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Phones are the most effective communication device in terms of the access they allow fans to idols and the easy materialization of idols’ virtual self in fans' immediate environment. Companies are exploiting this accessibility in a number of ways, including the creation of real time communication applications that also deliver seemingly personalized messages to fans when they are not connected at the same time as their idol. The content shared in these privatized meeting spaces strengthens the attachment to idols, as it allows fans to learn more about the artist's day-to-day life, but also relieves a sense of distance that builds up when systematically confronted with the idol's intangible yet embodied presence. Thanks to the content shared through the screen, it is possible for fans to live their daily lives along with the idol and to appreciate the domestic aspect of such exchanges.
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The rise of social networking services (SNS) or social media platforms maximizes the idols’ capacity to connect with audiences around the world, and this access is constantly increased by fans via the reproduction of their virtual body as tangible evidence of the idol's existence. Fans first disseminate these tokens of presence within the more traditional platforms like Twitter, which is the most effective medium to communicate KPOP-related news. Then they go to Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube, which are better at reaching a large number of international fans. The idol will also be materialized through the large variety of other communication platforms used by fans to connect to their (other) loved ones, allowing the idol to inhabit the public sphere as easily as the private one. Over the years, fans have learned to deeply understand the algorithm of most, if not all, communicational platforms they use; they apply linguistic, algorithmic and visual strategies, which adds up to a significant amount of emotional labor, in order to ensure the visibility of the idol's image and to make sure they are not forgotten—although they can in fact never be forgotten, for they occupy a large amount of storage on the devices used by fans to interact with the idol’s virtual self.
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