Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

To Be Not So Lonely: Support And Community Through Twitter Fan Accounts In The Harry Styles Fandom, Abigail Garrett

Honors College Theses

This study aims to examine the ways that fan accounts on social media foster community and fill the void of emotional engagement when the artist is not as active. It also looks at how fans’ parasocial relationships change when the subject of their emotional connection disappears. This study adds to previous research done on fandom, parasocial relationships, and social media. To perform this study, a close content analysis was done, focusing on one specific Harry Styles fan account on Twitter, @hsdaily. Two time periods were defined, one being a time of low activity from Harry Styles and one being high …