Read the passage below and check your comprehension by answering the following questions. Then “submit” your work.
Do you ever imagine yourself in the arms of that romance novel hero? Do you feel a strong connection to your NFL team’s quarterback? Can you not wait for the next weekly episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians? Did you grieve when your favorite television drama “killed off” the character you had come to love? Perhaps you check a bodybuilder’s Instagram feed a few times a week because you feel like you know her and want to catch up on what is going on in her life. Or maybe you seriously identify with your online gaming avatar and feel intimately aligned with others.
Parasocial interactions (PSIs), such as those described above, are one-sided relationships in which individuals extend emotional energy, interest, and time with celebrities or other media images who are completely unaware of their existence (Giles, 2002). Once thought of as simply an explanation for forming one-sided attachments with media figures (and perhaps even psychologically detrimental), PSIs are now thought to aid media consumers in their construction and presentation of their own mediated selves—and even as a way to construct their interaction with others in digital contexts (Chen, 2016; Shin, 2016).
Media users involved in PSIs feel they are actually in a relationship and respond as though they are. They feel loyal and attracted to the character; they are comforted by the “companionship” therein; and they often feel aided in their own lives by learning from the characters’ perceived similar situations and behaviors (Bui, 2015). As our online communication continues to increase, parasocial relationships may become even more prevalent (Fox & Warber, 2013).