Social Media and Self-Disclosure: How Parasocial Relationships Became the New Normal
The internet has changed the way we socialize with family and friends, and has greatly changed the way we publicly portray ourselves. In the past 15-20 years, social media has become an integral part of our society, and has created an environment in which we are increasingly revealing more and more about ourselves. What conditions changed for us to have the willingness to have so much intimacy with our online viewers? What websites , media, and cultural shifts played part in that development? What does this mean for our future?
MYSPACE
The first social media website to really take the world by storm was Myspace. Unlike Friendster, the previous go-to for online social connections, you could have a public profile that anyone could see. It was not limited to only people you’ve added as friends. This allowed for people to showcase their creative expression to a large audience like never before! It was a space where many musicians, future influencers, beauty gurus, and content creators got their start. Suddenly, it seemed like anyone could be famous. Teenagers flocked to the site and began to emulate larger people on the platform. This created a culture of widespread phenomenon known more recently as mediated voyeurism. Clay Calvert, the scholar who coined this term, describes it as:
“…the consumption of revealing images of and information about others’ apparently real and unguarded lives, often yet not always for purposes of entertainment but frequently at the expense of privacy and discourse, through the means of mass media and Internet.”
Calvert (2000)
Why was Myspace a catalyst for this “mediated voyeurism”? People were finally able to express themselves with custom HTML code, music players, videos, and embedded multimedia in an open digital exchange space. This highly accessible and popular (it was, at one point, visited more than even Google)
controlled environment of expression of individuality was not commonplace prior to this website’s existence (except with another little website called Xanga, although it, unlike Myspace, it didn’t catch on and later had to convert to a modern blogging platform in order to sustain itself.) With the framework for self expression arising, and online subcultures, musicians, and Vloggers becoming ever-more ubiquitous, the grounds for this mass mediated voyeurism was set.
CELEBRITY CULTURE
Modern celebrity culture also played a part in this development. Tabloids and media outlets like TMZ gained popularity with their relentless coverage of the personal lives of celebrities. Public figures such as Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears, and Kanye West, all became spectacles and money-generating subjects for mass media. Paparazzi followed their every move, and soon social media played an important part in exponentially raising the exposure of celebrities to a global audience. This contributed to young impressionable people wanting to emulate that paradigm in their own way, and it influenced the sociological imagination of a new generation growing up alongside the development of social media platforms.
YOUTUBE
YouTube, another emerging giant in this new era of the internet, created a website where people can share short-format videos of themselves doing anything, whether that be sketch comedy, Vlogging about their daily lives, or anything permissible within the terms of service. This further influenced people to become more comfortable with letting their guard down in online spaces. YouTubers like Jenna Marbles, Fred (ugh), Smosh; these people all launched careers from jumping in on the early days of YouTube.
Influencers
One influencer, Markiplier, who started off streaming video games, has now become a full-fledged internet celebrity. When he hit 20-million subscribers, he released a (tasteful) calendar of nude photos. This idea of giving intimate portrayals of your personality (or, in this case, body) and daily life to a mass audience has become the standard. Markiplier is generally seen as a wholesome guy, but there are some YouTubers that have created a lot of controversy due to their insane, irresponsible antics and influence on young audiences.
Parasocial Relationships
What is a parasocial relationship? In short, it can be defined as “An ongoing, one-sided bond with a media figure” (Vinney) Youtube is perfect for this; Videos allow people to talk to a mass audience as if they really know them in real life!
According to some researchers, “YouTube is a social media site conducive to the development of parasocial relationships, which consists in asymmetrical relationships between media users and media performers.” This has been observed to cause people social anxiety over time. (Bérail, Pierre & Guillon)
THE PAUL BROTHERS
Jake Paul and Logan Paul… I won’t even dignify them with giving their backstory. Two very stupid YouTubers that have made a fortune manipulating young viewers into buying into their brands with parasocial relationship building. This is the most concerning kind of influencer, because they (I’m grouping them together because they are almost the same) have caused controversy for things like filming a dead body in Japan and posting it to YouTube, or uploading themselves doing a wide variety of stupid things I won’t get into. Because online culture has made these kinds of people seem cool to younger impressionable people, and because of the manner in which they interact with their audiences (“It’s every day, bro!”), all of this has obviously lead to many concerns from parents and older people.
It used to be frowned upon to disclose information about yourself; it is now almost encouraged or expected in the design of websites and apps like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, you name it. The barrier that once existed due to privacy concerns has seemed to erode over the years; younger people are more comfortable about sharing more about themselves; TikTok has become a new staple in youth culture and has allowed gen z to experience their own wave of an emerging short-format social video platform. So many people have imaginary relationships with idiots on YouTube. There are good things that have come out of social media. Creativity and expression are almost always good things. But sometimes we should focus more on real life, and protect our young people from turning into a Jake or Logan Paul.
Works cited
Bérail, Pierre & Guillon, Marlène & Bungener, Catherine. (2019). The relations between YouTube addiction, social anxiety and parasocial relationships with YouTubers: A moderated-mediation model based on a cognitive-behavioral framework. Computers in Human Behavior. 99. 10.1016/j.chb.2019.05.007.
Calvert, C. 2000. Voyeur nation: Media, privacy, and peering in modern culture. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. [Google Scholar]
Miller, D., Costa, E., Haynes, N., McDonald, T., Nicolescu, R., Sinanan, J., . . . Wang, X. (2016). Online and offline relationships. In How the World Changed Social Media (pp. 100-113). London: UCL Press. Retrieved November 5, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69z35.14
Miller, D., Costa, E., Haynes, N., McDonald, T., Nicolescu, R., Sinanan, J., . . . Wang, X. (2016). Online and offline relationships. In How the World Changed Social Media (pp. 100-113). London: UCL Press. Retrieved November 5, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1g69z35.14
Vinney, C. (n.d.). Parasocial Relationships: The Psychology of One-Sided Intimacy With Celebrities. Retrieved November 6, 2020, from https://www.thoughtco.com/parasocial-relationships-4174479
Andrea has a great point about the influencers and that knowing more about them (Paul Brothers) would have driven home the darker side of parasocial relationships. It could’ve even been it’s own blog post.
Very good post though; highly informative.
I like that you don’t begin your blog by defining parasocial relationships (PR), but by sharing the social media history that lead to the PR phenomenon. Like Andrea, I would like to know what makes a person a social media influencer to better understand how they contribute to PR.
I really like your post!! There is so much history about social media which I was not aware of. I have heard about the myspace but I didn’t know that it was such a hype. I really like how you have categorized everything (influencers, Paul brother and etc) it helps me to keep on reading. I agree with Andrea, knowing more about Paul brothers, might helps youngster for new generations
Wow! There was a lot of social media history packed in this article that isn’t everyday knowledge. Of course, we have all heard of MySpace, but some of the other smaller social media outlets, I’d never heard of. You mention Influencers. I would have really enjoyed learning what made these individuals “Influencers,” even though you aren’t fans of the Paul Brothers, the information would have been appreciated in order to relay this information to the youth of today.
There was so much information packed in this blog, you really could have developed it into two blogs. I like how you wrapped up the article with a nod toward the “good” that has come from social media, and some examples of that notion would have really solidified this.
Great and informative article! Loved it!
-Posting again, as this was not showing in my total posts for some odd reason.
This is a super interesting topic. I feel like the relevance of this post is on a perpetual rise. I also appreciate the walkthrough of social media history. You did a great job crystalizing where it has been and where it is today. I wasn’t familiar with the term “Parasocial Relationship” prior to your piece, but it is certainly one to keep in mind. I feel like this type of relationship has existed before social media, but there is absolutely no denying that social media has exacerbated this whole notion.
I appreciate how strong of a stance you take. There is no questioning your position. I’d like to hear more about how to combat the parasocial relationships from the perspective of the “influencer” or art creators. Particularly, I’m thinking of Vihart, one of my favorite youtubers who normally does math videos; in one video, she opens up about how another youtuber was murdered by a deranged individual, obviously obsessed with the parasocial relationship. She used her platform to discuss the fact that the audience didn’t actually know the individuals making youtube videos, in an attempt to draw a boundary. I wonder how successful it was or what could be successful to younger audiences that have been indoctrinated with the lack of boundaries.
Your blog is very interesting. I honestly forgot who the Paul brothers were and had to look them up… They are the worst things about social media. It feels like people always go to new extreme to stick out or create a presence on social media. The narcissistic nature, lack of caring about real consequences and the exploitations on social media is always fascinating. It feels like some people think they are invisible and nothing bad will happen to them.
I never knew there was a term for this addiction, so to speak, to celebrities or social figures. You ask the same question throughout your blog, “what would cause people to lower their guard to reveal personal information about themselves online”, and I believe that is the root of the existence of social media. Why are we so obsessed with sharing this information to other people, people we probably don’t even know? Is it a form of this parasocial relationship, and constantly needing to usurp passed it? What do we get out of social media use? Like you state above, we get anxiety, at least I do. Social media in itself is addicting. I wonder how those feelings relate to the high amount of anxiety our youth experiences these day?
This was a great post! I definitely agree that the internet has changed how we socialize with our friends and family. Social media has truly played a major role in how things are different in today’s society. It is crazy how much things have changed because of the internet.
This is interesting. I have never heard of parasocial behavior before. I definitely think this is fitting for social media and how we tend to communicate online. I think YouTube and pretty much all of social media can be stress inducing if consumed on a daily basis. It makes it extremely difficult to detach yourself from it when your mind and body is accustom to that emotional pull influencers like Jake and Logan Paul create.
I truly and thoroughly enjoyed this post! I completely agree that we should focus more on real life, considering how attached to the media the younger generations are. It’s crazy how far we have come in history, that we now put our lives on social platforms for the public eye to see. I was taught to never tell people where I am (or when I’m home alone, especially), and there are so many people regularly updating Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook of their locations and who they’re with. I’ve seen “home alone, bored…” messages on social media from 14-year-olds, which is pretty concerning. Like I said, it’s crazy how far we’ve come in internet history.