Recent years have seen a number of publications that focus on parasocial theory. Indeed, parasocial was one of the finalists for Oxford’s “word of the year” in 2023. [Editor’s note: Parasocial was selected by Cambridge Dictionary in 2025, after this article was submitted.] Most notable among recent publications are the Oxford Encyclopedia of Parasocial Experiences edited by R. Tukachinsky Forster in 2023, and the current (in press) Para-social Media: A New Era of Parasocial Interaction and Media Evolution (Lexington Books) edited by Lauren Auverset, Philip Auter, and Phillip Madison. Late in 2024, David Giles and I offered Parasocial Experiences (Oxford University Press). Requests for interviews on the subject from various media have also been on the rise with recent requests as varied as The Atlantic to El Pais (in Spain) to London Times Radio coming my way.

A number of discussions within this area are worth bringing forward for more consideration. Among these is the idea that the relationship between social and parasocial be reframed as a continuum rather than a dichotomy, a concept that seems more and more appropriate as social media (in particular) becomes increasingly interactive. In my own work, the definition of parasocial became more challenging as my students and I studied Twitter and did some analysis (Stever & Hughes, 2013; Stever & Lawson, 2013) of celebrity Tweeting behavior. In very recent interviews with research participants, one disclosed that she and her favorite celebrity (one of international fame and not an influencer or microcelebrity) had exchanged as many as 100 messages on Twitter. Currently, as was true in 2013, celebrities are talking to their fans on social media.

Additionally, the rise of Cameo (Stever, 2024) has had the result of making social media that much more interactive as now the parasocial interaction can be specifically addressed to a single or small group of audience members. Additionally, the end of the worst of the pandemic saw a return to a growing number of in-person conventions and other celebrity focused events (e.g., concerts, charity events, etc.) where fans could meet and interact with favorites.

But it is the ever increasing number of influencers on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram that has enhanced not only the interest in parasocial experiences, but a recognition of the power of these experiences on personal mental health, buying behavior, gaming, and other aspects of everyday life.

Recently emerging research on the presence of virtual influencers and parasocial relationships (PSRs) with AI Chatbots and the like has introduced yet another nuance to the parasocial realm (Akhtar & Nagvanshi, 2025; Stein et al., 2024; Zhong & Luo, 2025). Does the object of our parasocial interest have to be a real person or can it be a simulated entity posing as a social partner? In a conversation with one of my students, he pointed out that there is nothing new about our affection for nonhuman personae, citing fans’ love for C3PO and R2D2 in the Star Wars universe. The line between reality and imagination has always been blurry when talking about PSRs, but the blurriness becomes even more pronounced when a person’s new best friend is an AI entity.

So, where do we go from here? What should be the focus of research in parasocial theory, going forward? Several topics seem critical. For example, there has not been nearly enough research done on negative PSRs, e.g. relationships we form with mediated personalities we don’t like (Click & Forster, 2025). In our current political climate in the United States, the passionate dislike of one side for the other is one that is clearly fed by mediated depictions and reports. How do PSRs with those public figures shape the direction of our political life as a nation?

What about “cancel culture,” or the tendency to try to erase the work of those who offend for some reason? Do we allow our feelings about a public personality to influence the ways we consume their work? Witness the debacle of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter fandom and their response to her anti-transgender postings on social media (Morrow, 2025). Should our parasocial perception of a celebrity change our views on the work they have done?

The research into the influence of AI on all manner of discourse is another critical area that needs a good deal more investigation. For example, there is a growing literature on AI entities as virtual therapists (Rehman & Sajjad, 2025). Are those actually PSRs, and whether or not that is the case, what are the resulting implications for the future of mental health counseling?

I have already written in this forum about the future of platforms like Cameo where the interactions between fans and their favorite celebrities become increasingly transactional. But is this really anything new? Isn’t social interaction often transactional, as when we pay to interact with counselors, therapists, and even our professors? Can we place a monetary value on such exchanges? Should we? Are they less valuable socially if we’ve paid for them?

I look forward to seeing and hearing about the future directions of research in parasocial theory and also all aspects of audience studies. Clearly, there is much left to learn in an ever changing media world.

References:

Akhtar, M. J., & Nagvanshi, S. (2025). Parasocial interaction and virtual influencers: Building connections in a digital 2orld. In R. Correia (Ed.) Redefining the Future of Digital Marketing With Virtual Influencers (pp. 151-180). IGI Global Scientific Publishing.

Click, M. A. & Forster, R. T. (11 Aug 2025): ‘She really gets my blood boiling’: moral judgements, dislike and celebrities, Celebrity Studies, DOI:10.1080/19392397.2025.2540766

Morrow, B. (2025, August 28). A timeline of J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans shift. The Week. https://theweek.com/feature/1020838/jk-rowlings-transphobia-controversy-a-complete-timeline

Rehman, F., & Sajjad, S. (2025). Bridging technology and therapy: Exploring AI in mental health services through counselors’ and students’ perspectives. Online Media and Society, 6(1), 31-44.

Stein, J. P., Linda Breves, P., & Anders, N. (2024). Parasocial interactions with real and virtual influencers: The role of perceived similarity and human-likeness. New Media & Society, 26(6), 3433-3453.

Stever, G. (2024). Research on a new social media service: Understanding Cameo. The Amplifier, Fall-Winter 2024, the publication of APA Division 46.

Stever, G., & Hughes, E. (2013). What role Twitter? Celebrity conversations with fans. Social Media: The Fourth Annual Transforming Audiences conference, Chester, UK.

Stever, G. & Lawson, K. (2013). Twitter as a way for celebrities to communicate with fans: Implications for the study of parasocial interaction. North American Journal of Psychology, 15(2), 597-612.

Zhong, W., & Luo, J. (2025). Befriend genAI chatbots: Exploring the determinants of parasocial relationship in human-AI interaction through a hybrid PLS-ANN-NCA approach. International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2025.2537794