A thin line between devotion and fixation.
Parasocial relationships are a phenomenon that has essentially existed since the beginnings of mass media. People consuming a lot of content produced by a person often subconsciously feel they are personally familiar with the creator.
Especially popular artists like singers can easily become subjects of such an obsession, with the rise of social media contributing to infamously devoted and rumor-happy fanbases like the one of pop singer Taylor Swift. Changing your own legal name to imitate your icon, however, marks a new high.
A Harmless Name Change?
"I legally changed my name to Caroline Melissa Taylor because of Taylor Swift. [...] If you don't like that, go touch grass."
These are the words with which the Canadian woman introduced herself in a short video that has gone somewhat viral on TikTok. To prove her claim, she held up a name change certificate of her local governing body into the phone camera.
This video was far from the first piece of "Taylor Swift"-themed content uploaded to her social media account; Caroline had previously not only produced multiple clips concerned with the work of the artist and even built her business around the influential singer, but also commented on Swift's private life, such as claiming that the singer's recent engagement made her personally happy.
While there are definitely a lot of Swift fans (even infiltrating our writing staff), when commentators criticized Caroline for her seemingly obsessive behavior (including asking viewers to "let Taylor know" about her name change), the TikTok influencer defended herself by claiming to simply be a devoted fan (showing off an autograph tattoo on her hand) and by arguing that her actions were harmless.
The Dangers Of Obsession
Past examples have, however, shown that letting the well-being of a person you don't actually know affect you personally can be rather unhealthy. Fans in a parasocial relationship may get emotionally over-invested in issues they can't affect and potentially neglect their own real relationships in the process.
These relationships also carry the real threat of turning into obsessions, potentially leading to stalking, boundary violations and unhealthy fixations which may harm the artist; in this case, Taylor Swift. Because of reasons like these, the billionaire pop star has in the past even implicitly criticized part of her fanbase in her work, mainly for encroaching on her private life.
Even if Taylor Swift cared about the name change of Caroline Melissa Taylor, she would thus likely feel less honored than pressured by the affair, given that the knowledge of a stranger caring about you this much is bound to cause concerns. So far though, the TikToker has remained firm in her stance, recommending in later videos: "Don't read the comments [...], be authentic!"
But what do you think? Is a name change like this really just an expression of admiration? Or a sign of more deep-seated problems? Let us know in the comments below!