Parasocial Relationships: When Familiarity Feels Like Friendship

Have you ever felt a strong connection with someone you’ve never met before?

Perhaps it was a media personality on the news, or a celebrity on social media, or even a fictional character from a TV show, movie, or book?

Sometimes these connections can feel so real that when you finally finish a book or TV show, you actually feel like you’ve lost an important friend or family member in your life. You start thinking, “I can’t believe I’ll never see Jim from The Office again. I’m going to miss him!” as if he were a real person you used to hang out with all the time.

In psychology, these one-way connections are known as parasocial relationships. We develop real feelings of friendship and affection toward fictional characters or people who don’t know we exist.

We become emotionally invested in someone who doesn’t know us personally. We recognize their voice, learn about their lives, and look forward to hearing from them, but that familiarity isn’t the same as a mutual friendship.

Researchers Donald Horton and Richard Wohl introduced the term “parasocial interaction” in 1956. They described how audiences could feel personally connected to media personalities who addressed them through the TV screen or radio. A familiar broadcaster could become part of someone’s daily routine: “It’s 6:30, time to put Walter Cronkite on!”

Today, parasocial relationships can involve celebrities, politicians, social media influencers, podcast hosts, and fictional characters from TV shows, movies, video games, and books.

These connections are easy to develop in today’s world, where familiar faces and voices become part of our daily lives through podcasts, vlogs, and social media. Repeated exposure to someone’s personality and personal stories can make them feel like a close neighbor or friend.

Even a celebrity’s death can feel like a personal loss. Although we never knew them personally, their presence can become a familiar and meaningful part of our lives, especially when their work is tied to our childhood memories or upbringing.

We have a natural need to belong. When that need isn’t easily satisfied in our real-world relationships, we are more likely to lean on these parasocial connections. And when we feel lonely and our instinct is to hunker down, it can be easier to simply turn on a familiar and reliable voice than reach out to someone in our own lives.

One study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships found evidence that people’s parasocial bonds increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. During lockdowns and quarantines, people were naturally motivated to seek their “social fix” through other means.

This search for companionship also extends to the use of AI chatbots. In a 2026 survey from the American Psychological Association, 22% of U.S. adults who had used AI said they regularly or often talked with it as a friend.

With public figures, we can become attached to an image of the person without knowing much about who they really are. We see selected interviews, performances, and social media posts, then fill in the gaps with qualities we admire or want to believe they have.

This is why meeting a hero can be disappointing. The person often falls short of the image we’ve built in our minds. Enjoying someone’s work – and admiring them from a distance – doesn’t necessarily tell us much about their character.

This sense of connection can also be manipulated. Media personalities can address viewers like close friends and share personal details that make audiences feel included in their lives. This performative intimacy can win our attention and trust, which can then be exploited for product promotion, shilling, or outright grifting.

Having parasocial relationships isn’t necessarily bad, but it can become a cause for concern when they start replacing real-world relationships.

In Bowling Alone, Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam documented declining participation in American community life, including bowling leagues and local organizations. He identified television as one major contributor, drawing time and attention away from social interaction. Today, social media influencers and streaming services can reinforce this pattern, filling time that might otherwise be spent participating in community life. While watching our favorite TV character on a screen can provide a sense of companionship, it doesn’t give us the same opportunities to be known, included, and involved in a cohesive community.

Are your parasocial relationships becoming a substitute for real-world interactions?

Here are ideas to get your social muscles moving again:

• Start with 10-second relationships. Make small talk with someone at the bus stop or grocery store, or simply say “Hi” to your neighbors.
• Reach out to old friends and family. A quick phone call, text, or email is a simple way to maintain social connections and see how someone is doing.
• Plan one social activity each week. Meet a friend for coffee, have dinner with family, or invite people over for a movie night or game night.

The more we isolate ourselves, the easier it becomes to stay disconnected from the rest of the world. It can be difficult to reverse that pattern, but small, repeated interactions give us a way back into social life.

Enjoying a favorite show or podcast can be part of your life. Just make sure you’re also making time for people you can know and connect with on a deeper and more personal level.