Parasocial Internet Relationships

Parasocial Internet Relationships are a type of relationship that exist between an internet persona and their audience. These relationships are often seen as one-sided as individual audience members can become deeply invested in the internet persona, while the persona rarely engages with any individual audience member on a deep level. The concept of Parasocial Internet Relationships stem from Parasocial Interactions, which was a term created by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in 1956. Horton and Wohl define Parasocial Interactions as the "pseudo-intimate relationship between the audience and media personalities". Over time, repeated Parasocial Interactions can develop into Parasocial Internet Relationships. These relationships can be found on various social media platforms where an individual can present themselves to a group of audience such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, or Twitter. These types of relationships have been proven to be an effective form of social media marketing, as the persona's relationship with their audience enables word-of-mouth opinion sharing on a large scale, with many personas' audience base reaching millions of followers.