A new avenue to reach out for the stars: The association of celebrity worship with problematic and nonproblematic social media use.

Social media has opened an avenue for reciprocal interactions between celebrities and their fans, encouraging individuals with a tendency to become obsessed with celebrities to extend their online social network with celebrity friends. Celebrity worship has been associated with weak social skills and addictive behaviors (e.g., problematic Internet use, compulsive buying) in previous studies. This study investigated how interpersonal skills and addictive tendencies may affect the social media use of individuals fascinated by celebrities. A total of 368 Hungarian adolescents and adults (78.0% male; Mage = 24.6 years, SD = 7.5) completed an online questionnaire focusing on attitudes toward celebrities. A hierarchical linear regression analysis was performed, indicating that problematic but not heavy or extensive use is predictive of celebrity worship. Furthermore, friending on social media was not associated with celebrity worship. These findings extend previous research on the association between celebrity worship and addictive behaviors and provide further empirical evidence that problematic use is qualitatively different from overuse. Results also highlight the importance of identifying risky behaviors (e.g., social media use to alleviate negative feelings) to prevent highly engaged individuals from developing an excessive admiration toward their favorite media figure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) Public Policy Relevance Statement—The results of this study demonstrate that problematic social media use is not the same as heavy use. Furthermore, these finding point out the importance of identifying risky behaviors (i.e., addictive social media use) to prevent individuals with a high level of celebrity worship from developing an excessive admiration toward their favorite celebrity.