Parasocial

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. A relational dynamic in which an individual creates a deep emotional attachment to a public figure or character while the figure remains unaware of this connection
2. A phenomenon where an observer develops a one-sided emotional bond with a media personality or fictional character who does not reciprocate the feelings
3. An interactive experience in which a viewer feels a personal connection to a celebrity or character, despite the latter's lack of awareness of the relationship

Etymology: Few terms in modern media studies were built on purpose by two people in a single paper. In 1956, the American sociologist Richard Wohl and the anthropologist and communication researcher Donald Horton published "Mass Communication and Para-social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance" in the journal Psychiatry, and the phrase came out of that article. Their point was that television viewers could form relationships that felt like face-to-face friendships, even though the performer on screen never knew they existed. The word is simply "para-" joined to "social." "Para-" comes from Greek, where it meant "beside" or "alongside," and it is the same prefix found in "parallel." So the sense is something like "alongside the social," a bond that looks like social interaction but runs only one way. Horton and Wohl's coinage was a deliberate technical label rather than a word that grew up in everyday speech.