--- title: "Parasocial Relationships Online" description: "Bibliography of links on the evolution of parasocial relationships online: more than social media acquaintances or influencer-consumption, less than true social relationships, typically with money involved somewhere; implications for the future of human relationships/media and artificial intelligence?" created: 2020-11-30 modified: 2020-11-30 status: in progress confidence: log importance: 4 cssExtension: dropcaps-cheshire ... - ["Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance"](https://web.archive.org/web/20210927163833/https://www.participations.org/volume%203/issue%201/3_01_hortonwohl.htm), Horton & Wohl 1956 (_Lonesome Gal_) - ["A Deep Dive into K-pop"](https://mattlakeman.org/2020/09/06/a-deep-dive-into-k-pop/) ([it sells](/doc/sociology/technology/2017-chung.pdf "'Fostering Parasocial Relationships with Celebrities on Social Media: Implications for Celebrity Endorsement', Chung & Cho 2017")) - ["China's Selfie Obsession: Meitu's apps are changing what it means to be beautiful in the most populous country on earth"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/18/chinas-selfie-obsession) - ["The Digital Future of Tabletop Games"](https://a16z.com/the-digital-future-of-tabletop-games/) - ["What ARGs Can Teach Us About QAnon"](https://mssv.net/2020/08/02/what-args-can-teach-us-about-qanon/) (["Who Buried Paul?"](http://ludix.com/moriarty/paul.html)) - ["The Comforting Fictions of Dementia Care: Many facilities are using nostalgic environments as a means of soothing the misery, panic, and rage their residents experience"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/08/the-comforting-fictions-of-dementia-care); ["What Robots Can---and Can’t---Do for the Old and Lonely: For elderly Americans, social isolation is especially perilous. Will machine companions fill the void?"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/31/what-robots-can-and-cant-do-for-the-old-and-lonely); ["My Parents’ Dementia Felt Like the End of Joy. Then Came the Robots"](https://www.wired.com/story/parents-dementia-robots-warm-technology/ "'My Parents’ Dementia Felt Like the End of Joy. Then Came the Robots: Forget the crappy caregiver bots and puppy-eyed seals. When my parents got sick, I turned to a new generation of roboticists—and their glowing, talking, blobby creations', Kat McGowan 2024-01-04") - ["11 Reasons Not to Become Famous (or “A Few Lessons Learned Since 2007”)"](https://tim.blog/2020/02/02/reasons-to-not-become-famous/), Tim Feriss - [**Targeted Individuals**](!W "Electronic harassment"): ["United States of Paranoia: They See Gangs of Stalkers"](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/11/health/gang-stalking-targeted-individuals.html) - [**Munchausen Syndrome**](!W "Factitious disorder imposed on self"): ["The Lying Disease: Why Would Someone Want to Fake a Serious Illness on the Internet?"](https://www.thestranger.com/features/2012/11/21/15337239/the-lying-disease); [The boy who convinced his friend to murder him via false online identities](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2005/02/bachrach200502 "'U Want Me 2 Kill Him?' When a 14-year-old British boy was savagely stabbed, no one could have imagined the bizarre chat-room fantasy world that lay behind the attack. A story of a near-fatal Internet attraction.") - [**Stans**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_(person)#%22Stan%22_fans): ["Obsessed Benedict Cumberbatch Fans Tried to Have Me Fired: My encounter with internet fandom, and the rise of the celebrity relationship conspiracy theory"](/doc/sociology/2014-meganc-obsessedbenedictcumberbatchfanstriedtohavemefired.html); ["How a Fake Baby Is Born: For years, women on the internet have been writing conspiracy theories about celebrity pregnancies. What sparks them?"](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/07/fake-pregnancy-celebrity-theories-benedict-cumberbacth-babygate/614089/); ["\[Adam Driver Standom\] Adam Driver Makes Fun of a Fan's Gift in the _New Yorker_"](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/ji50tz/adam_driver_standom_adam_driver_makes_fun_of_a/); see also the British monarchy, "Babygate"/Sarah Palin - ["Violence and the Sacred: College \[and mimetic desire\] as an incubator of Girardian terror"](https://danwang.co/college-girardian-terror/ "'Violence and the Sacred: College as an incubator of Girardian terror', Wang 2017"), Dan Wang - ["What to Make of Rod McKuen?"](https://neglectedbooks.com/?p=7339); ["The Instagram Poet Outselling Homer 10 to 1: Meet Rupi Kaur, author of the ubiquitous _Milk and Honey_"](https://www.thecut.com/2017/10/profile-rupi-kaur-author-of-milk-and-honey.html) - **Economics**: - ["1000 True Fans"](https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/), [Kevin Kelly](!W "Kevin Kelly (editor)") - [[Cameo](!W "Cameo (website)")]{.smallcaps}: ["How Cameo Turned D-List Celebs Into a Monetization Machine"](https://gwern.net/doc/economics/2020-sauer-howcameoturneddlistcelebsintoamonetizationmachine.html); ["How Cameo Blew Up During Quarantine"](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/how-cameo-blew-up-during-quarantine) ([but then struggled](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/20/technology/cameo-to-the-moon-and-back.html "'Cameo to the Moon, and Back: A start-up that offers fans a way to buy personalized videos from celebrities was supercharged by pandemic boredom and venture capital. All it had to do was grow forever', Erin Griffith & Sapna Maheshwari 2023-10-20")); ["How to Hire a Pop Star for Your Private Party: For the very rich, even the world’s biggest performers—Beyoncé, Drake, Jennifer Lopez, Andrea Bocelli—are available, at a price"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/06/05/how-to-hire-a-pop-star-for-your-private-party "Evan Osnos 2023-05-29") - [Eugene Wei]{.smallcaps}: ["Status as a Service"](https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2019/2/19/status-as-a-service); ["TikTok and the Sorting Hat"](https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/8/3/tiktok-and-the-sorting-hat); ["Seeing like An Algorithm"](https://www.eugenewei.com/blog/2020/9/18/seeing-like-an-algorithm) - [Turner Novak]{.smallcaps}: ["The Rise of TikTok and Understanding Its Parent Company ByteDance"](https://www.thespl.it/p/the-rise-of-tiktok-and-understanding), ["Pinduoduo and Vertically Integrated Social Commerce"](https://www.thespl.it/p/pinduoduo-and-vertically-integrated "How the son of factory workers grew Pinduoduo from Zero to $100 billion in 5 years."); - [Non-fungible token](!W): ["When the Stagnation Goes Virtual"](https://www.palladiummag.com/2022/01/21/when-the-stagnation-goes-virtual/) - ["Making is Show Business now"](https://alexdanco.com/2020/10/08/making-is-show-business-now/), Alex Danco - [Reaction video](!W): ["Why do people like videos of other people reacting to videos?"](https://reallifemag.com/feel-for-you/) - **Streaming**: - ["The Blurred Lines of Parasocial Relationships: The disappearing divide between 'followers' and 'friends'"](https://every.to/cybernaut/the-blurred-lines-of-parasocial-relationships); ["Why Can’t We Be Friends: Podcasts and other forms of “parasocial” media reframe friendship as monetized self-care"](https://reallifemag.com/why-cant-we-be-friends/) - ["How to Get Rich Playing Video Games on Twitch: For the stars of the streaming service Twitch, success means working around the clock"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/11/20/how-to-get-rich-playing-video-games-online) - ["Ice Poseidon's Lucrative, Stressful Life as a Live Streamer"](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/07/09/ice-poseidons-lucrative-stressful-life-as-a-live-streamer) - ["The Chinese Farmer Who Live-Streamed Her Life and Made a Fortune"](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-chinese-farmer-who-live-streamed-her-life-and-made-a-fortune "Liu Mama, a loud-mouthed, ruddy-cheeked Northern farmer with millions of online followers, is one of many Chinese live-streamers participating in a virtual gold rush.") - ["The app that lets you pay to control another person's life"](https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57085557) - ["Caught in the Study Web: Exploring Gen Z’s Ambitious and Anxiety-Fuelled Pursuit of Straight A’s Across YouTube, TikTok, Discord, and Twitter"](https://every.to/cybernaut/caught-in-the-study-web) - ["The Weird World of Vegan YouTube Stars Is Imploding: Rawvana, Bonny Rebecca and Stella Rae are eating animal products, triggering outrage and an identity crisis"](https://www.thedailybeast.com/vegan-youtube-is-imploding-as-stars-like-rawvana-bonny-rebecca-and-stella-rae-change-diets) - ["The Rise of the \$10 Million Disc Golf Celebrity: How much can athletes really make in niche sports? A whole lot more than you might think. Disc golfer Paul McBeth set a new standard by signing an 8-figure endorsement contract—and his deal might only be the beginning"](https://www.theringer.com/features/2021/6/21/22542839/disc-golf-niche-sports-million-dollar-endorsement-deals) - [_People's Republic of Desire_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7478112/) - ["The Twitching Generation: Around the world, doctors have noticed teenage patients reporting the sudden onset of Tourette's tics. Is this the first illness spread by social media?"](https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/02/social-media-illness-teen-girls/622916/) - ["On Discord, Music Fans Become Artists’ Besties, Collaborators, and Even Unpaid Interns: Originally launched as a messaging app for gamers, the platform has become an intimate place for artists and fans to connect and build community. Can this fragile ecosystem last?"](https://pitchfork.com/features/article/discord-music-fandoms/) - [Virtual Youtuber](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTuber): ["The overworked humans behind China’s virtual influencers: Hidden behind the perfect faces of China's $16 billion virtual celebrity industry is an angry, overworked labor force."](https://restofworld.org/2022/china-virtual-idols-labor/); [Kizuna AI](!W)/[Hololive Production](!W)/[Nijisanji](!W)/[VShojo](!W) (["It's rare to hear <70% female for chat products..."](https://twitter.com/venturetwins/status/1701717914737414638)); ["How Chinese influencers use AI digital clones of themselves to pump out content: Questions over honesty and legality as livestreamers, particularly in online shopping, use avatars to boost their earnings"](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/06/chinese-influencers-using-ai-digital-clones-of-themselves-to-pump-out-content "Amy Hawkins 2023-11-06") - *Gambling*: ["An NFL linebacker quit football to sell Pokémon cards, now he’s making millions"](https://theathletic.com/4687284/2023/07/14/pokemon-blake-martinez-giants-packers/) - **Chess**: ["How Magnus Carlsen Turned Chess Skill Into a Business Empire"](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/22/sports/magnus-carlsen-chess.html)/["The New Economics of Chess"](https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2020/05/the-new-economics-of-chess.html); ["Chess.com finds streaming success"](https://www.protocol.com/chess-streaming-twitch-hikaru-botez); ["The Most Popular Chess Streamer on Twitch: The former chess prodigy Hikaru Nakamura was widely disliked on the professional circuit. Then he started streaming"](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/rabbit-holes/the-most-popular-chess-streamer-on-twitch); ["The \[Alexandra\] Botez Gambit: An enterprising chess streamer finds her opening"](https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-botez-gambit) - **Porn**: - [[ASMR](!W)]{.smallcaps}: ["How A.S.M.R. Became a Sensation: The brain-tingling feeling was a hard-to-describe psychological oddity. Until, suddenly, it was a YouTube phenomenon."](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/04/magazine/how-asmr-videos-became-a-sensation-youtube.html) (cf. [_Lonesome Gal_](#lonesome-gal)); ["Inside the secretly vibrant business of porn MP3s: Video sites like Pornhub and OnlyFans get all the attention, but audio smut is a surprisingly profitable enterprise."](https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/secretly-vibrant-world-of-audio-porn-mp3s) - [AI Dungeon](!W); Replika ([e](https://www.thecut.com/article/ai-artificial-intelligence-chatbot-replika-boyfriend.html "‘The Man of Your Dreams For $300, Replika sells an AI companion who will never die, argue, or cheat—until his algorithm is updated’, Singh-Kurtz 2023")[g](https://www.reddit.com/r/replika/comments/10zsojf/per_luka_erp_is_not_returning/)[.](https://www.vice.com/en/article/y3py9j/ai-companion-replika-erotic-roleplay-updates)); ["How it feels to have your mind hacked by an AI"](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/9kQFure4hdDmRBNdH/how-it-feels-to-have-your-mind-hacked-by-an-ai); [Xiaoice](!W) ([eg.](https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1006531)); ["A 23-year-old Snapchat influencer used OpenAI’s technology to create an A.I. version of herself that will be your girlfriend for $1 per minute"](https://fortune.com/2023/05/09/snapchat-influencer-launches-carynai-virtual-girlfriend-bot-openai-gpt4/); ["A Failed AI Girlfriend Product, and My Lessons"](https://mazzzystar.github.io/2023/11/16/ai-girlfriend-product/) - ["In Defense of Chatbot Romance"](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/m7EHa5rWTvmbjMTNZ/in-defense-of-chatbot-romance), Kaj Sotala - [Projekt Melody](!W) - [[Only Fans](!W)]{.smallcaps}: ["Porn Takes On a Personal Touch in the Pandemic"](https://www.theringer.com/2020/5/27/21269951/porn-coronavirus-pandemic-onlyfans "The coronavirus has shuttered the adult entertainment industry, so enterprising performers are turning to platforms like OnlyFans to sell their product directly to consumers. It’s a trend that could change the way the industry works forever."); ["When Influencers Switch Platforms---and Bare It All"](https://www.wired.com/story/culture-fan-tastic-planet-influencer-porn/ "You follow them on Instagram, admiring their bodies, envying their lifestyles. And then they get intimate on OnlyFans. The influencers are now obtainable."); ["A day in the life of an OnlyFans creator \[Aella\] who makes up to \$100,000 a month off explicit content"](https://www.businessinsider.com/day-in-the-life-of-onlyfans-sex-worker-writer-entrepreneur-creator-aella); ["The ‘E-Pimps’ of OnlyFans: Clever marketers have figured out how easy it is to simulate online intimacy at scale, ventriloquizing alluring models with cheap, offshore labor"](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/16/magazine/e-pimps-onlyfans.html); ["The Sugar Babies of Stanford University: from overnight social media fame to sugar-baby side hustles, America's elite young women are changing the rules of sex and class"](https://www.piratewires.com/p/the-sugar-babies-of-stanford-university); ["Dispatches from the Rap Wars: My 18 months inside one of Chicago’s most notorious gangs"](https://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/October-2016/Chicago-Gangs/); ["This Is Catfishing on an Industrial Scale: Hired as customer service reps, these freelancers were instead tasked with luring in the lonely and lovestruck through a network of dating and hookup sites"](https://www.wired.com/story/catfishing-customer-support-love/); ["Inside an OnlyFans empire: Sex, influence and the new American Dream---The fast-growing platform represents the creator economy at its most bluntly transactional, where sex is just another unit of content to monetize"](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2023/onlyfans-bryce-adams-top-earners-creator-economy/ "Drew Harwell 2023-11-09") One can note that the result of 2022 Stable Diffusion democratizing human-level art & porn has been many artists (existing & new) adopting it secretly to save their labor, and angry fans/commissioners exposing them. But as the tools get better and t Homo hypocritus will find a way, whether it's ['farm-to-table'](https://projects.tampabay.com/projects/2016/food/farm-to-fable/restaurants/), ['bean-to-bar'](!W "Mast Brothers#Controversy"), ['extra virgin virgin olive oil'](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2007/08/13/slippery-business), ['fair trade'](!W), ['sustainable'](!W "Greenwashing") anything, ['CO~2~ credits'](/co2-coin#co2-credit-flaws), fitness instructors, [muscled](https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22760163/steroids-hgh-hollywood-actors-peds-performance-enhancing-drugs) Hollywood actors, pro [wrestling](!W "Kayfabe")/[cycling](!W "Lance Armstrong doping case")/[baseball](!W "BALCO scandal") etc. They'll pretend to be 'hand-made' [premium mediocre](https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2017/08/17/the-premium-mediocre-life-of-maya-millennial/) goods, and we'll pretend to pay anywhere close to what that'd actually cost to be so good. - ["The New Unsexy Sexy Marketplace: These days, there’s no limit---or reason---to the intimate objects sold online."](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/26/style/selling-things-online-sex-work.html) - ["She Gets Paid Just to Humiliate Her Fans: The high-priced hustle of financial domination, where “pay pigs” send tributes to their cash masters"](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/10/style/findom-kink.html) - ["Why Are Young People Having So Little Sex? Despite the easing of taboos and the rise of hookup apps, Americans are in the midst of a sex recession."](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/the-sex-recession/573949/) - ["Livestreaming monetisation models, aka, What do camgirls have in common with Twitch streamers?"](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FaWWHkjv62Cr6WNkj/livestreaming-monetisation-models-aka-what-do-camgirls-have); ["Maximizing Your Slut Impact: An Overly Analytical Guide to Camgirling"](https://knowingless.com/2018/11/19/maximizing-your-slut-impact-an-overly-analytical-guide-to-camgirling/); [Mia Malkova](!W) - ["Jon Ronson on bespoke porn: ‘Nothing is too weird. We consider all requests’: Turned on by gremlins? Excited by ketchup or rare stamps? There’s a porn film for that. Inside California’s new growth industry"](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/jul/29/jon-ronson-bespoke-porn-nothing-is-too-weird-all-requests) - [Review of _The Great Happiness Space_](/review/movie#the-great-happiness-space) - ["God-Shaped Hole"](https://zerohplovecraft.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/god-shaped-hole/), 0hpl - ["The sexfluencers: Platforms like OnlyFans mean people with big followings online can earn money. Where does that leave the sex workers who were there first?"](https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22749123/onlyfans-influencers-sex-work-instagram-pornography) - ["Meet the goonettes, women with staggering online porn habits: Hours-long masturbation sessions are the norm. “I love going brain numb to porn”, says one scenester"](https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/goonettes-gooning-women-porn-sex-addiction) - **See Also**: ["Littlewood’s Law and the Global Media"](/littlewood){.backlink-not}, ["The Melancholy of Subculture Society"](/subculture){.backlink-not}, ["GPT-3 Creative Fiction"](/gpt-3){.backlink-not} [null](/note/parasocial "'Parasocial Relationships Online', Branwen 2020"){style="display:none;"}