This paper characterises the celebrity culture in the Philippines as a symbolic function of parasociality (“illusionary intimacies”) where interpersonal meanings are constructed upon celebrities in the context of consumption and political endorsements. By looking into accounts of focus groups and online social media communities, it qualitatively elaborates such sociocultural and political inclinations of celebrity parasociality that characterise the Philippine political and commercial systems. Through the discourses on how ordinary people, industry actors and celebrities themselves interact to negotiate the celebrity social meanings, the paper concludes that celebrification is an embedded trait of Philippine democracy and consumption ideals. Furthermore, such parasociality is nuanced by the notion of habitus where celebrities mirror spaces of social classification. The study implies that while celebrity culture is an important element in social connection and social identity sustained by traditional and social media use, it is also a component in citizens’ own accounts to issues of public concern, democratic exercise on political election matters, and in the everyday consumption decisions.

中文翻译：

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名人消费和政治文化中的超社会性和习惯

本文将菲律宾的名人文化描述为准社会性（“虚幻的亲密关系”）的象征功能，其中人际意义是在消费和政治认可的背景下构建在名人身上的。通过研究焦点小组和在线社交媒体社区的描述，它定性地阐述了菲律宾政治和商业体系特征的名人准社会性的社会文化和政治倾向。通过对普通人、行业演员和名人自身如何互动以协商名人社会意义的论述，本文得出结论，名人化是菲律宾民主和消费理想的内在特征。此外，这种准社会性受到名人反映社会分类空间的惯习概念的细微差别。该研究表明，虽然名人文化是传统和社交媒体使用所维持的社会联系和社会认同的重要元素，但它也是公民对公众关注的问题、政治选举事务的民主行使以及日常消费决策。