□ Chen Lier, an intern of this newspaper,
"Why do you have to make a list for your idol?"
"He needs me to protect him! The list is very important to an idol, the higher the ranking, the more business listings, and the better his career development. I am a die-hard fan, and I will never be a 'free prostitute'."
This is a conversation that happened recently in the surgical clinic of a hospital in Heilongjiang Province. One side is Wei Ting, a 16-year-old high school girl, and the other side is her dad. Previously, Wei Ting had a quarrel with her father because she secretly took thousands of yuan from her family to make a list for her idol, causing both of them to be injured to varying degrees.
reporter found that it is not uncommon for minors like Wei Ting to chase stars irrationally. Whether online or offline, or on or off campus, they don’t like to study and love to chase stars. They spend tens of thousands of dollars on rankings and voting, and even fight with fans of other stars in order to maintain their idol image. Behaviors such as reporting, tearing each other, human flesh, and online violence frequently occur. It is worth noting that such minors also show a weak sense of rules and a higher acceptance of bad habits in their daily study and life.
In the eyes of industry insiders, star chasing is a cultural and entertainment pursuit that minors cannot give up. In the era of mobile Internet, the form of star chasing will inevitably continue to innovate. In this regard, it is better to be silent. Under the guidance of correct values, we can help young people realize that they must learn to distinguish the words and deeds of idols, and that star chasing behaviors must not cross the boundary.
The "main force" of high school generation scolding battles
is often called "quickly support"
In daily life, star chasing accounts for more than 50% of the time, and I also read idol-related information during class;
once skipped class to participate in idol fansigns; He lied to his mother to ask for money on the grounds of paying for books, etc.;
quarreled with classmates and netizens because of star chasing;
These are the "changes" of Wei Ting's star chasing in the past 5 years. After
's mother found out, she was strictly forbidden to continue chasing stars. However, her mother's discipline did not work, and her star-chasing behavior turned underground.
"I told my dad about my child's star chasing. He didn't care at first. It wasn't until I told him about some cases of teenagers chasing stars and rewarding anchors that the family's savings were used up. Dad realized the seriousness of the matter. After checking the child's social account bills, I found that she not only spent all her pocket money for star chasing, but also secretly transferred thousands of yuan to her using our mobile phone." Wei Ting's mother recalled.
The summer vacation just started this year, and the father and daughter had a fierce quarrel and both were injured. Wei Ting lost control of her emotions, and her father was smashed with a hole when she dropped the cup, and her father was so angry that she bruised her daughter's hand.
Feng Yuan, a 17-year-old Beijing girl, is also a minor addicted to chasing stars.
In 2016, under the influence of her neighbors, Feng Yuan started chasing stars, and gradually became obsessed with buying celebrity peripheral products, collecting data for idol charts, participating in idol concerts, and repeatedly buying multiple music albums and other star-chasing behaviors.
Because of this, Feng Yuan broke out many "wars" with her parents, and her father even tore up her favorite star posters and peripheral products in a fit of anger.
In school, because others are not allowed to slander idols, she often quarreled with her classmates, and even started scolding wars with others on social platforms. As a high school student, Feng Yuan not only lingers on various social platforms after school to follow the every move of idols, but also secretly uses her mobile phone to make rankings, check data, and get good reviews for idol stars during class.
Feng Yuan’s mother told the reporter: “I talked to her and asked her not to use her mobile phone during class, but her answer made her speechless—‘I like a lot of celebrities, so I really can’t control myself’.”
During the interview, Feng Yuan was very willing to "Amway" (Internet catchphrase: sincere recommendation) to the reporter her favorite star, hoping that more people would like her as much as her, so the reporter joined many fan groups through Feng Yuan's invitation, and also followed Feng Yuan on some social platforms. The
reporter noticed that in Feng Yuan's previous comments and retweets, she often saw her aggressively speaking in order to maintain her image as an idol, fighting fiercely with other celebrities' fans and ordinary netizens, and even cursing, swearing and personally attacking each other. Feng Yuan is also the "main player" in the scolding battle among the fans, and netizens often call her "hurry up and support".
"If you don't spend money, you don't love him"
"Krypton gold" spends tens of thousands on the list.
"The cost of buying celebrity albums alone has reached 60,000 to 70,000 yuan." In Feng Yuan's mother's opinion, this expense made her feel "unaffordable", after all, the family's annual income is only about 150,000 yuan.
So how do underage groupies spend their money? In the era of
big data, there are quantifiable indicators of whether a star is popular or not. Playing charts is a popular way to support idols. "Big fans" (referring to charismatic and influential fans) release tasks, and "student fans" perform tasks. This is the basic operation routine. "Many times, the 'big fans' explain the characteristics of an idol and why it deserves to be loved. However, due to limited ability, most minor fans can only echo and support their views and follow their orders." Ye Shu, a practitioner in the entertainment industry, told reporters.
"Your brother deserves better", "You must keep your brother's ranking and follow closely", "Move your fingers, do you have the heart for him to be laughed at?"... For "big fans", such mobilization strategies are commonplace.
Yu Yin, a veteran fan who has participated in many mainland star support clubs, told the reporter of the Rule of Law that the routine of "big fans" can be summed up as mobilization with "speaking skills" plus a lottery, plus the promise of "priority for activities". "'Student fan' is basically a tool person in the support club, and 'big fan' refers to where to fight. Minors are easily emotional, and they are in the period of self-moving. Coupled with the atmosphere, they will unconsciously fall into the set."
According to Zhou Zhe, a high school student in Guangdong who has many years of star chasing experience, "Where there is a list, there will be fans who play the list and vote." The "achievements" of ranking and voting, raising funds and buying endorsement products are often regarded as the threshold for entering the fan base. If you want to join the fan club, you need to invest more.
In order for her idol to have a good ranking on various lists, Lin Li, a 15-year-old girl from Beijing, spends half an hour to an hour every day to complete tasks such as signing in and voting. Over the years, she has already mastered all operations by heart, ranking and voting actions have almost become conditioned reflexes.
In the fan circle, the "scores" of ranking and voting are linked to the level of "rewards and punishments" within the fan group. Although many platforms have reminders, there is no actual mechanism to restrict minors from ranking and voting.
According to Zhou Zhe, in order to stimulate album sales, entertainment companies usually set up some different promotional plans during the album pre-sale period, such as setting up platform special codes, "special codes can be understood as special gifts, that is, special gifts."
In Zhou Zhe's view, the seller usually adds a random photo card in addition to the original album configuration, and the price of the album increases accordingly. "It can be said that the most valuable in the special code configuration is the small card."
Zhou Zhe's friend, Wang He, a 17-year-old girl from Guangdong, "gave all his money" to support the idol's first album, and finally had to borrow money to eat. It turned out that due to the large number of cooperation platforms of the company to which her idol belongs, and the special coupon cards launched by different platforms are different, Wang He "spent all the lucky money of several thousand yuan" in order to collect all the special coupon cards. After buying the album, Wang He could only borrow money from friends around him to eat, and promised to repay it next month. The
reporter entered a second-hand small card trading group through Zhou Zhe's introduction, and found that the transaction amount of small cards in the group is usually more than 1,000 yuan, but most of the group members are "student fans".
Traffic comes first and misguided
affects youth's value
In the interview, Feng Yuan's mother told the reporter that she was very puzzled at the time, besides lucky money and pocket money, what income did Feng Yuan have to maintain such a "crazy" star chasing?
and the answer broke her.
In order to "make money", Feng Yuan not only "does homework" at school to earn pocket money from her classmates, but even sells her own personal items under the introduction of some netizens. "I found that I can sell my personal clothes online."
In this regard, Chen Jing, a psychological counselor who provides psychological counseling for Feng Yuan, told the reporter that due to the influence of bad star-chasing concepts, Feng Yuan’s views on star-chasing issues are somewhat extreme, projecting herself on idols and beautifying idols excessively. Her idol can only be protected by her, so whoever abuses her idol, she must defend and fight back.
But the result of this is very serious. In school, Feng Yuan often had disputes with her classmates because of star chasing, and no classmates wanted to be friends with her. The teacher had talked with Feng Yuan alone many times, but the effect was not obvious, and she was classified as a "problem girl", and some teachers even called her "the time bomb in the class". In such an environment, Feng Yuan became tired of studying, and often lied that she was not feeling well and did not want to go to school.
“They came into contact with the fan circle when their values were not yet fully formed, and they could gain the sense of gain and satisfaction that they lacked in life through star chasing behavior in this special community, so they became more addicted to the happiness brought by star chasing, and then developed irrational cognition and evaluation of star chasing. .” Chen Jing said.
At the same time, according to the communication with Feng Yuan's parents, Chen Jing found that due to long-term bad star-chasing behavior and wrong communication with her parents, Feng Yuan's adolescent rebellion was brought to the extreme on the issue of star-chasing.
"Feng Yuan feels that the whole family does not support and understand her, and only the fans can find comfort and relaxation." Chen Jing said that the network environment is complicated, and minors are more likely to be affected, lose the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and may choose to believe rumors and act irrationally. The fan base is also mixed with good and bad people. People with a heart take advantage of the mentality of the fans to profit from it. In order to be accepted in the fan circle, minors either actively or forcedly choose to obey the rules of the fan circle.
Regarding this, some people in the industry suggested that it is necessary to continuously improve the rules of network information dissemination and interaction. The relevant departments should focus on the supervision of star brokerage companies, and deal with illegal acts of brokerage companies and fan groups that endanger the network and social public safety and impact mainstream values in a timely manner according to law.
Zheng Ning, director of the Law Department of the School of Cultural Industry Management, Communication University of China, believes that the inevitability and rationality of the existence of fan circles cannot be completely denied. On the one hand, fan circles meet the social needs, respect needs and self-realization needs of fans, and find an outlet for fans to vent their emotions; on the other hand, by joining specific fan circles and participating in the shaping of idols, some fans can form an identity.
"However, in recent years, under the influence of the interests of some capital and platforms, under the wrong guidance of the supremacy of traffic, fandom culture has shown a tendency to deform, constantly challenging the bottom line of law and morality. Some fans blindly pursue traffic, and even falsify data, disrupting the normal order of industry competition, seriously affecting the ecological construction of the entertainment industry, and also having a negative impact on the values of young people." Zheng Ning said.
"Quantitative changes determine qualitative changes. Fans can like celebrities, but there must be a limit and a bottom line. Targeted publicity and education must be carried out to educate and guide fans, especially underage fans, establish correct 'three views', and cultivate a sense of social responsibility and mission.Star chasing cannot be blind, those scientists, heroes and martyrs who have made outstanding contributions to society are the real stars. "In Zheng Ning's view, from the perspective of social psychology, fan culture in the mobile Internet era is accompanied by the disintegration of traditional family structures, alienation of interpersonal relationships, and the psychological needs of longing for companionship in the Internet "group loneliness".
