Associations are easier to form than they are to break and Selena Gomez is no exception. The singer and actress has struggled to separate her image from Justin Bieber ever since they broke up.

It seems every move she makes is speculated upon, including rumors that her projected move-in with boyfriend Samuel Krost will supposedly spark jealousy from Bieber. And the news of the move-in comes after Gomez threatened to delete her Instagram when commenters assumed a recent video of her singing was about her break-up. A new Madame Tussauds wax statue of Bieber also immediately drew attention for preserving his tattoo of Gomez.

Humans are creatures of habit and our brains associate things like places, memories and even people after seeing them together for a long time. And what separates couples like Bieber-Gomez from celebrity pairs of the past is that modern technology now makes a relationship immortal and ever-present. And if millennials don’t change their approach, this view can seriously affect the careers and lives of those celebrities.

“People have cognitive schema or frames of reference for pretty much everything, including celebrities like Selena Gomez,” said Carol Liebler, a communications professor in Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, in an email. “So any brand identity change for Gomez will need to counteract the ubiquitous images that are already out there so that people don’t immediately make the cognitive leap from her to him.”

Raised in the Internet age, millennials have been blasted with more pictures of celebrities than all previous generations combined. And now, in addition to the typical print tabloids, there are also websites devoted to Hollywood news and Instagram, where celebrities can personally clue you into their lives.

What’s more is that the connectivity of the Internet has allowed celebrity-specific fanbases to flourish. Although no one could think of a better relationship name than “Jelena,” fan accounts still freak out at the slightest inclination that Bieber-Gomez still think of each other or are looking to get back together. After all, the coupling came right as Gomez was winding down her time with the Disney Channel and Bieber was taking off like a rocket.

Millennials have so many tools with which to indulge celebrity relationships that they perpetuate tendencies that ensure millennials go even further than previous generations — whereas past fans may have felt personally about the end of Hollywood relationships, young people today began to invest themselves on a cerebral level.

It becomes even more difficult for young people to distinguish the celebrities’ identities afterward, especially if they are not given associations with new love interests. So while Justin has been publicly linked with a number of women, including Ariana Grande and Hailey Baldwin, the only other widely-discussed relationship Gomez has had is with EDM artist Zedd.

Unfortunately for Gomez, many DJs aren’t as visible as other pop artists, and Zedd especially is not particularly sociable or outgoing in public appearances. Yes, Gomez’s main collaboration with Zedd, “I Want You to Know,” made it to No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and arguably Zedd’s best record released under his own name, but even that did not capture the popularity of Zedd’s previous singles, “Clarity” and “Stay the Night.”

And the very fact that Gomez has to take comparisons like this into consideration speaks to the worst parts of Hollywood culture in that many expectations of Gomez are relative to her gender.

“To put it crudely, our culture ‘expects’ female child stars to follow a certain narrative, a key part of which is growing up, dating, and falling in love with a male celebrity,” said David Schmid, an English professor who studies pop culture at the State University of New York of Buffalo, in an email. “This is the perfect demonstration of that combination of ordinariness and exceptionality that defines the contemporary celebrity.”

The first thought people often have of when they think of Gomez is her relationship with Justin Bieber, despite her commercial success as a solo artist. A bit of this is on her — as she’s yet to really craft a singular identity or greatly improve her live performances — but most of it lies on the generational tendencies of her audience. And just because Gomez has not lived her personal and artistic life in a manner like Bieber since the conclusion of their relationship is not an excuse to limit her as an artist, celebrity and person.

Millennials love to indulge in the past. Anything they can do to keep fond memories, especially of pop culture, alive, they will do. And while it’s fun to look at couplings, whether they’re romantic or more platonic like a band, at a certain point, those ties need to end for the sake of those artists so that their professional work can move forward without being held back by the past.

Mark DiBona is a senior television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at mdibona@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @NoPartyNoDisco.

Published on March 8, 2016 at 11:21 pm