Will the real one please stand up

Celebrities have a social media presence, sometimes unexpectedly as Alysa Liu found out as her following online increased by millions after winning gold at the 2026 Olympics.

Like many people I follow some celebrities online. I pride myself – as if it matters – that I follow people some celebrates I feel have good values.

For instance I follow an actress so many of us grew up with, Emma Watson, a former goodwill ambassador for the United Nations.

More recently I follow on Facebook a young actress Jenna Ortega, who left the Scream franchise in support of a co-star who was not welcomed back due to support of Palestinian rights.

Jenna Ortega’s co-star in the trending Netflix show, Wednesday, is a fellow young actress, Emma Myers.

What happens when you not only follow, but dare to comment on, a Facebook post by actors, actress, and such?

Almost immediately I received a friend request on Facebook by some account claiming to be Emma Myers, and then another one claiming to be Emma’s mom. Within twenty-four hours I had a about four accounts with names like, or similar to Emma Myers, and two requests from her mom. When I accepted the request from an account that looked like Emma’s mom accounts I quickly got over the next day several messages saying things like “hi,” “how are you,” and “why aren’t you answering me”.

By the looks of it, these clearly aren’t Emma’s accounts, or her mom’s accounts on Facebook. Most of these accounts have joined Facebook in the last week, and have about five or so friends, non of which are in the movie industry or people that the real Emma Myers might actually know.

Does it matter? No.

Is it funny and kind of sad? Yes. … What’s real and what’s fake on social media, and what we actually need from it is rather sad, funny, interesting, and important.

Social media is good for some things. It’s even good for following celebrities. Doing so is both real and unreal.