Earlier this year, comedian John Mulaney exited rehab for a cocaine addiction. His marriage had come to an end, and according to the gossip blogs, he had already moved on: he was dating actress Olivia Munn.

This causes a furore on social media. His fans were incredibly disappointed that he had left his supportive wife, who he had often spoken of adoringly in his sets. (https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/a36430930/john-mulaney-divorce-olivia-munn-rumors/)

It reminded me of something else I had witnessed the last year, stories about the fans of Sushant Singh Rajput. (https://article-14.com/post/the-shadowy-world-of-the-justice-for-sushant-singh-rajput-campaign--60c6bc8834db5.)

SSR-ians, as they are called, have been on a furious hunt for justice. It's been a year since the actor reportedly committed suicide in his Bombay home, but this explanation was not acceptable to his fans. Someone like Rajput couldn't have succumbed to his mental health struggles, they say. He was too much of an idol for that.

What do these two phenomena have in common? The horde of fans who have formed parasocial relationships with their heroes.

A parasocial relationship refers to a one way relationship between laymen and a public figure. They are growing increasingly common, perhaps because we've never had access to celebrities' personal lives at the level that we do now. We've always had celebrities, but not social media to this extent: for instance, we didn't know what Brad Pitt had for breakfast in the 90s.

Now, we are growing increasingly invested in a public figure because we feel like we know them. This becomes a problem when people assume that they have a close and personal relationship with a celebrity. It can be a scary dynamic: it can make for obsession.

Just ask Rhea Chakraborty, Rajput’s ex girlfriend. She has been hounded and harassed viciously by people who feel that they have insider knowledge about a Bollywood celebrity they’ve never met.