The “I don’t support them anymore” crowd might be the most parasocial of all
I’ve noticed a specific type of person who announces they’ve dropped Katseye, swears they’re boycotting, makes think pieces and comments about how the group is over and will be gone in a few years…and then somehow knows every single thing the members did this week. Every Instagram like, every schedule, every interview clip. They have opinions on stylist choices for performances they claim they’re supposed to be boycotting.
And the YouTube thing as well: They’ll sit through a 45-minute video essay titled “What Went Wrong With Katseye” and then a 30-minute follow-up. They’re in the comments of every think piece, every tea channel, every “the truth about” breakdown. They’ve watched more hours of Katseye-adjacent content this month than people who actually stream the songs. If you’re still tuning in for the discourse and the content to find a way to nitpick them and criticize them, you’re not actually boycotting the group. Because at the end of the day, you’re still actively engaging.
That’s not “moving on.” That’s just a new level of parasocialisn. Actual disengagement looks like forgetting they have a comeback coming, not watching their performances, avoiding their interview videos. Not writing a 600-word breakdown of why the latest concept is a misstep within an hour of the teaser dropping.
I think what’s actually happening is the parasocial attachment never went anywhere, it just flipped. Being mad at someone you’ve never met for the direction of their career and scrutinizing every tiny action is not the neutral, detached position people think it is. Anyway not saying you can’t be critical of the group and that there aren’t people who have truly disengaged from the group. From my perspective, it just seems like the people promising to boycott and saying the group will be over soon (the people who are super loud and almost repetitive about how they’re done with the group) are actually the most attached.