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Love this. I think it's the availability of influencers that has increased the occurrence of parasocial relationships. You can talk right to them! It's weird.

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Anyone else thinking Taylor is the poster child for Sarapocial relationships? What with the Easter eggs of it all?

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so agree!! she defo nurtures the relationship through things like easter eggs!

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Oooh, this is the first I've read about sarapocial relationships. It's a really interesting dynamic and one of many reasons having that type of online presence scares me a wee bit. It reminds me of the Korean star whose fans melted down she was dating someone (apparently that has to be arranged and approved with their agencies and fans etc?). Her apology was made to her fans online in general and I'm told fans in Korea were super upset about it, they wanted an apology for themselves because of the investment of time, energy and money they put into supporting her. Because of this story I've started delving into this type of relationship there. I've barely scratched the surface. It seems so intense.

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Super interesting Iza. Reminds me this quote by Etienne Dorsay, a brilliant homage by French journalist Gérald Arno to the eponymous character played by Jean Rochefort: "Let's not confuse existence with editorial line." https://aliveinsocialmedia.substack.com/p/parasocial-relationships

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I love this!

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