If someone had a cardboard cutout of a piece of amazing new tech, that they were pretending was the real thing, would you think "ooh, nice supercomputer" (or whatever), or would you think "that's a bit insane"?
I think convincing yourself a picture of a fridge full of food is as good as an actual fridge full of food is objectively a mental problem - and that this is somewhat an analogue of that.
Is it? I don't think it is. Disregarding crazed celebrity stalkers (which, to be clear, do exist but they are outliers), no one is going to be gifted a 60-second video/audio clip from their favorite celebrity, and actually believe that the celebrity knows who they are. It's a cute gift from a loved one (parent/sibling/partner/close-friend) who is observant enough to know you like a particular celebrity.
To use your analogy, this is a 10-cm tall miniature model Cray X-MP supercomputer that has blinking LEDs thats powered by 2 AA batteries and sits on your desk that a parent/sibling/partner/close-friend got for you because it's your favorite supercomputer. It's a bit nerdy to have as a desk ornament and some may judge you unfairly on, but if I went off on a rant about how that's a stupid model, it probably can't do any math, and that you're insane for having it... that rant would reflect more poorly on me than on the owner of the model.
(If you know somebody that has that level of problems with a picture of a fridge, please get them help.)
>if I went off on a rant about how that's a stupid model, it probably can't do any math, and that you're insane for having it... that rant would reflect more poorly on me than on the owner of the model. //
Touché :)
But, presumably you're not going "hey have you seen my supercomputer" and showing people a picture of your blinken-light toy on social media?
The relationship people assume to have with celebrities, actors in particular, seems different to that they share with mementos/trinkets. At no point does the person think the Cray is the real thing, but people do seem to think - at some level - they know an actor because they've seen the character the actor helps to construct on screen.
Everyone (adult) knows a person paid for the video with the Happy Birthday greeting, but still at some level there's social credit, which suggests we choose to accept the lie.
I like your analogy, and will reflect on it some more (thanks!), but at the moment it still feels like there are fundamental differences between these situations (and that's where the interest lies).
