The parasocial friends you'll never meet - by Kasra
The term “parasocial” refers to a one-sided relationship between a person and someone they don't know, such as a celebrity, fictional character, or social media influencer. In these relationships, one person develops feelings of closeness with the other person, even though they have never met. The second person, or persona, is unaware of the first person's existence. Do you know me? What would “knowing me” even mean? I have a strong attachment to the notion of “honesty”, the feeling that I’m portraying myself and my life accurately. I pay close attention to the choices other writers make in the things they share, the life details they romanticize. So when someone says “I was having a strawberry in McCarren Park earlier today and reflecting on stillness,” I wonder about all the other moments in their life that are not so pretty and palatable. To be a “lifestyle influencer” is implicitly to say that your style of life is something other people ought to be aware of and maybe even emulate.
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