Misinformation is anywhere and everywhere. It’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not especially on social media.

I consider myself to be a hopeless romantic. I love a good love story, whether it be in a show, movie or book. But, it’s easy for me to tell the difference between actors and their amazing skills versus the “true love” we see in a performance.

Some people seem to have a hard time with that.

It’s only natural for some people to hold out hope for a potential couple. But it crosses a line when “fans” get obsessive.

They’ll send hate to the desired couple’s real life significant others, they’ll start baseless cheating rumors and make problematic videos designed to make it seem like there’s more to what’s just in front of the camera.

They’ll find the smallest hints of off-camera chemistry and fixate on that. More often than not, there’s nothing to fixate on.

Maybe I’m a little sensitive to this because I have a lot of guy friends that are just exactly that: friends. I get mad when anyone even insinuates that we’d ever be something more because I’ve experienced first-hand what outside commentary about platonic relationships can do to romantic ones.

Not only are fan-favorite “ships” extremely uncomfortable for everyone involved, it completely screws up the on-screen chemistry between actors. They’re real people too. They’re not their characters and were not made for you to pick apart their private lives to fit your fantasies.

For selfish reasons, I’ll admit, nothing makes me more annoyed than watching my favorite characters lose their spark because their actors’ friendship was destroyed. Fans will catch on and blame the actors, when in reality it’s their fault for destroying that chemistry.

One situation that comes to mind is “Outer Banks” stars Rudy Pankow and Madison Bailey, who had a seemingly great friendship. Then, fans took it too far and shipped the two, even though both were in relationships. Now, with rumors of a “feud,” fans blame Rudy Pankow’s girlfriend for ruining the friendship. If there is a “feud,” it was because of the fans getting obsessive and trying to feed into their parasocial fascinations.

Then, there are the celebrities that did date, and then broke up. The shipping should stop there.

Yet, of course, it doesn’t.

I was disappointed when Ian Somerhalder and Nina Dobrev broke up. Eight-year-old me got over it though. Why? Because why would you mourn a relationship of people you don’t even know? Some people still sit and take the time to make edits and videos of the two. It’s been 12 years since they broke up, Nina is engaged, and Ian is married with kids.

It’s incredible how some people still try to start rumors that there’s a marital rift between Ian and his wife Nikki Reed, just because they’re still hooked on a relationship from over a decade ago, that they had nothing to do with.

Fans will go on to even compare previous partners and current partners. Whether it be how they look, or couple interactions, they’ll pick apart every detail worse than a licensed couple counselor and it’s harmful.

Rumors like these can be detrimental to anyone’s relationship. If I were told my significant other would look better with someone else, then I kept hearing about it, and then everyone started comparing us, I think I would go crazy.

Like I also said before, I get irritated when someone comments about me and my guy friends being anything more than friends. Needless to say, I can’t imagine that all on the internet with thousands of people pressuring us. It’d be unbelievably uncomfortable. People would be hurting a friendship just because they want entertainment.

It would obviously cause a lot of harm to any relationship, so why are we treating celebrity relationships like they are something to play with? They’re real people and this can affect them just as much as it would a high school or college student.

If you’re one of those people going out of your way to harass celebrities, please turn off all of your devices and go reintroduce yourself to nature and actual relationships, because spending your free time obsessing over people you don’t know and their relationships is concerning and unhealthy.