Accurate.

The word “parasocial” is another dead internet term, it's been buried with “narcissist”, “woke”, “intersectional”, “emotional labor”, “neurodivergent”, “mansplain”, and a thousand more.

(edit: i keep adding new terms, might need to make another list.)

In sociology parasocial refers specifically to media users interacting with a performer or influencer in a position of power through celebrity. The power structure is critical to the disproportionate expectations that make parasocial relationships so harmful.

Internet friendships are absolutely different from in person, when someone can disappear from your life at a moment's notice that has an impact too. But it isn't a parasocial dynamic without the power structure.

♤