Our species has communicated with first our bodies then our minds and now we build machines and use the magic of instant communication anytime, anywhere nearly all day every day. People thousands of miles apart can get ready together or make banana bread on two continents while looking at each other in a small vibrant hued screen of fused sand and rare earth metals.  

Ibrahim.ID, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons 

With this accessibility, relationships and connections of all types between people have grown into a digital constant interaction ecosystem and this has changed how we relate to each other as humans. Perceived closeness and bonding over app interactions can be a false sense of intimacy but they also can be a source of creativity, connection and innovation. 

This permeability of internet attachment was ramped up when we all fell into the global COVID19 Pandemic and had to isolate solo, in groups, in regions and in our countries. Suddenly people who we only saw on magazine covers and movie screens were clapping their hands at sunset to applaud the valiant nursing staff or sorting out their closets to donate their old designer clothes. Individuals who had only shared selfies and status updates suddenly could go on live stream and share their entire day with a side of their stream of consciousness as they reacted to the pokes, roses, questions, love and hate expressed by people viewing them live. Not only people they knew in real life but people who just stumbled upon their real life internet sharing.  

Celebrities and famous people also leaned into live streaming as a boredom reliever and a way to connect to their fans and followers. They answered questions typed out quickly with honesty and candor. They cried on screen. They laughed on screen. They told us how many treats their pets are allowed in a day and what craft project their partner is working on in the garage.  

Part of the reason for this was the pandemic quarantine in place orders that many locations enacted. These required everyone except essential workers, who were defined by the governments, to stay at home and only travel if necessary, even to the grocery store. The film industry, live television and publicity events were not essential. Furthermore, Musicians and theater performers were left reeling without an option for safe live gatherings. Pollstar puts the projected live events industry losses from COVID-19 at $30 billion. (Fekadu)  

What Is A Parasocial Relationship? 

“Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships, where one person extends emotional energy, interest and time, and the other party, the persona, is completely unaware of the other’s existence.” (Wisnet-Ad. 2020) The concept was first explained in a study by Horton and Wohl (1956) as a relationship on the part of the television viewer of friendship or intimacy with a remote media “persona”. (as cited in Rubin, Perse, Powell, 1985) This term was coined when televisions became commonplace and the same faces were beamed into millions of people’s homes at the same time every day but before that it occurred with radio announcers speaking softly on global problems as families ate dinner day after day and this put a human spin on the news of our rapidly expanding world.  

“Loneliness was conceptualized … as a discrepancy between the amount of interaction individuals need and the amount that they perceive is fulfilled.” (Rubin, Perse, Powell,1985)  

At first read, parasocial relationships appear negative but the research shows they don’t automatically lead to obsessed fans or stan culture as it is known or people feeling more alone and having less healthy physical relationships. Studies have shown people who engage in parasocial relationships have stronger connections and convictions with their hobbies and interests. They have healthy relationships occurring in real life concurrently as these implied two-way associations online. “PSRs also can enhance feelings of connection and community, facilitate coping, foster personal development and identity exploration, and reduce prejudice (through parasocial contact).” (Bond, 2021) 

Almost any artist in any media can tell you that art is influenced by a vast variety of human experiences and sometimes even shock the artist with inspiration. I believe this parasocial relationship storm we are soaking in right now will lead and has led to new directions in art, media and technology.  

Social media is here to stay whether we would like it or not in the form of Tiktok, Meta/Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat, among countless others of every type but all promising an easier, a more fun, an integrated connection between humans. 

Federico Zandomeneghi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons 

All The Worlds A Stage 

Another bond between people is the dynamic connection in theater of stage and audience. “The relationship between performer and audience is one of dynamic communication.” (Woltmann, 2023) Live theater was the original parasocial relationship because theater offered an escape from reality for the crowd, visually interesting sets with costumes and attractive or distinctive actors actively embodying the words of brilliant writers. It sounds like someone seen on live trying to sell Judy Blue jeans through Tiktok however the stage now is a screen and the audience size or access to rewatch has no limit as long as there is an internet connection. While the tenets behind acting on stage and performing a persona online are similar: “acknowledge the audience, read the room and aim for authenticity” (Woltmann, 2023), the bond is limited by the performance in theater and the internet allows so many other interactions. Everything we present in real life and now online is a part of who we are and identifying our own traits and feelings in others is how community and empathy are built. Actors are limited by the length of the playscript but social media influencers (SMI’s) create their own script.  

Doctor Elizabeth Helman is the program director of Oregon State University and has been teaching acting while also directing multiple productions every year for eighteen years. In a pleasant interview recently, she has this to say about the magic of theater “The theater is you know, in its essence, theater is sharing space and time with another person. And so it has to happen in a real physical space. And it has to happen in real time and you have to have a performer and you have to have a spectator, you know. Apart from that, it’s like, well, sure the script could be generated by AI. Or you have costumes or no costumes, or it could take place in a parking lot. Or it could take place in the theater, but what matters is that human relationship and connection.”  (1)

Are parasocial relationships really about the bonds of human relationships and connection as theater is or are they unmet social needs being met through the online lens? Theater audiences for the most part can only interact as allowed with performers while online followers can choose to view, to share, to comment, to repost or interact by giving gifts or questions during a live or a campaign by a creator. Productions can be recorded of some live shows but nowhere near as easy as screen recording or downloading online content. Fans can then interact with that content on their own schedule and frequency. “Therefore, parasocially active audience members are not passive viewers, but active participants during their viewing processes.” (Levy, 1979).” (as cited in Hu 2016) 

Wilson0204, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons 

Online Communities 

Another aspect of parasocial interactions is the reality that there are multiple fans also involved regardless of said follower base size. Part of the thrill of Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour was the sharing of friendship bracelets between fans and the bond of camaraderie that engenders fans. Some online creators have dedicated communities of fans beneath their posts. People who interact with both the creator and the comment community are effectively doubling their parasocial pipeline. Finding an identity in your chosen mascot is a time-honored tradition in many athletic sports but now SMI’s are also becoming figureheads of movements. Some movements are pushed by the influencer and some develop organically. This is a good thing because it offers a respite of similar minded individuals who are all deeply invested in said creator. When people are able to bond on one subject, this often fosters further bonds and can even reduce prejudice from repeated exposure of differing humans and cultures in a format they already appreciate. “Participants who develop strong parasocial relationships (PSRs) with outgroup characters are afforded the opportunity to vicariously connect with the characters as emotionally substantive others. PSRs may provide audiences with outgroup “friends” needed to alleviate outgroup prejudices, such that (H6) individuals who develop the strongest PSRs with outgroup television characters will report significantly greater decreases in prejudice than individuals who develop weaker PSRs with outgroup television characters.” (Bond, 2021) 

Social media sites started out small and filled with people known to the user in real life. As the adoption of it soared, features were added and the ability to find similar interest users via tags or discovery pages expanded connection possibilities. Having such rapid expansion of social circles also occurred with the development of first communal then shared apartment and finally suburban housing. Each of these periods affected all aspects of culture and society so it is expected parasocial interactions online and online community building will as well.  

Kids and Connection 

Gracie Minnick-Whaley is currently working on her Master of Social Work with an emphasis on children with behavioral disabilities and has studied the implications of hero worship by troubled family teens with media figures which is a parasocial interaction many therapists encounter. She has volunteered her services free for Children of Dependent Parents which handles therapy for families in turmoil for the last 4 years; many of their cases are associated with the Office of Children’s Services while going through legal trauma. When asked how social media affects the kids she works with, she explained “One constant has been the social media use and escape that offers to children who don’t have good role models or who don’t have a family structure that allows them to thrive so they find family structures to be involved in or observe on Youtube, Tiktok, Twitch and online tv or movie streaming. The courts involved in these cases recognize how important online socialization on social media can be to these kids in conflict and have even assigned social media access as part of a case outcome. The negative is sometimes parents or guardians think they can persuade the courts or family services through their public social media presence when the reality is known by therapists. Often lately, the parents are banned from all social media posting until court cases and family dynamics are reestablished in healthy outcomes.” (2)

Parasocial Relationships & Marketing 

Along with this explosion of internet access, social media influencers (SMI) and celebrities have gained marketing cachet simply because of their follower counts and strength of follower analytics. Amplifying the connection is in the best economic interest of the SMI and the brands themselves as consumers purchase products that they identify with and seeing their favorite online “friend” using and advertising a product gives the SMI and the product implied trustworthiness. Aw and Chuah explain in their 2021 study that “The information processing theory contends that emotional connections can effectively augment the processing of advertisement and brand messages (MacInnis & Jaworski,1989). Parasocial relationships that are built upon cumulative information disclosure and in-depth understanding fortify the perceived authenticity while discounting the potential negative information pertaining to the social media influencer, thereby creating a positive bias in the evaluation of endorser motives, which eventually leads to greater purchase intention.” The true power of the creator is in how dedicated they can inspire their fanbase/followers to be. When they have strong fan bases full of people who identify with and wish to emulate them, creators are given financial benefits from their followers in the form of gifts or money, products they sell or are gifted free but expected to advertise and from businesses hiring them to advance their sales. 

Cassie is currently working on her Master of Business Administration in marketing with a focus in online marketing but she started out on her social media journey in the year 2017. She was deep in a Multi Level Marketing company with a struggling social media presence trying to follow their very vague guidelines for selling their product on Instagram and trying to connect online beyond her real-life friends. She was able to build rapport with some influencers and started copying their posting style and schedules while putting in a massive effort to get to know her own followers and their likes/dislikes with constant online presence and mirroring their own interests and views. This continued and developed to the point where people asked her to help post, then to post for them, then to take over their small business pages and eventually companies wanted to pay her to represent their brand online because she was and is able to bond with followers on a variety of social media platforms. When COVID-19 arrived, everything online immediately ratcheted up in importance as a source of livelihood for these influencers and brands. Cassie currently has clients in individuals, organizations, businesses and government social media. The skills she’s developed to be successful online, all narrow down to having a strong bond and perceived closeness between the brand presented and the followers. Live streaming, in-post promotions, follower personalized interactions such as birthday acknowledgement and life event noticing in a constant scheduled barrage of posts have ensured her success.  (3)

Ending Thoughts 

Despite it’s implications for product advertising, PSR’s are a natural extension of the social media and technology improvements we are currently living in. Similarly, artificial intelligence offers us assisted shopping, assisted work related tasks and even faux romantic relationships and we are still in the early stages of mass adoption so these machine assisted parts of our daily lives will continue to increase. PSR’s as a type of human connection is just as important as new AI programs and they will keep expanding in growth and scope. What and who benefits from this new landscape will be determined by the users and companies actively promoting digital human connections and trusted marketing, implied or real. All humans have relationships with other humans, and this is the foundation of our cultures, our technology and our species. Together we must be aware of and reactive to parasocial relationships’ influence, benefits and risks while mining them for creativity, inspiration and social fulfillment. Understanding advertising online is targeted even if it feels like a friendly micro level influencer is also important to keep ourselves protected in the new internet reality. For real or faux we are bound by the digital alliance of our phones and our feelings.  

Works Cited 

Aw, E. C.-X., & Chuah, S. H.-W. (2021). “Stop the unattainable ideal for an ordinary me!” fostering parasocial relationships with social media influencers: The role of self-discrepancy. Journal of Business Research, 132, 146–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.025  

Bond, B. J. (2021). The Development and Influence of Parasocial Relationships With Television Characters: A Longitudinal Experimental Test of Prejudice Reduction Through Parasocial Contact. Communication Research, 48(4), 573–593. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650219900632 

Cynthia A. Hoffner, Bradley J. Bond, Parasocial relationships, social media, & well-being, Current Opinion in Psychology, Volume 45, 2022, 101306, ISSN 2352-250X, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101306. 

Fekadu, M. (2021, April 20). Pollstar: Live Events Industry lost $30B due to pandemic. AP News. https://apnews.com/article/elton-john-celine-dion-coronavirus-pandemic-b63179e05d0768dcd907da5beeccad52 

Hu, M. (2016). The influence of a scandal on parasocial relationship, parasocial interaction, and parasocial breakup. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000068 

Jarzyna, CL. Parasocial Interaction, the COVID-19 Quarantine, and Digital Age Media. Hu Arenas. 2021;4(3):413–29. doi: 10.1007/s42087-020-00156-0. Epub 2020 Nov 7. PMCID: PMC7647887. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7647887/#CR45 

Jesse Pieter van der Harst, Spyros Angelopoulos, Less is more: Engagement with the content of social media influencers, Journal of Business Research, Volume 181, 2024, 114746, ISSN 0148-2963, 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2024.114746.

Rubin, A.M., Perse, E.M., & Powell, R.A. (1985). LONELINESS, PARASOCIAL INTERACTION, AND LOCAL TELEVISION NEWS VIEWING. Human Communication Research, 12, 155-180. 

Sokolova, K., & Kefi, H. (2020). Instagram and YouTube bloggers promote it, why should I buy? How credibility and parasocial interaction influence purchase intentions. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53, 101742-. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2019.01.011 

Wisnet-Ad, & Wisnet-Ad. (2020, February 18). Parasocial Relationships: The Nature of Celebrity Fascinations – Find a Psychologist. https://www.findapsychologist.org/parasocial-relationships-the-nature-of-celebrity-fascinations/ 

Woltmann, S. (2023, November 20). How to use the actor-audience relationship onstage. Backstage. https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/performer-audience-relationship-76151 

(1) Interview with Dr. Elizabeth Helman, May 20, 2024

(2) Interview with Gracie Minnick-Whaley, May 19, 2024

(3) Interview with Cassandra Moore, May 12, 2024