For as long as there have been celebrities, people have formed intense attachments to them and their lives. However, as the internet and stan culture has evolved (a “stan” being defined as “an overzealous or obsessive fan of a particular celebrity”), it becomes easier to follow public figures throughout every step of their day. This kind of close attachment can lead people to believe that they know celebrities on a personal level, even though all they truly know about them is their most basic projected public image. This unique personal emotional attachment (defined as “parasocial”, where only one of the parties experiences the connection and the other party is unable to reciprocate) may be dangerous due to its potential of taking priority over regular relationships, or people going to extreme lengths to be noticed or have their feelings reciprocated. Parasocial relationships are becoming ever more prevalent with live streaming platforms such as YouTube Live and Twitch, which allow for real-time interactions between a streamer and their viewers for hours at a time. It is imperative to question the effects content creators have on the lives of fans who are completely enamored by their online persona. For the purposes of this article, the primary focus of parasocial relationships will be on ones formed between content creators and their viewers on live streaming services, however the scope of parasocial relationships is much wider than those with streamers, such as ones with politicians or sports stars.
Livestreams are essentially brewing grounds for parasocial relationships. Streamers host, entertain, listen, and respond to their audience. Furthermore, streams are not solo performances. On live streaming platforms, viewers can interact with streamers in real time. Any message you send in the chat is visible to the streamer, and anyone else watching. Every stream is host to thousands of interactions between the streamer and the chat, and between the chatters themselves. Perhaps it is because they invite viewers into their homes through their cameras that live-streaming feels more personal than any other entertainment, but being a streamer on Twitch can blur the line between viewer and friend. The inclination towards parasocial relationships is magnified due to the way the live streaming platforms are built. Making a living as a full-time streamer necessitates spending around eight hours each day in front of their camera with their audience, which involves conversing with fans and creating the illusion of a relationship with them.
Despite the dangers of parasocial relationships, the communities which spring up around streamers, who often cater to a niche such as streaming a specific game or a hobby, are authentic. People are able to make genuine friends they talk to daily in streamers communities and share inside jokes between each other which are exclusive to the community. It is in this way that streaming creates a double-edged sword between the relationship with the streamer but also the relationships with other viewers, as genuine relationships between viewers center almost wholly around the streamer, who is unable to reciprocate.
Parasocial relationships in the context of live streaming services is relatively uncharted territory. As a society, we simply have not dealt with this level of engagement before; your TV just doesn’t talk back to you. Pre-internet, direct, interaction with one’s favourite celebrity was rare. Often, the only interaction fans had with celebrities was meeting very briefly in person, such as in meet-and-greets. However, now that many platforms have live streaming capabilities, fans can interact with celebrities real-time for hours at once. Through the hours and hours of content that creators put out, viewers are treated to an illusion of proximity, whereas from the creators’ perspectives, the audience and fans are just thousands of faceless chatters on a screen.
Furthermore, friendliness and relatability attract viewers, as well as paid subscribers and donations. On live streaming services, a natural reward system is created. One is able to donate money to highlight one’s message or have it appear on screen, which feeds into this system which is detrimental to both the streamer and the viewer; the streamer cannot explain that that reward system is based on a relationship that isn’t two-sided in fear of losing financial stability from donations, and the viewer remains unaware. A single creator can draw hundreds of thousands of people per stream, each of whom can contribute to the chat where messages are flying by, creating an environment where it can be a competition to see who can say the funniest or edgiest things to catch attention from the streamer or other viewers. This hyper-engaged content machine is lacking in sincerity due to the one-sided nature of the relationships that viewers have with streamers. Parasocial relationships are not fulfilling in the same way real, healthy relationships are. If one is replacing real relationships, friends, or a need for connection with imagined connections with live streamers, people become vulnerable to putting in unhealthy amounts of money, time, and trust into a stranger. Fans may go to extremes, such as typing death threats or confessions of love to gain the attention of their favourite streamers, and stress from rumors of feuds with other celebrities is taken on as real stress in a fan’s life. In one case, a fan of Twitch streamer Ellohime flew from Singapore and walked 25 miles to his house in an attempt to become his roommate.
What makes people take part in these inherently one-sided relationships? Wanting to feel connected to someone they see on a screen is very natural. Streamers can joke around on stream and this, in a way, can make people feel like they are the streamer’s friend, because viewers can interact similarly to the way that real friends do by playing into jokes that are exclusive to their streamer’s community. If one can separate the stream from the streamer and purely enjoy the provided content for its entertainment, then there is no issue. However, this is more difficult than it seems. For streamers, capitalizing off your viewers’ connection to you through donations is the only true way to make money, and most susceptible to these parasocial relationships are children, who may be ignorant to the way the system works.
Some may argue that streaming platforms should be the ones to bring more attention to this issue or even fix it due to the encouragement of parasocial relationships and the way they are built. Others might say that it is the responsibility of the streamers to make the viewers aware of this phenomenon. The very nature of online streaming means that the boundary between performer and friend will always be a tempting one to cross, and that will not change. However, it all truly boils down to the same thing; for all on these platforms to be cognizant of the existence of parasocial relationships in this new age.
