Reminder that social media = work for actors. It’s written into some contracts that actors must have a social media presence, and often follower counts = who gets the job.

While they may not always handle it well, setting boundaries around their social media is important 1/

Their socials are part of their resumes. And not everyone - not the people with the hiring power nor the actors themselves - understand stan culture. When stans spam Twitter, comments, Instagram lives, etc, it doesn’t always read as “oh wow they are loved!” 2/

Sometimes it looks and feels like they’re being trolled and bullied, because no one outside the stan army got the “wouldn’t it be fun if we all said this same thing at this actor at the same time?” memo 3/

The spamming, the “let me use your comment section as my own personal therapy session”, the inappropriate requests: they can be harmful to the actor’s mental health AND to their public perception. 4/

And often, they HAVE to put up with more and engage with things they’re uncomfortable with because it’s part of their contract. It’s part of the “press junket” they have to partake in now.

They’re not your buds. They’re customer service workers putting up with customers 5/

Sometimes your presence in their comments is helpful (“wow, this actor gets a lot of engagement!”) and sometimes it’s harmful (“is their fan base going to harm this project with their problematic interactions?”) so they HAVE to either set a boundary or leave a platform 6/

So, each of us has to decide if we’re the “thank god they came in today - I needed a friendly face” customer, or the “oh god, the creep who always makes inappropriate comments about my boobs” customer 7/

Not every actor gets to deactivate when they’re overwhelmed or upset or being harassed. They have to set a boundary and stay in it, for better or for worse. Let’s make it better for the ones we like, eh? /end