Comment by gentooflux
4 hours ago
There's meet-ups and conferences and events, being a fan of a streamer or influencer is really just the new version of being a fan of a rockstar (for better and for worse). There's no real humanity exuding from an Amazon Echo, you're just a blip in a context window.
Streamers have this feature called "chat", which feeds into the illusion. With rockstars, interactions are more limited, which is a sort of reality check.
Rockstar interactions with young female fans are not as limited as you say. Regardless, celebrity worship is far from a new societal problem. Confiding with the toaster as though it grew up with you sure is.