Your favorite YouTubers are not your friends

Ever since it became possible to become "internet famous," content creators and influencers have done their best to set clear boundaries between themselves and their fans. Fame isn't easy for anyone, and internet "stars" are much closer to being real ordinary people than more traditional celebrities are.

Meaning, many popular content creators still manage all their own social media accounts, answer comments, ultimately decide what to and not to post, and so on. Which means the barrier between them and their fans is extremely thin -- if there is one at all.

We've written about parasocial relationships on Vlogger Beat before in the context of content creation, and it's a reflection of a larger problem with fandom in general. Many fans do not fundamentally understand that a content creator or influencer is providing entertainment or information for an audience, essentially their customers. There should be a clear dividing line between customer and service provider, but there often isn't.

And this isn't the fault of one side or the other, either. Content creators often feel that the closer their bond with their fans, the more loyal those fans will remain in the future. But this can create the illusion that fans are friends when this, in most cases, should not be the case.

If you are a fan of a content creator, and they are seemingly being friendly to you, it's most likely not because they consider you a friend. In their eyes, as much as it can feel hurtful, you are just a fan. They are treating you kindly first and foremost because that is part of their job.

To be clear, there are many content creators who genuinely value their fans and see them as real people rather than numbers on an analytics page. But there should still be boundaries put in place to keep everyone, creators and audience members included, as safe as possible.