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Social media have blurred the boundaries between fans and celebrities – with disturbing results | Hannah Ewens

If entitled fans treat famous people as fodder for their Instagram feeds, they risk losing a connection to them altogether, says editor and writer Hannah Ewens

Gomez has rarely complained about her fans, mostly urging them to maintain kindness and respect, which is the typical line from celebrities lest they bite the hand that feeds them. What’s amusing, as anyone who works in the music industry knows, is that they are only saying what many artists have always felt: that fans are a necessary evil (their paycheck), and that they can be a scary and unsettling force, which must be treated delicately. Not so long ago, this would have been received as a sob story from a rich and famous musician, and anything but Gomez’s cheerful participation in a photo was condemned as selfish.

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