This article explores one-sided, obsessive relationships, such as celebrity worship. I discuss different examples of parasocial relationships and explore their potential benefits and dangers.
Oftentimes people find themselves being drained by relationships, especially when they are parasocial. Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships that consist of one party essentially feeding on the other. While parasites drain a physical life force, parasocial relationships exhaust an organism less tangibly. However, people also experience this draining relationship phenomenon with people they have never met. This makes parasocial relationships particularly peculiar for psychological development. It can also make them alarmingly unhealthy.
Healthy relationships consist of a balance as people give and take. Sometimes one party requires more energy, such as when it comes to a difficult personal period. However, healthy and well-adjusted people circle back around to offer the same support, comfort, and open-mindedness when their friends need them. Parasitic friends, on the other hand, are only ever available to drain elements such as one’s time, emotional energy, and finances. Although it’s likely easy to recognize which people in your life feel like more of a burden than a friend, some people overlook how their one-sided relationships with people they don’t even know can equally influence their lives.
Parasocial relationships can also exist between people and celebrities, as well as organizations. People can become singularly fixated on people, groups, or objects that do not or even cannot return their focus, attention, and affection. For example, some people become obsessed with certain celebrities. Other people become preoccupied with sports teams. People begin to wrap their emotions around the success of such celebrities or teams. Individuals can feel elevated when their teams win and crushed when hardships befall the subject of their intense focus.
Are parasocial relationships healthy? From an outside perspective, it’s hard to see what one-sided relationships can offer people. On a surface level, a very mild parasocial relationship doesn’t seem alarming. People often admire a figure or feel allegiance to a group. As long as an individual is still able to retain their own thoughts and don’t become overly influenced by the object of their fascination, parasocial relationships don’t have to be harmful. Looking up to someone can even be inspirational and motivational. However, there are obsessive and draining aspects of parasocial relationships that rarely make them so benign.
One aspect of parasocial relationships that is particularly worrisome is the obsessive component. Some people admire a celebrity’s work, while others follow stars on social media, and some even hang posters. However, social media has given an alarmingly easy-to-access platform to obsessive fans. Rather than just admire a celebrity, tens of thousands of young adults are making fan accounts. They devote their time to making edits, hunting the web for information about celebrities, and putting together compilation videos. These youth become fixated on hero-worship and base their emotions on the life of someone whom they have likely never met outside of a potential chance encounter. Though this fanaticism can end in youth and be deemed harmless, it can become particularly dangerous and troublesome when it carries on into adult life.
The other worrisome aspect of parasocial relationships is how much influence the celebrity or group exerts over the person who is preoccupied with them. Many young people worship celebrities. While this simply used to be considered an innocent crush, social media has empowered fans to form “armies.” Enormously popular celebrities such as Justin Bieber amassed armies of fans who would send death threats, dox, and harass people whom Justin interacted with. Women linked to social media figures are bombarded with death threats for simply appearing in a rehearsed ten-second video. This kind of obsessive behavior is neither healthy for the individual nor for the person they are obsessed with or their peers.
On a very base level, parasocial relationships can help ease the burden of loneliness. Many people have turned to fiction and films to escape the isolation of the pandemic. Some became preoccupied with individuals and groups. However, becoming fixated on someone or something can quickly become unhealthy. People shouldn’t be basing their feelings or attitudes on the success of a celebrity or team. Being a fan of someone also shouldn’t mean that you blindly follow their recommendations or purchase their merchandise. When one begins to sacrifice their individuality and personal opinions to mirror that of someone else, things can get truly troublesome.
Are you basing your identity on someone or something else? Would you buy a product just because Taylor Swift told you to? Will you be in a terrible mood if your sports team loses tonight? Will you be heartbroken if a celebrity couple breaks up? To many people, these questions are absurd. However, statistics show just how much influence celebrities and organizations have. Be mindful that the most significant relationships in your life aren’t one-sided. You should be receiving as much as you give in order to not be drained by your preoccupations. What are your parasocial relationships offering you?