Celebrity deaths can feel Personal: It’s okay to feel sad when someone dies you never met

When an outstanding legend Matthew Perry suddenly died on 28
October 2023, in a tragic incident in his own residency, a cloud of grief
settled over many of us.

The passing of a famous person has the power to evoke profound
sorrow, even for individuals who never had a personal connection with
them but admired them from a distance.

However, in the case of Perry, this feeling of sadness was particularly intense.

Is Celebrity seem Invincible?

“Icons have a special significance — it’s symbolic of something that’s
larger than life. To be hit with the reality that they are fragile and
mortal is a blow to our cultural myths about celebrity.

In our imagination, they’re invincible” written by Gayle Stever in his book
“The Psychology of Celebrity”.

We create imagined relationships with celebrities

People often form emotional connections with celebrities, even though
they have never personally interacted with them. When loyal fans of
someone like Perry experience grief upon their idol’s passing, it may
be attributed to a psychological concept called a “Parasocial
Relationship”. This term refers to a one-sided, artificial connection with
a public figure or persona whom one doesn’t genuinely know.

This phenomenon is similar to the emotional attachment we feel towards
fictional characters, as we might mourn the loss of a beloved TV show
or book character. People develop meaningful relationships with
famous people they have never met. That person’s death can be
traumatic.

Society has rituals for grieving family members and friends but not for
parasocial deaths. People might just laugh at someone, but their loss
is real.
The loss is greater if the death was unexpected, and perhaps if the
person was relatively young. The reactions vary so much, depending
on the relationship of the person to the famous figure. If they identified
with them a lot, the loss is more difficult. If they barely followed the
person, it’s no big deal.

Even though we cognitively know this is not really a relationship, it still
feels like we’re close to that person, social media plays a crucial role
in nurturing these parasocial relationships.

Consider the numerous instances when individuals engage with a celebrity’s social media
content, some of which may provide glimpses into their personal lives.
It’s real that people feel grief when someone dies that they never met
or know personally and it is completely okay.

“Somebody’s real upset that their favourite soap opera character was
killed off yesterday, and they tell someone about that, and they laugh.
It’s a very different reaction than if their close ones had died.”

– Oshin Shrestha