With social media, loss of a star hits harder

Fans band together in ‘ perfect storm of grief’

As millions of Whitney Houston fans mourn the loss of the iconic pop star, many feel as though they have lost a family member— despite having never met her.

Social media have magnified that grief by creating a space where people feel even closer to stars who may tweet daily while also providing a medium where fans can instantly and collectively mourn when someone well- known dies.

Sites such as Twitter and Facebook “make us think that we really do know these people,” says Kevin Dutton, a psychology professor at the University of Cambridge.

“The second thing about social media is the social speed of grief. We can get whipped up and caught up in a perfect storm of grief.”

Houston, 48, died Feb. 11 in Beverly Hills on the eve of the Grammy Awards. Within hours, her name was a trending topic on Twitter, and hundreds of people dedicated Facebook statuses to her memory.

Frank Farley, a psychologist at Philadelphia’s Temple University, says people will feel particularly devastated when a person has special qualities that make him or her stand out. “Given our psychological involvement in music, those who stand out will mean a lot to us.”

Celebrities also can become like gods, says Anthea Butler, a religion professor at the University of Pennsylvania. “We have raised Hollywood figures to be larger than life, so when something like this happens, people feel like they are part of their life, even though they don’t know them.”

People also display behaviors similar to religious rituals, says Gary Laderman, a religion professor at Atlanta’s Emory University. Crowds testify about a celebrity’s influence on their lives, hold memorials and gather to mourn publicly.

Meanwhile, the public’s infatuation with music stars such as Houston is also about their problems, Farley says. Fans watch as celebrities battle addictions and substance abuse problems.

“People got invested in ( Houston’s) tribulations,” Farley says.

Butler agrees. “There are so many people who know somebody who has a substance abuse problem,” she says. “It really hit home for some people.”