Encyclopedia · 176 entries
The database
Two axes, and they are deliberately not the same axis. Kind is what a thing is — a term, a person, a work, a study, an event, a mechanism. Lane is what it does: application, consideration or manipulation. The ten sections on this site ask where attachment shows up. The lanes ask why anyone is using it. A fan club is application; the same fan club with a paid tier is manipulation; the study of both is consideration.
Application
One-sided attachment put to work on purpose. Creator economies, community, fandom as infrastructure, and the things that genuinely help people. Not automatically good - a tool with an obvious use is a tool that will also get a bad one.
Consideration
The part where somebody stops and thinks. The research, the diagnosis, the ethics, the lawsuits, the regulators. Roughly fifty years of arguing with itself about whether this is a relationship.
Manipulation
One-sided attachment engineered for somebody else's benefit. Paid intimacy, parasocial persuasion, sasaeng, grief extraction, the streak. The lane that pays the bills and the lane that causes the most harm, frequently at the same time.
Lane
Kind
| 15000 BC | The dog | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 800 BC | The story told again | A work | ||
| 600 BC | Pygmalion | A work | ||
| 200 BC | The congregation | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 100 | The priest | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1373 | Margery Kempe | |||
| 1438 | Binding | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1438 | The Book of My First Showings | A work | ||
| 1547 | Miguel de Cervantes | ? | ||
| 1600 | The audience | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1605 | Don Quixote | |||
| 1749 | Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | ? | ||
| 1774 | Werther | |||
| 1812 | Charles Dickens | ? | ||
| 1861 | Miss Havisham | |||
| 1880 | Identification with a team | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1880 | The trading stamp | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1897 | The comic strip | A work | ? | |
| 1899 | Alfred Hitchcock | ? | ||
| 1900 | The coach | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1900 | The landlord | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1900 | The teacher | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1900 | The transfer | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1912 | Green Shield Stamps | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1912 | The film serial | A work | ? | |
| 1920 | The athlete and the city | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1920 | The fan mail department | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1924 | The first fans | An event or moment | ||
| 1930 | Radio and the soap | A work | ? | |
| 1930 | The cliffhanger | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1933 | The soap opera | A work | ? | |
| 1938 | The first superhero | A work | ? | |
| 1939 | The protagonist is a parasocial object | A term or concept | ? | |
| 1940 | The bobby-soxers | An event or moment | ? | |
| 1940 | Wishful thinking | A term or concept | ||
| 1943 | Gigi | A work | ||
| 1948 | Nick Drake | ? | ||
| 1950 | Gazing at celebrities | A study or paper | ? | |
| 1950 | The fan club | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1950 | The local news anchor | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1950 | The neighbour | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1950 | The retail clerk | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1955 | The Macy's counter | |||
| 1956 | Elvis Presley | ? | ||
| 1956 | Parasocial interaction | A term or concept | ? | |
| 1958 | Vertigo | A work | ||
| 1959 | The manufactured teen idol | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1960 | The political parasocial | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1960 | The sitcom family | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1963 | Dionne Warwick and reciprocal fan mail | A legal or documented case | ? | |
| 1963 | Dionne Warwick's fan mail | ? | ||
| 1964 | Beatlesmania | An event or moment | ? | |
| 1966 | ELIZA | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1966 | The dialogue programs | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1968 | Charisma as a measurable asset | A study or paper | ? | |
| 1970 | Characters move in | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1970 | Grieving a person you never met | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1970 | SHRDLU | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1971 | The first convention | An event or moment | ? | |
| 1973 | Elvis, in a hologram, from Hawaii | An event or moment | ? | |
| 1976 | Convention culture | An event or moment | ? | |
| 1976 | The finding that the satisfaction is not in the show | A study or paper | ? | |
| 1978 | The holiday special | A work | ? | |
| 1979 | The uncanny corridor of companionship | A term or concept | ? | |
| 1980 | The finale study | A study or paper | ? | |
| 1980 | The season finale | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1981 | The distance programme | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1982 | The supermarket club | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1983 | M*A*S*H | An event or moment | ? | |
| 1985 | Loneliness and local television news | A study or paper | ? | |
| 1985 | Parasocial interaction disorder | A term or concept | ? | |
| 1985 | The counter sits between | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1990 | Is it good for you? | A term or concept | ||
| 1990 | Mourning a person you met | A term or concept | ? | |
| 1990 | Shipping | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1990 | The comfort rewatch | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1990 | The stalker statute | A legal or documented case | ? | |
| 1990 | The stamp card | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1991 | The NEST letter | An event or moment | ||
| 1993 | Saturday morning cartoons | An event or moment | ||
| 1993 | The Power Rangers handover | An event or moment | ||
| 1994 | Kurt Cobain | An event or moment | ? | |
| 1994 | The character death | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1995 | Clerks beat algorithms | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1995 | The brand that has a personality | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1995 | The companion bot boom | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 1995 | The loyalty counter | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 1997 | The boy band | A work | ? | |
| 1997 | Webcasting | An event or moment | ? | |
| 1998 | The anime import boom | An event or moment | ? | |
| 1999 | Forum culture | An event or moment | ||
| 2000 | Sasaeng culture | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2000 | The sasaeng | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2000 | Transparasocial interaction | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2001 | Transnational fandom | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2003 | Second Life | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2003 | The reality celebrity | ? | ||
| 2004 | Michael Jackson | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2005 | Doxxing the person, not the character | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2005 | Fighting about a stranger in a reply section | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2005 | The character is not the person | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2005 | The crowd injury | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2005 | The goodwill gesture | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2005 | YouTube launches | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2007 | The phone becomes a person | An event or moment | ||
| 2008 | The actor and the character | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2008 | The pile-on | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2009 | The Bieber effect | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2010 | Grief merchandise | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2010 | Paid intimacy | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2010 | The attention economy | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2010 | The dark pattern in the loyalty card | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2010 | The lobby | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2010 | The quarterly audit | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2010 | The recurring delivery | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2010 | Watching the replies | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2011 | A mob is a parasocial event | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2011 | Justin.tv becomes Twitch | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2011 | Nobody answered | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2011 | The assistant arrives | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2012 | Fandom wars | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2013 | Swatting | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2014 | Gamergate | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2014 | Parasocial research on creators begins | A study or paper | ? | |
| 2014 | The podcast as an intimate medium | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2015 | Live chat, two-way | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2015 | Parasocial persuasion | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2015 | The failing endorsement | A study or paper | ? | |
| 2015 | The free trial | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2015 | The people who are supposed to be reachable | A term or concept | ||
| 2015 | The ratio | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2015 | The subscription tier | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2015 | Who holds the dream | A term or concept | ||
| 2016 | Peak TV and the parasocial bargain | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2016 | Prince | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2016 | Tay | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2016 | The K-pop intimacy economy | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2016 | The algorithm decides | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2016 | The stadium | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2016 | The virtual creator | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2017 | Cancelling | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2017 | Replika | A work | ||
| 2017 | Replika | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2017 | The Replika user | ? | ||
| 2017 | The companion that talks back | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2019 | The ensemble farewell | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2019 | The finale nobody wanted | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2019 | The hashtag | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2020 | Consent in one-sided attachment | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2020 | Envy, relief, and the two feelings at once | A study or paper | ? | |
| 2020 | Grief as a product surface | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2020 | Kobe Bryant | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2021 | The doorstep | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2022 | Character.AI | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2022 | The assistant with your whole life in it | A mechanism or tactic | ? | |
| 2022 | The talent agency that is not an agency | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2023 | Keeping what the update cannot take | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2023 | The finale that moved the schedule | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2023 | The morning the update shipped | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2023 | The residency | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2023 | The same feeling, larger | A term or concept | ||
| 2023 | The shutdown | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2024 | Digital orphans | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2024 | The AI Age Act and companion rules | A term or concept | ? | |
| 2024 | The dead celebrity, generated | A mechanism or tactic | ||
| 2024 | The lawsuits | A legal or documented case | ? | |
| 2024 | The two-year ban | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2024 | The year of the lawsuits | A legal or documented case | ? | |
| 2026 | A glimpse mistaken for access | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2026 | Creators barred from the industry conference | An event or moment | ? | |
| 2026 | The creator joins the living room | An event or moment | ? | |
| — | Mystical union | A term or concept | ? | |
| — | St John the Baptist, Church of the Sepulchre, Cambridge | ? | ||
| — | The archivist | ? | ||
| — | The one who writes back | ? | ||
| — | The ultra | ? |
122 of 176 entries are flagged ? for a citation check. That is the work queue, not a failure: a timeline format tells the reader somebody checked, so unverified dates are marked rather than hidden. Read it as a timeline →