The Science of Parasocial Relationships – Why the Manipulation, Stalking, and Addiction to Streamers
# The Power of Parasocial Relationships in Content Creation
## A New Perspective on Viewer-Creator Interactions
Subscribers of this channel know that this is not my typical style of video; in fact, I’ve never done a video like this on my channel before. Most of the time, I’m a fun-loving, chill vibes kind of guy who plays games that make you want to rip your hair out more than anything else.
My fans came to my channel and found a friend that played games that they liked, lured in by a silver-tongued devil and a healthy amount of clickbait. But this isn’t a video on the morality or ethicality of clickbait, that’s a topic for a completely different day. Today the focus is on what happens after you get here, because it has been overlooked until just recently, and its power is still very much unknown to most.
And to be honest, this power scares me, to the bone. It’s the reason why I share little about myself to you, it’s the reason why you interact with a duck and not a human, and it’s the reason why I don’t use a camera in any of my recordings. In the world of clicks, likes, and instant feedback gratification systems, a devil lives and freely breathes with such ferocity, it would be bad form not to speak of it with eloquence, and with a cadence of speech that evokes excitation in the upper echelons, glamorized in perpetuity within the annals of time past, and yet its existence within our future selves is still unknown.
On Twitch, on YouTube, on Twitter, and on all platforms in between, a devil walks the halls, and in its claws, it holds the keys to our hopes, dreams, emotions, and most importantly, our finances. Today, my lovely viewer, we look into the dark side of content creation in the hopes that a guiding light and promise of hope may emerge. Today, I plead my case for parasocial relationships, their existence, necessity, and eventually a promise for a better tomorrow. It is only by open discussion that this fiend may lose strength, so, without further ado, let’s perform a deep dive into parasocial relationships: the lifeblood of content creators.
## Understanding Parasocial Relationships
So let’s start basic, what is a parasocial relationship? It’s not some new thing, however, academic papers have been writing about the phenomenon since the mid-1950’s (Horton & Wohl, 1956), which I imagine coincides pretty closely with the explosion of visual-feeds plastering all of those beautiful, hot, and hunky Hollywood acting folks on television sets across the globe. Whatever the reason for the interest back then, the definition for parasocial relationships is « described as illusionary face-to-face interactions that lack mutuality between media users and media characters » (Breves et al., 2021).
This would have been directed more towards music stars of the time – people like Elvis Presley and The Beatles, as well as prominent television and movie stars. The first that comes to mind for me is the person who sings Somewhere Over the Rainbow in – oh, uh, no not that one. Judy Garland, the lead actress in The Wizard of Oz. These illusionary and imagined interactions with our favourite characters has led to some pretty crazy experiences, like the notable trend of #CrockPotIsInnocent that spawned from a 2018 episode release of This Is Us when, by the way spoilers incoming, Jack Pearson died from a crock pot lighting the house on fire, which then caused the stock to drop 24% in two days (Foss, 2020), despite no real-life evidence of the kitchen appliance being any sort of fire hazard.
## The Dark Side of Parasocial Relationships
The intro to this video highlighted the dangers of parasocial relationships: exorbitant gifts to strangers, undying love, and in general, obsession. These are the things that make headlines, so it should be obvious that a sizeable percentage of the top research papers on this subject are related to the exploitation of PSRs. For example, an entire study was devoted to Kim Kardashian’s parasocial communication over Facebook, finding that 44.6% of her posts were product endorsements, and nearly a third were posts about her family and friends, likely used to influence the parasocial bond she was fostering (Lueck, 2015).
The same study also found that the posts that were the most intimate had the highest number of responses, suggesting that there was a strong parasocial component to these posts (Lueck, 2015). This highlights one of those dangers of parasocial relationships I already mentioned: monetary exploitation and gain. Some companies have already begun to shield themselves from this criticism, but still actively exploit and/or encourage parasocial relationships.
## Conclusion
In conclusion, parasocial relationships have become a powerful force in the world of content creation. As viewers, it’s important to be aware of the potential dangers and exploitation that can arise from these relationships. By understanding the dynamics at play and being mindful of our interactions with creators, we can work towards fostering healthier and more genuine connections in the digital space. Thank you for joining me on this exploration of parasocial relationships, and may we continue to navigate this complex landscape with empathy and awareness.
source