How are you navigating parasocial relationships?

Content Warning: mention of sexual predation

Parasocial interaction ( PSI ) is a term coined by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in 1956 to refer to a kind of psychological relationship experienced by an audience in their mediated encounters with performers in the mass media, particularly on television.[1] Viewers or listeners come to consider media personalities as friends, despite having limited interactions with them. PSI is described as an illusionary experience, such that media audiences interact with personas (e.g., talk show host, celebrities, fictional characters, social media influencers) as if they are engaged in a reciprocal relationship with them.

Source: Wikipedia

I’ve been seeing a lot of people discussing this in the context of the rise of social media sites and livestreaming like YouTube/Twitch/etc, and wanted to have a place to have a long form discussion about it.

Earlier today, a Pokemon Go YouTuber whose videos I watched every now and again got in an argument with AOC on Twitter (I hate that this is a real sentence), in which he was decrying “socialism” and essentially arguing billionaires’ earnings were acquired fairly & that they deserve that wealth. I disagree greatly with that, but something that has struck me has been watching some of the replies from his viewers coming to his defense over it.

Thinking about this has reminded me of situations like what happened with ProJared

. Or of other celebrityesque figures defending harmful messages and behaviors while claiming that their viewers, their fans, “truly know them.”

With how prominent social media has become, and how easy it is to access & consume people we’re fans of now, I’ve really been trying recently to reflect on how I’m reacting to and thinking of celebrity/famous people. I remember how strongly positive I felt about Obama, for example, and how romanticized his presidency had been for me. But looking back into his record on deportation, drone attacks, and the language he used around other black people like myself, it left such a bitter and deep sense of disappointment that I struggled to navigate up until last year.

How are y’all navigating this? Have you experienced something like this?

I have absolutely noticed this trend around social media famous people and popular streamers. I work with teens who idolize these people, and so it’s scary to think about how much influence they have over them, because they view these figures as their friends. It’s a little shocking to see how militant people get in the name of them, too–and this leads into some of my feelings about modern politics too–but the way viewers feel compelled to defend media personalities as if they were one of their close friends or family members.

The ProJared example is spot on. Just because folks enjoy his videos, they feel it’s their duty to attack his wife on Twitter for perceived slights. It’s scary how the mob mentality can form around these assumed relationships. And when you think about it, it’s not terribly shocking – modern content is designed specifically to build these relationships. YouTubers and Twitch streamers look directly to the camera, creating the illusion of eye contact and a face to face conversation. It feels intimate. It feels like they’re talking directly to us. So we naturally develop a kind of intimacy and connection to them within our own heads that’s a lot more powerful than what we develop with, say, movie stars.

I try to avoid it myself as much as possible. I don’t really consume content by ‘content creators,’ with the exception of Giant Bomb. I feel this phenomenon doesn’t develop as readily with their content because they are usually playing things as a group and talking to one another, so it’s the relationships between the hosts that matter, not those between the host and the audience. Even then, I watch a lot of their content with my boyfriend, and we’ll discuss it after the fact–like “oh, I was reminded of something Vinny said today,” as if Vinny is someone in our social circle. That’s about as far as it goes, though.

On the end of the creator, I can imagine this is a scary development too. They have to play to this persona, and it seems that folks that encourage these relationships seem to do better–people tune into their videos because of course they would want to see what their friend has created, what their friend has to say. But I imagine it can be difficult to maintain that facade and have so many people assuming a level of intimacy with you that they simply don’t have.