Parasocial Relationships

Up until this week, I had never really thought about parasocial relationships.  Sometimes we get so invested in our television series that we’re currently religiously watching, it doesn’t even occur to us how obsessed we actually are.  Why was it that I was so mad when Britt lied to Chris about liking Arlington on “The Bachelor”?  Or what made me feel so personally offended when Robert Pattinson got cheated on by Kristen Stewart?  When these things happened to these celebrities, I felt like I HAD to take a side, like these people were my friends or people I personally knew, and I felt real emotions for them.  I feel like parasocial relationships invade our lives more than we like to realize, or even admit it.

Although these types of relationships seem crazy when we just sit and think about them, to me, they make a lot of sense.  I remember being in sixth grade with my best friend Lexi, and we were absolutely obsessed with Ashton Kutcher.  I had a thumb ring and necklace that said “I <3 AK” and a tee shirt that read the same.  However, the article "Adolescent Females’ Idolization of Male Media Stars as a Transition Into Sexuality" relates how young adolescent girls relate the nonfeminine idols they see in media to who they want to potentially have as a boyfriend.  This makes a lot of sense to me because growing up, I didn’t really see a lot of people just instantly into relationships.  I feel like people had a tendency to have celebrity crushes first as a “gateway” way to get warmed up to relationships in real life.  Many times, this is a way for preteens and teens to ease their way into expressing the types of people they are attracted to, and many of us can relate.