Meaning of parasocial | Babel Free

Definitions

One-sided (especially of a relationship, as for example that between a celebrity and their audience or fans, whom they do not know).

not-comparable

Examples

“a parasocial relationship”

“Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl coined the term parasocial interaction in 1956 to describe the imaginary interactions between the audience and TV variety show hosts, noting the “seeming face-to-face relationship” that viewers developed […]”

“In the past, parasocial relationships occurred predominantly with television or film celebrities, but now these […] celebrities openly share their opinions and activities through various social media outlets such as Twitter and Facebook.”

“And yet for every creator for whom parasocial relationships are an unintended byproduct of their work, there are many more – influencers, YouTubers, vloggers – who actively cultivate that faux-intimacy with their followers, softening them up so that they might more easily ply their wares, be that waist trainers or make-up brushes.”

“With the advent of AI chatbots, the ethics of parasocial relationships just keep getting murkier. Introducing: CarynAI, a voice-based chatbot that was trained to mimic a human influencer to become your artificial girlfriend.”

CEFR level