“Celebrity Worshiping on K-Pop Fans” (An Opinion)
Hallyu or K-Pop is not a mysterious thing for people nowadays, especially after the big successes of some South Korean singers, actors, and directors in winning some international awards. By millions of fans from all over the globe of various races, religions and spiritual backgrounds, ages, even cultural beliefs, K-Pop artists are welcomed and loved. This global phenomenon is not astonishing since K-Pop fans are enchanted by the beauty, talent, and personality that each of the idols has.
All in all, I would like to state that K-Pop is a thing that can be accepted easily.
Nowadays society has proved that Erikson’s Stage of Psychosocial Development is no longer relevant. Based on Erikson’s theory, early adults from age 18 years old until the age of 40 maintain to focus on forming an intimate, loving, and strong relationship with others. But the reality is that even young adults still involve themselves in K-Pop and fangirling. Of course, this happens not for any reason. The positivity that the idols give to their fans can save some exhausted and depressed souls. Fans can relate to themselves through their idols’ music; listening to sad songs when they are sad, and energetic songs when they are in need to be supported. These idols’ hard work ethic inspires the young generation to set their goals high and achieve them no matter what people say. But little do people realize this strong and intense bond between the fans and their idols itself can bring negative impacts for some people. In the book My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut, Toba Beta said,
“Too much ends in smoke.”
Apart from all the positive influences that K-Pop idols have brought to their fans, nightmares can come to the K-Pop fans when they are being too much. Not to declare that being a K-Pop fan or fan of many things in the world is a wrong move to live our lives, but to be dependent on something all day or to be deeply in love with things or people can make us lose our precious things in life.
Just like what I have stated in the title of my writing, I would like to discuss more about celebrity worship, then I will connect that with the act of compulsive buying phenomena which have happened among K-Pop fans. First of all, let’s discuss celebrity worshiping.
What is celebrity worshiping?
Celebrity worship is any form of behavior or feelings that arise from inner to worship an idol figure as gratification, entertainment, or to fill in the emptiness (Widjaja & Ali, 2015). To make it short and easy, celebrity worship is an act of following what the idols do, taking their words and acts to create one’s personality or identity, and being obsessed with the idols’ existences. As a K-Pop enthusiast, sometimes I found myself trying so hard to dress like certain idols or to buy the product that they use. Are those acts the indicators that I am a celebrity worshipper? Or are they normal acts that fans will do?
Based on Randy A. Sansone and Lori A. Sansone’s journal entitled “I’m Your Number One Fan” — A Clinical Look at Celebrity Worship, there are some general characteristics of celebrity worshippers. Using the Celebrity Attitudes Scale, the researchers found that participants perceived celebrity worshippers as more likely to be
foolish, persistent, irresponsible, submissive, and less honest (Sansone & Sansone, 2014).
Celebrity worshippers also tend to have psychiatric syndromes. A great obsession that belongs to these worshippers can bring a dangerous impact to idols whom they love. The tendency to have
fantasy proneness or dissociation, stalking behavior, depression, and anxiety can be harmful for both the idols and the fans.
Fantasy proneness is the act of spending half or more time awake to fantasize or daydream about the idols that the real memories can mingle with the imaginative memories, whereas dissociation is more severe than fantasy proneness. People with dissociation experience disconnection and unavailability of progression thoughts. They escape from their reality and are lost in their imaginative thought.
Talking about stalking behavior, there is a term called sasaeng that best describes this mental illness. Sasaeng is a word that can be used to address people who continuously follow their idols, day and night, illegally. They want to be part of their idols’ daily life and want to be close with them 24/7. This action has, obviously, caused them to lose their independence, times, social lives, and most importantly has disturbed their favorite people’s lives. See? From this example, I can state that is too much or too fond of our idols will inflict loss for both parties.
Depression and anxiety arise among K-Pop fans when they see their idols as perfect figures and feel like they are not worthy enough for the idols. A lower level of life satisfaction appears when the fans observe their idols’ lifestyles and try to suit that regardless of their financial and economic condition. By the end of the day, when those qualities of life that they want cannot be reached, it will eventually lead to depression. It is a sad thing that idols’ existences bring so much suffering to someone’s life when the main goal of their career is to entertain people. That’s what entertainer does, right?
Besides all those mental health problems, compulsive buying is also one of the characteristics that belong to celebrity worshippers. The question is, what is compulsive buying?
Compulsive buying is a common mental disorder that is marked by constant, impulsive, uncontrolled buying for things in which the person himself does not know what value will the products bring to his life.
People with no CBB (Compulsive Buying Behavior) will think about how the products that they are going to purchase can improve the quality of their lives, how useful they will be, and the necessity of buying the products in the meantime. While people with CBB tend to buy things to boost their moods, relieve stress, gain social’s acknowledgments, or fit in the society (because people have this, I also need to have this). Buying products that are not necessarily useful make people who have CBB get instant satisfaction and contentment. But in the face of the short-term consolation that they can get, many of them undergo a depressive time afterward due to the feeling that they have been lacking in controlling themselves and spending so much on things that they do not really need.
It is at this moment when I realize that I am one of those kinds, people with CBB. As all K-Pop fans know, there are many kinds of K-Pop merchandise that entertainment companies release. CD album, Kihno album, photocards, school kits, even cold brew with the idols’ face on it. And just for your information, K-Pop fans do not usually stop until that. What the idols wear, they want to wear the same things; this habit also applies to foods and beverages. Not to be a hypocrite, I admit that I do the same things. And this realization brings me to two other questions:
Is it really necessary? Is it a bad thing?
The answers to these questions are varied and depend on the financial condition of the person. Is it really necessary for me to buy the exact clothes, perfume, snacks, or Starbucks menu? No! No one tells me to do so. But is it a bad thing? I also think that the answer is no. There is nothing wrong with me wanting to enjoy the good quality that life provides as long as my financial condition allows me to do so.
For me personally, because I do not have a full-time job yet, I need to think about the possible condition in the future when I have no works to feed me at all. I save 60% of my payment for every project, then use the rest to buy some stuff that I like and to bring my family for dinner or late-night snacks. This is an honest opinion that belongs to me, but I think saving too much for the future and keep yourself starving and craving for the present won’t bring joy in life. Who knows the time death comes to us? Of course, worrying about the future is a normal thing to do, and it is absolutely wrong to abandon your future to just live in the present. Yet, making ourselves suffer in now times is not the right thing to do either. So, what about balancing our lives, buttercup?
Thirty-day of consideration before purchasing.
Before buying an album or other things, I always have thirty days to think about whether I really want the album or not, whether I can wear the clothes for my daily activities or not. Which version of the album that I like best? What kind of idols’ outfit suits my body type and I can pull off every day? Making some imaginative questions can help me in reducing the amount of impulsive buying. Those questions also help me to understand what I really want in life instead of being an irresolute person who buys things just because they own them.
Imposing thirty-day for you to consider if you really want to buy the things or not can help you a lot in saving money.
On the whole, I want to stress that being a fan of someone or something can definitely increase someone’s quality of life on the condition that they know the boundaries. Too much is never good, that is what people said, and I personally take those words seriously. Depend our happiness in life so much on idols or public figures that we adore is exceptionally harmful to our health. Why do we want to hurt ourselves that the actual goal of being a fan is to entertain ourselves from our hectic work life? If being a fan brings some mental health disorders that lead to social dysfunction, what is the point then?
Instead of making ourselves suffering, why not enjoying life and bettering ourselves in some aspects? Need to be remembered that being an obsessive stalker also ruins our role figures’ life and make them suffer as well. With that being said, let’s just be moderate so that both parties can enjoy their lives happily. Each of us has a life to live to the fullest.
Xoxo, Chtrn.
