How has this stalker culture created an entirely new type of fan, one that dominates fangirls and has basically turned the stalker/fangirl into a celebrity in their right? Social media has made it all possible.