In 2001, Maltby found a negative correlation between celebrity worship and mental well-being (i.e., the greater the celebrity worship, the worse mental health tended to be). This study revealed that poor mental health was associated with celebrity worship and the Entertainment-Social subscale “uniquely contributes” to social dysfunction and depressive symptoms while the intense-personal subscale was related to both depression and anxiety. While celebrity worship gained prominence in a technology-driven culture of innovation and social media popularity, the recent upsurge in Social Media Influencers (SMIs) is a relatively new state of social evolution. The goal of the current research is to replicate and extend Maltby’s prior research with celebrities in 2001 to explore the effects of admiration with SMIs and address new issues – absorption, extreme attitudes, problematic social media use (PSMU), global changes in the culture of social media, and implications for mental wellness.
