I don’t know about you, but one of the first things that I do when I log onto any social media is check the accounts that I follow closely to see if they were updated. For me, Twitter and Instagram are my go-to apps because celebrities and other high profile people tend to update them personally, as opposed to their Facebook page that is likely run by a member of their team. The good thing about social media now is that it is easy to see which accounts are real and which ones are fans posing as the celebrity; you just need to look for the blue verification tick. However, that doesn’t stop people from trying to impersonate others who are easily misled.

I think that we are the ones who created the original online trolls -- or people who pretend to be someone that they are not. Remember when our close friends would go onto our Facebook account when we forgot to log out and would jokingly posted silly statuses, pretending to be us? The statuses were mostly mindless and ridiculous statements like “OMG MY BEST FRIEND IS SO MUCH COOLER THAN ME,” but it undeniably created a culture where people now think that it’s acceptable to impersonate others as long as it’s meant as a joke.

The problem is that today, it’s seldom a laughing matter. Although celebrity accounts are verified to prevent impersonation, there are still “fan accounts” or role-playing accounts that keep up the façade long after the game is over. One of the things that I find most troubling is that there’s a thin line for role-playing. It starts to become creepy when people are no longer role-playing fictional characters, but instead are creating fake scenarios for real people. These celebrities have real lives that we’re not a part of and we should respect that there are boundaries that should not be crossed. The idea of someone “role-playing” my life or the life of a loved one as if our lives are somehow not a part of the real world and in a different reality is both disturbing and concerning.

When people take on the persona of someone that they don’t know, they’re distorting whom that other person truly is and projecting a false image of him or her. It’s extremely easy to take it too far as well, especially if the one being impersonated reacts negatively to a fan who is acting knowledgeable of his or her life. Then, there is cause for concern about whether the fan will retaliate out of anger. There are numerous fan accounts that post hateful, threatening or even suicidal messages under the pretext that the celebrity “deserved it,” but truly hope that they will receive five minutes of attention. These actions undoubtedly lead to a detrimental sequence of events. Not only is it extremely troubling that anyone would joke or mock something so serious, but it’s alarming that people wouldn’t consider the friends and family of the one being impersonated. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine how you would feel if you saw a trend online about someone that you love with the preceding word being “RIP.”

Our actions always affect more people than we realize and when we act carelessly for attention or for a fleeting laugh, we are compromising more than just ourselves. Next time we choose to laugh or roll our eyes at someone who was impersonated by a friend or a complete stranger on social media, we should think about how that psychologically affects that person, as well as his or her loved ones.