Stitch incoming from a University of Alabama social media professor. I am a social media professor at the University of Alabama, at least for like another week at this point. And I can tell you that my students have told me absolutely horror stories of how people obsessed with Bama Rush take this too far. In media, parasocial relationships are the idea that you believe you are closer to somebody than you actually are. This emerged out of television studies in the 1950s, which essentially people developed really intense attachments to fictional characters. But as celebrity culture has increased over the last 30 years and then really intensified with social media, we have come to develop parasocial relationships with strangers online, including the young girls of Bama Rush Tok. Several years ago, I had a young woman tell me that she was doxxed as a result of Bama Rush, that her parents' home phone number in another state outside of Alabama got leaked, and that individuals were calling her parents' house demanding to know what her preference was for the rush process. And like we haven't even gotten into the idea of Bama Rush tourism, which is absolutely a thing. Like no official organizations or anything like that, but the number of people who are obsessed with these girls that actually come down here to Tuscaloosa during rush season to try to have a front row seat to the action is actually pretty disturbing. And these are people who have no connection to the University of Alabama, no connection to these young women, and they're just here to try to watch like you would as the paparazzi or a crowd around, you know, a celebrity as they leave their apartment or a restaurant or something. And it's weird. I'm sorry, but it's very weird. And I get a lot of people have enjoyment out of Bama Rush because for some, it's an experience they would never have on their own, so it's fun to watch or others were in Greek life long ago and it's really nostalgic. And that's cool and like that's normal and fine. That's not what I'm talking about. But the intense emotional attachment people develop with these strangers who are minors, because in Alabama the age of adulthood is 19, is creepy. And I don't want to hear, oh they put themselves on the internet, they signed up for it. Stop that. So much of social media has gone off the rails because people don't know how to act correctly on this internet, or with people they encounter on this internet. And yes, I have seen these Bama Rush tourists myself. I have seen them in the wild. I have overheard them at restaurants and bars near me. I know this is a thing that happens. And if you're like, oh well can't possibly that be that many, maybe it's a dozen or a couple dozen, that's still too many. Anyway, go watch the whole video that I linked. Her stitches were off, which is why I couldn't stitch her, but I've tagged her down below. You should absolutely go watch it. Parasocial relationships have gone really too far on social media and as somebody who has been in the immediate periphery of Bama Rush Tok for the last few years, I am concerned for my students, I am concerned for their well-being, I am concerned for their mental health because of all of this. This is why long-time followers of my page know I will never ever get into a discussion about specific girls and Rush Tok content because I view that as completely unethical. I'm just here to talk about the phenomenon as a tenured professor of social media who just so happened to be at the university where this went viral. So there's nothing wrong with enjoying Bama Rush content, but please check yourself and make sure you're not acting the fool when it comes to intensely following very, very young women who are still basically children.
