Influencer Parisa Bong has stopped posting her live location on social media. A man onced followed her to her car; another followed her and a friend to the washroom of a restaurant. There were also instances where she walked out of a gym session only to be greeted by a legion of her social media followers.
Parisa, who posts under the moniker @parisabong, now draws boundaries by not replying to anyone she doesn’t know via DMs. “If someone asks where I bought something, then I post my response on Instagram Stories,” says Parisa. This keeps all communication public.
While her fans’ intentions might be harmless, they exemplify a growing number of fans who don’t know where to draw the line and separate the influencer’s public persona and their private lives.
These parasocial relationships can have damaging consequences on influencers and celebrities, especially for more extreme cases.
Coined by anthropologist Donald
