The nature of parasocial relationships in 2024

In 2013, as part of my psychology degree, I carried out a traditional diary study on the nature of parasocial relationships. Once a term used to describe the relationship between a passive viewer of media and celebrities, my research came at a time when the role of influencers was disrupting that traditional paradigm. As part of my paper I discussed how the broad term had become even more relevant with the rise of social media, with the potential for real interaction making these relationships even more intimate. I also suggested that the term had become even broader, covering a very wide range of social phenomena. Analysing the data I generated, I posited that we have a parasocial association/interaction with every person we meet and that new forms of technology had the potential to create even stronger, almost friendship-like parasocial relationships. 

It was a fascinating topic to research and - while I never did get the paper published or continue in the field of psychology - I’ve been exploring the topic in my own way ever since. As a creature who began consuming content online back before youtube was even created, it’s a topic that has always intrigued me and it only becomes more interesting with every passing year. 

As I look back on 2023, I sense that there is a strange shift on the horizon for parasocial relationships. Much has, quite rightly, been said about the skewed power dynamics present between fan and celebrity and the danger this can pose to fans. A relationship built in such circumstances makes it particularly prone to imbalances or even abuse, especially if the fan is young. 

However, in my humble opinion, the traditional paradigm of audience and influencer is slowly breaking down as more individuals begin to build a strong online presence. In the early years of the internet, creating ‘content’ or publicising your life for all to see was a niche endeavour. For most, there was a wariness around building an online persona, with most concerned with how this might look to employers or peers. Thus, internet ‘life’ and real life remained largely separate, distinct in people’s minds. 

All of this has been culturally shifting with every year social media thrives. Regardless of the popular platform of the time, over time being present and active on public social media is becoming either more accepted or socially expected depending on your demographic. While older generations may still find using tech to communicate their lives to strangers alien, for younger generations they don’t bat an eye when asked to share their social media accounts. Their online presence is no longer an extension but an integrated part of their self.

I have always fallen somewhere in the middle, creating accounts primarily to follow others rather than to join the dialogue myself. I am a stereotypical lurker - just an indiscriminate individual lumped under someone’s follower count. 

Yet, as I begin to shift into a vocally online person, the nature of my interactions have begun to change and suddenly my parasocial relationships have become very different. Those individuals with reams of followers - once seen as untouchable or far off - have suddenly become far less distant.

It strikes me now that ‘parasocial relationships’ is such a broad term, it fails to capture the richness of such interactions. Take, for example, two vocally online individuals who follow one another but never speak. By viewing eachother’s content, over time they might both build strong mental pictures of the other and feelings of affection/respect without technically being friends. They are like strong acquaintances without ever exchanging a single word. And if - when - they do, many hours of introductions and socialising become unnecessary, with the parasocial relationship carrying over into reality. You could even go as far as to call them ‘peers’ if they spend time in the same circles, equals even if their audiences differ in size. 

How will this change socialising as this trend continues to grow? And how does will it effect the dynamics of our relationships? That remains to be seen. It has the potential to totally change the way we interact and communicate as human beings in ways that are revolutionary and quite quite terrifying. 

Keeping on the topic of influencers, already the nature of their interactions with fans has become a lot more complex in and of itself. Gone are the days when followers were largely passive, we’re now in an era where each vocally online person might have entire fandoms dedicated to them. Fandoms that are so vocal in and of themselves that broad swathes of people might be creating media and conversation around that particular person, inspired by their work. In fact, some fandoms even have a ‘character’ or social values that lead others to use it as a social signifier. Thus, fandoms themselves become entities with personality and, en masse, create recipocity. This is a phenomena Hank and John Green, known as the Vlogbrothers, termed a ‘sarapocial’ relationship to fill in the lexical gap. They themselves have experienced this phenomena with their own fanbase, Nerdfighteria, who perpetuate a number of social justice projects. 

On another topic, one thing that I rarely ever see discussed is how complicated building an authentic mental version of a ‘celebrity’ or influencer is these days. As human beings, we like to assume that most things we read - especially from trusted sources - are correct. However, it is actually disturbingly easy for misinformation to travel, painting an inaccurate picture of a person. This was already a problem - with traditional smear campaigns and Kompromat capable of destroying reputations in minutes when combined with social media. However, scarily it is only getting worse with the astronomically quick development of AI. As computer generated text and imagery becomes more realistic, so too does the threat of it being used for malevolent purposes.

If an image or video of an AI-generated individual can be generated at the click of a button, how can we tell if we are building a parasocial relationship based on an accurate representation of a person? It’s a terrifying thought that - if dwelled on - could easily send a person mad. This is especially so as we see the speed of AI development skyrocket with no mitigations or regulations designed to protect from the negative repercussions forthcoming. We can only hope that some form of technology, such as blockchain verification, will arise to help ensure the source of images and videos can be traced to mitigate this issue. 

In conclusion, as we enter 2024, it’s vitally important that we begin to reconsider our social and cultural approach to parasocial relationships. As they become more complex, there’s a need for our society to evolve alongside it. Exactly how we might do that - especially with regards to misinformation - remains to be seen. However, from a social point of view, every person can help craft new social rules around the grey area between social and parasocial relationships as the concrete divide between the two diminishes.