I think the way humans are currently evolving socially is amazing to watch. The internet is a necessity these days, and as such a lot of our interactions are behind a screen instead of face to face. Although I personally feel connections made over the internet can definitely be as deep and meaningful as face to face connections it has undoubtedly altered the way we interact. There is a different sense of responsibility to friendships with how often we need to be available for them, what kind of boundaries relationships have, and so forth.
For this blog though I don’t want to talk about one on one connections like meeting friends through a game or through a fan community. I want to talk about the rise of parasocial relationships. Parasocial relationships are one sided relationships where one person feels a connection, and expends emotional energy to maintain that connection, while the other person is completely unaware of the other’s existence. With the increase of YouTube and Twitch celebrities, or people who become popular on apps like Instagram or Tik Tok, there are more celebrities who feel attainable as friends or romantic interests than ever. With this comes a new culture of parasocial interaction.
Over the last year or so, there has been an trend of what is called ‘Cancel Culture’ online. This is a trend to ignore or lambast someone who has done something the internet community feels is wrong. Right under the surface of “getting justice” is a sense of a friend’s betrayal. Because people feel like they are a part of these celebrities lives they feel like they know everything that’s going on, they feel they are owed an explanation as if someone close to them had hurt them, instead of a distant figure they don’t know.
In a less toxic way, a lot of fans feel that they have close connection to these celebrities, and often worry about their physical and mental health. Fan communities will bond over their shared worry as for a real life friend, sometimes to the point of messaging them repetitively over private message or on live shows with concerned questions and “helpful” advice about their current situations.
Except, they don’t know anything about the celebrities current situation because they aren’t truly a part of the celebrities life. Their energy spent fretting over this person they only have a falsely conceived connection to is wasted and mostly unnoticed. Although I couldn’t say exactly what effect this has on the idea of closeness in the younger members of the human race, it is certainly skewing things in a way that they were not even ten years prior.
That’s not to say the new wave of online socialization is all bad. Truthfully, I would love for there to be more research done on things like parasocial relationships, and online relationships overall. It would be so incredibly interesting to see where things have gone and where they may be headed in terms of humanities social culture.
I found your blog very interesting as you focused on something I didn’t even think of when writing my own blog. I agree with you that it is possible to form a real lasting connection that either starts online and turns into a real world connection or stays completely online but is still a real connection. I also have noticed, typically in fan groups of a celebrity or personality, that fans will think they have some kind of relationship with whoever they idolize when it is completely one sided. This often leads to a lot of aggressive behavior towards anyone who they feel has slighted the celebrity even if the celebrity themselves doesn’t feel slighted. With the internet making these kinds of relationships more possible and more numerous I wonder if they will spill into the real world where there can be very serious consequences.
Hey Courtney!
I think you did a really great job at highlighting the positives and negatives of the influence that social media platforms have on such a large demographic of our community! I think talking about it and weighing out the goods and bads is incredibly important, especially now that kids are growing up among this type of culture where you can be good at TikToc and actually make money. I also think that the way that social media platforms tend to only show the good things in a persons life, and never the times where i person is struggling. This can tend to lead to a kid thinking he is alone in his or her feelings of sadness which would only make the situation worse! Overall though, i think this is a very important topic to talk about! Great job!