There are people who try to block and cancel celebrities. Does it actually do anything?

Will 2024 be the year we finally acknowledge our celebrity worship culture?

As the #blockout2024 trend continues to grow online, many people are asking this question. The TikTok-led social movement has also been (somewhat dramatically) dubbed the “digital guillotine,” and celebrities are not doing enough to support Palestinians as the war in Gaza continues and an estimated 35,000 Palestinians have died. There are people who unfollow or block you.

The blockbuster began earlier this month, shortly after celebrities and socialites attended the Met Gala, an annual costume ball to benefit the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Individual tickets to the event can cost as much as $75,000.

“It's time for the people to execute the digital guillotine, or 'digitine,'” TikTok user @ladyfromtheoutside said in a May 8 video that has been viewed more than 2 million times.

“It's time to block all celebrities, influencers and wealthy socialites who don't use their resources to help people in serious situations,” she told viewers.

In another post, she posted a montage of Zendaya, one of this year's Met Gala co-chairs, alongside a video of Palestinian children crying in front of the rubble of destroyed homes in Gaza and other conflict areas.

Some participants in this trend say they are simply fed up with the fetishistic nature of modern fandom, where wealth inequality has become so pronounced.

“I don't block celebrities because I believe they will save the world,” artist Spencer Catherine wrote in the thread. “I'm blocking them because I'm tired of idolizing celebrity culture and witnessing extreme wealth that is so far removed from reality. It's a free market here.”

The idea is to block celebrities so their lack of social media engagement doesn't affect their lucrative brand deals. Even if you simply unfollow a celebrity, the algorithm may still suggest sponsored posts from brands they're affiliated with. Blocking them means those posts won't appear in your feed.

The trend appears to be working, at least in terms of attracting attention. Last week, Google announced a spike in searches for the keywords “celebrity boycott,” “digitalize,” and “let them eat cake.”

Needless to say, it was a bad time for Mark Zuckerberg to post something like this:

It also seems to have an effect on the number of followers. According to Social Blade, a website that tracks followers and following statistics on several social media sites, big stars like Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, and Taylor Swift are losing tens of thousands of followers a day. It is said that there is. site. (For example, Kardashian lost 44,000 Instagram followers on the same day @ladyfromtheoutside posted the TikTok.)

Calls for a “departure from celebrity culture” began in earnest during the pandemic, showing how disconnected some celebrities have become from the average person. Whether it was Dua Lipa taking a tropical vacation when everyone else was on lockdown, or Gal Gadot and her famous friends sitting in their multi-millionaire home and saying, “No possessions.'' Think about how you used to sing “Imagine” without realizing how ironic it was to sing the lyrics “Imagine.” dollar mansion.

“The coronavirus has highlighted to the public just how disconnected celebrities are from the lived experiences of their fans,” said Rebecca Forster, an assistant professor of media psychology at Chapman University in California.

Of course, the whole notion of celebrities and the parasocial relationships we have with them is that they are “idealized and out of reach, creating a seductive distance between their dream lives and their admiring fans”, he said.

However, COVID-19 has completely turned this idea on its head. “The separation of celebrities from the public began to seem offensive, irrelevant, even immoral,” Forster told HuffPost.

This is also a mini-cancel culture moment, Forster said. It's a fan-driven attempt to hold those in power accountable, even if they are the favorite.

Even Swift, a pop star who has historically done nothing wrong in the eyes of her fans, has been criticized for not speaking out about Palestine, for dating someone her fans disapprove of, for using a private jet a lot, etc. , which came under criticism last year.

On TikTok, kids wonder, “Just because I have the privileges of the platform, does that mean I’m obligated to use it forever?” (The “Depart from Celebrity” movement comes as teenagers and university students are calling for a ceasefire and withdrawal from Israel by companies and universities they deem complicit.)

Forster said the #blockout2024 trend shows Gen Z is looking for more from celebrities than just a decent romantic comedy or summer song.

“I'm not surprised by this conversation,” Forster said. “Compared to Millennials and Gen I think they are looking for a lot of meaning.”

In some ways, he said, this trend is the opposite of fandom culture. Lynn ZubernisA psychologist and professor at West Chester University in Pennsylvania who studies fan psychology.

“We love putting our idols on pedestals, but we also love knocking them down,” she said. “There's a reason Schadenfreude is so well-known.”

Group shaming has also been around for a very long time and just plays out differently in different environments, Zubanis said. Online, it's not tarring and feathering, it's blocking, boycotting, unfollowing, and stacking.

“I believe many of these fans are motivated by social justice concerns and a desire to do good after they perceive a moral violation has occurred, but there is also an emotional reward to becoming a cyber vigilante and participating in online shaming,” she said.

Brittney Brownfield, a clinical professional counselor and co-host of the Popcorn Psychology podcast, said there's also a common perception that celebrities are famous because of their fans.

Brownfield explained that given the amount of money many fans hand over to celebrities for stadium tours and album re-releases, some feel entitled to a little control over those celebrities' platforms. .

“It’s an ongoing business relationship,” she said. “There's a feeling of, 'Why would I give you energy so that you can be famous and live a luxurious lifestyle that I can't even touch?' But you're so mean. You can't even shout out a cause that is and could make a big positive impact?

Critics of the Digitizing Wonder maybe This is similar to people posting black squares on Instagram at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, which is performative and ultimately empty.

Zubanis said online abuse is most effective against non-celebrities and minor celebrities, but celebrities are more likely to fight back.

Zubanis said celebrities' earnings may be affected. She pointed to “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling, who has lost a significant portion of her fan base because of her anti-trans comments over the years.

Some point out that it's impossible to know what people support behind closed doors, and that social media posts aren't the whole story when it comes to political engagement.

Case in point: Some criticized Amal Clooney, the international human rights lawyer and wife of George Clooney, for not speaking out enough about the Gaza issue, but earlier this week she was arrested by the International Criminal Court behind an arrest warrant in the Gaza case. (ICC) It was revealed that he was advising prosecutors. Three Hamas leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense.

“This is a timely reminder that performative activity on social media is not 'action',” British lawyer Abimbola Johnson wrote in a letter to X. She said: “Amal Clooney has been dragged into court for months now for her alleged silence on Gaza. She is doing her real job hard and making a tangible difference in the real world. I did.”

Many feel that pop stars shouldn't be looked to for solutions to complex issues in international relations, a problem Forster calls the “shut up and dribble” part of their fandom. (In 2018, Fox News pundit Laura Ingraham said LeBron James should “shut up and dribble” when the basketball star expressed his feelings about Donald Trump.)

“There are definitely fans who want their favorite celebrities to stay out of politics. It's not just because they don't want to face dissonance when they disagree with their beloved celebrity's opinions, it's because they don't want to face dissonance when they don't agree with their beloved celebrity's opinion, but also because they just want entertainment as escapism. “It's also because we want to maintain a purely hedonistic, apolitical space,” Forster said.

Regardless of who we block or don't block, it's probably healthy for all of us to question our attachments and expectations towards celebrities.

Nicolette Rianza, a psychotherapist in Beachwood, Ohio, says, “A healthy attachment to a celebrity is one in which you can admire the person and their work in a positive way, and you can separate the person from their public persona.'' ” he says.

Lianza says it's okay to unfollow someone if their content becomes offensive to you or if their opinions don't align with your personal values. However, it's also important not to expect everything to be perfect.

“Social media can be cruel when celebrities make mistakes or are just going through typical human experiences, like breakups or mental health concerns.[ing] What to say about something,” she said.