PARASOCIALIZE

Parasocialize.

Keeping you comfortably connected to the worldwide one-sided web.

To readThe stories One a day, each one signed by a person. 48 so far. To research The encyclopedia 248 entries, every claim cited.

The top 8 · part one

1. The letter from the NESTRugrats, 19912. Tommy finds the gun and it worksRugrats, 19953. The grouch on the telethonThe grouch, Sesame Street, 1990s4. Hey Arnold, said to a room where nobody is ArnoldHey Arnold!, 1996DRAGON5. The dragon that waitedDragon Tales, 19996. Mighty Morphin, you are the rangerPower Rangers, 1993DOUG7. Doug's dad watching the TV in the darkDoug, 19918. The rabbit in the hatAnimaniacs, 1990
Read the whole list Past top 8s →

Ten ways it shows up · one story from each

IDOL

Taylor Swift's re-recordings are a parasocial business model

Every other artist is watching this and copying the tactic without copying the thing that made it work, which is a decade of being unusually specific about who she was talking to.

6 more → CREATOR

A wellness podcast just became a television channel

A podcast host has spent years being told, gently, by a hostile business that podcasts are not television.

6 more → CHARACTER

A clown got a prequel and four million households signed up without signing anything

A clown gets a prequel.

2 more → COMPANION

Pygmalion: the Greek myth that predicted this whole thing

The Greeks had the whole thing two thousand years ago and did not think it needed a caveat, which tells you what the caveat is actually for.

9 more → WORLD

YouTube is turning Shorts into episodic television

Shorts were supposed to be the snack.

3 more → BRAND

The living room is now a comment section

The single weirdest thing about this is how small the change is and how complete.

5 more → CROSSOVER

AOC and the parasocial nature of politics

This is the one nobody in this field covers, because it is unfashionable to admit that a politician occupies the same place in a person's head as a character they love.

2 more → CONTEST

House of the Dragon ended and the fans are furious at the show, not the characters

This is a fight about a story and it is being fought with the vocabulary of a parasocial grievance, which is why it is so ugly.

2 more → GRIEF

When a famous person dies it can feel like losing someone you loved

I want to push back on the word distress in every piece that runs this week, because it is doing too much work.

12 more → DANGER

A fan was convicted of stalking Jungkook. Twenty-two visits. One hundred and thirty-three doorbell rings

I am not going to do the thing where I explain this away, and I notice that every parasocial site quietly routes around this section, which is the single biggest reason those sites are still not taken seriously.

1 more →

Go deeper · the definitive bits

08 The historyA course in 8 modules, from a sculptor to a 2023 policy update. Free, printable. The moments8 significant moments across television, music, the internet, games and AI. 07 The figures7 people and characters who keep the sphere turning, from Pygmalion to a Twitch emote.

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