The worsening case of parasocial relationships
Celebrity obsession culture, social media, and mainstream journalism mediate parasocial relationships. A nonreciprocated fictional and psychological bond we, as consumers, form with our idols, pop stars, and public figures. While finding communities, role models, and a passion comforts our psyche, when this relationship affects our personal lives, real relationships, and attitude, maybe it is time to step away and rethink this imaginary bond.
The worsening case of parasocial relationships
Coined in the 1950s, by social scientists Donald Horton & R. Richard Wohl, parasocial relationships used to pertain to the viewers of traditional television developing a sense of false face-to-face personal intimacy as they see performers in their little boxes virtually. By design, the current media offers more chances to connect and form a bond with our idols.
Rather than televisions and movies, we have the social media sites Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, paparazzi, and celebrity journalism. Through social media, the unreciprocated factor of parasocial interactions becomes lesser, as celebrities engage with their following at times. And in tandem with celebrity journalism and paparazzi, fans are given a higher sense of false relationship. Through the millions of available often unfiltered photos and data we see of them, conscious or not, establishing parasocial relationships has never been easier.
The case of Twitter’s stan community
Particularly, on Twitter, a steadily growing community of fans, stans, interact with each other, exchange information, and celebrate their idols. For instance, you have the Little Monsters for Lady Gaga, Swifties for Taylor Swift, Barbz for rapper Nicki Minaj, and Army for K-Pop group BTS among the most known and notorious.
In rose-colored glasses, the stan culture flourishes in providing a sense of belongingness through their shared interests and passion, providing an avenue for expression and creativity with fan arts, empowering their idols, and echoing social causes. But at large, when stans’ parasocial tendencies win over their humane instincts they can do the vilest acts an obsession can do online. They threaten, dox, and deface each other’s idols when you speak even the slightest negativity against their own echo chambers, classifiable as borderline-pathological behaviors.
On consequences
Aside from Twitter, TikTok through its more engaging video-based content mediate the formation of parasocial relationships. Celebrities on this platform, more often than not, lets us in on their personal territories to increase their following and connection to their viewers. Through illusion, we get a false sense of friendship or familial bond. Sometimes to a level that we abandon our own life and real-life relationships. The time that we are supposed to spend bettering ourselves, bonding with our family, and gaining new friends goes to doom scrolling through a stranger’s favorite food, where they spent their weekend, or looking up their parents’ name.
In extremity, these parasocial relationships often lead to negative manifestations for mental health without proper management and moderation. In stan Twitter, stans’ emotional investment in their idols leads to bullying, stress, and even burnout. It is worth noting that these spaces for fans to commune slowly turn into bullying grounds, trolling, and bragging avenues for things that they are not directly involved with.
More than that, psychologists note other long-term effects of parasocial relationships which includes the deterioration of self-image, and unrealistic expectations. Constant overexposure to the perfectly curated lives of our idolized figures and celebrities precedes comparison. Eventually turning to depression, self-doubt, and low self-esteem. By extension, we rely on non-existent relationships with our idols to feel accomplishment and happiness. Their awards start to feel like our own, and we feel involved in their lives, relationships, and happiness.
Parasocial relationships are not all bad
Nevertheless, I write this not to thrash your relationship with your idol or quit Twitter. After all, what you associate with yourself and your foregoing actions depend entirely on you. The bottom line is that anything in excess becomes unhealthy in time. Do not treat celebrities as if an all-knowing entity you feel the need to worship and defend every single time. They are not your family or friends, they are there as your role models, your idols, your aspirational figures.
