Are parasocial relationships healthy or unhealthy?
Truth be told, they can be both.
A parasocial relationship is a type of relationship where people engage in a one-sided relationship that is often based on fanaticism or admiration. This usually happens with fans towards celebrities.
In a sense, parasocial relationships can be healthy, depending on the person involved. There’s nothing wrong with looking up to a celebrity if you treat them as a role model.
On the other hand, such one-sided relationships can be unhealthy if taken to extremes. Such is the case with simps and stans, people who heavily engage in a borderline obsessive parasocial relationship with their idols.
Parasocial relationships are often formed between a celebrity or influencer and their fans. These fans adore the celebrity either for their beauty or talent.
However, there comes a time when such relationships between celebrity and fan become more than just admiration. They often turn obsessive when fans imagine themselves being in a pseudo-relationship with the celebrity.
In these cases, fans become “white knights,” taking upon themselves the responsibility of protecting their idol from criticism or any form of negativity.
These fans become infatuated with their idol’s beauty that they often go to extremes for them. From there, a parasocial relationship is formed.
Being a huge fan of a celebrity/influencer isn’t bad. Looking up to someone can lead to optimism. And when the celebrity you’re following is a good role model, following in their footsteps is healthy.
In a way, this is similar to the way you look up to your parents. You use them as a motivation and inspiration to do better in life.
Parasocial relationships are healthy when they:
Many celebrities and influencers are branded to be role models, hence the term “influencers,” since in a way, they influence their fans to follow their lead. Though some are stigmatized as nuisances, some truly influence people for the greater good of society.
Influencers who focus on positive mental health wellness, models who focus on social justice, and celebrities who fight for climate change bring a positive example for people to follow in their lead. As such, people feel connected to them by following.
Social media personalities and live streamers are known to interact with their subscribers and fans. They create a community by sharing the same interest in their videos, making them more relatable.
Mukbangs, for example, are a genre of videos where content creators film themselves eating. Originally, mukbang videos were meant to engage the audience by allowing viewers to eat together with them. The Koreans started this trend because many feel lonely eating alone, so they find their favorite content creator’s mukbang videos and eat along with them.
Twitch live streamers similarly engage with their viewers and subscribers by playing their favorite games. Others do random things like cooking or taking their audience around town. Viewers claim that watching these streamers eases their feeling of loneliness because they feel like a friend to the content creators.
Parasocial relationships are neither right nor wrong. They just are. But like other things in life, too much of it becomes a bad thing.
People develop a pathological problem where too much consumption of a person’s media becomes a part of their personality, or feel entitled to defend their honor, even when the person behind the screen doesn’t know they exist.
In short, they become fanatical and obsessive.
Whenever there’s a celebrity, there will always be a horde of fans who know too much about them. These are hardcore fans who take fawning to extremes. They become so obsessed with their celebrity idol that they do everything to know every detail about them.
For example, Taylor Swift and BTS are two of the world’s biggest music sensations, both with a massive fan base. Their fan base has been stereotyped as one of the worst people you’ll ever meet.
Why?
Because of how invested they are in their fanaticism, they become abusive defenders of those who criticize their idols. Even if the celebrity does something controversial, they will continue to defend their honor, regardless of whether what they did was right or wrong.
Worse, unhealthy parasocial relationships go beyond just celebrities and their fans; they exist in dating, too. An example is a person subscribing to someone’s OnlyFans. They can be downright obsessive, that they’d be willing to spend large amounts of cash just to be noticed.
One type of obsessive fan are the stans. They’re a mixture of a stalker and a fan.
A typical fan of a celebrity will respect their privacy, grateful for whatever interaction they get from them. But a fan who’s also a stalker can be a threat to the celebrity’s personal life.
The word stan is derived from the Eminem song with the same name, “Stan.” The song talks about a superfan who wrote Em letters. When Eminem failed to respond to his letters, he resorted to extreme measures.
Stans will go out of their way to find out what their idols are up to. Some of them would go to great lengths to find out about the celebrity’s lore and background, to the point they’d know their family and friends.
Before the term was popularized in 2020, they were known as the White Knights. They will defend, donate, and submit to beautiful women online. In 2020, they’ve become known as simps.
Simps are the type of people, especially men, who fawn over a female celebrity or females in general.
Unlike Stans, Simps will only respect women’s boundaries because they hope to gain a positive impression–not knowing that what they’re doing is the bare minimum of being a decent person.
Simps are found everywhere. From Twitch to Instagram, and even OnlyFans; they are severely attracted to the beauty and charm of these female content creators or celebrities, and they’ll do everything in their power to gain their favor.
Their mindset is that if they do good, they will be rewarded with something lewd. All that they do is for their selfish, sexual desires.
Did you know that people who engage in unhealthy parasocial relationships are not only people who are huge fans of celebrities, but also people on online dating sites? These people will obsess over potential matches, even sending them unsolicited pictures of their private parts.
They are known to lovebomb you and place you in a position where you will feel obliged to reciprocate their feelings. Even if you choose to ignore them, they will find a way to gain attention.
That’s why people are avoiding dating apps and sites like Craigslist Personals or Craigslist Mexico, because there are too many simps and stalkers waiting for you to interact with them.
Mexican Love Mates is the better alternative. There’s no room for parasocial relationships here, only genuine connections that lead to meaningful relationships. You’ll meet people who are honest, willing, and looking for the same things you are: long-term relationships and marriage.
Stick to the real thing, join Mexican Love Mates.
Friend or Faux: Are Parasocial Relationships Healthy?
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/parasocial-relationships
What Is a Parasocial Relationship? | By: Cynthia Vinney, PhD
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-parasocial-relationship-5210770
Parasocial relationships, social media, & well-being | By: Cynthia A. Hoffner
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2352250X22000082
