What distinguishes online celebrity from its older counterparts is easier access to the figures we hold oh so dear–social media allows for unfettered rapport with the entertainers whose voices were once only broadcast through magazine spreads, TV and radio interviews, and much of what enabled mass media consumption in the past. With those barriers broken down, the claws of parasocial attachment are free to sink their influence in deep, and it can lead to some pretty unpleasant experiences as the accusations of child grooming leveled against Virgil Texas — former member of the Chapo collective — by Twitter user ‘Jennifer Seberg’ promptly demonstrate.
While there’s much to suggest in the testimony that it’s not a fabrication meant to discredit a member of the Chapo universe — and it’d be foolish to deny they’re a convenient target of regular scorn — it serves as a useful reminder that the bonds formed with the content creators we so idolize can be the source of much grief if power dynamics are not kept in check. It would already be bad enough on its own if Virgil thought appropriate to initiate intimate contact with a literal child, but that is further made worse by the prospect of this interaction being a strong…
