Parasocial relationships refer to one-sided relationships in which a person develops a strong sense of connection, intimacy, or familiarity with someone they don’t know, most often celebrities or media personalities. These relationships exist only in the mind of the individual, who experiences a bond despite the lack of reciprocity.
Forming parasocial relationships is fine.
Fapping (masturbating) to nsfw content is fine (unless it is illegal or unethical).
But forming a parasocial relationship with someone you fap to feels like cheating if you are in a relationship and a poor substitute for a relationship if you are single.
Yeah the moment money gets involved I just lose interest.
What would your reaction be to finding out everyone you’ve ever known faps to you?
Forming parasocial relationships is fine.
They really aren’t, before this egirl insanity began people who obsessed over some distant celebrity were considered pathetic to dangerous (when it came with stalker behavior).
The fact that it becomes more widespread is a symptom of the failing societal fabric and community.
People are so detached and lonely even amongst millions of others they seek emotional support and validation, even romantic fulfillment, in these unhealthy ways.
Point taken. But it might be a matter of degree of how strong a relationship is.
The money is better in parasocial relationships than commodity pornography.
This is an extremely normal opinion, have you been fraternizing with people who think otherwise? Parasocial relationships are commonly mocked
I wouldn’t mock a person for having parasocial relationships, but I would mock them for paying a lot of money to an OnlyFans model. I think that there is a spectrum of acceptable parasocial relationships and I am trying to draw a line where “ok” ends and “despicable” begins.
Despicable? I’m curious about where this line is, can you elaborate?
Also, what is your attitude on people who have sex with many partners (with informed consent etc). That could be polyamorous or simply dating & one night stands.
There was an AMA on reddit last week from someone who managed DMs for OF models. Their job was basically to get people hooked and thinking that they had a real relationship with these models via DMs…when the people weren’t even talking to the actual models at all. I think that probably qualifies as despicable.
Despicable? I’m curious about where this line is, can you elaborate?
I don’t know specifically, but I think masturbating to a person you have formed a parasocial relationship with is close to that line.
Also, what is your attitude on people who have sex with many partners (with informed consent etc).
I do not condemn nor condone such behaviour, it might be against my personal moral compass, but as long as both sides know what they are doing it isn’t bad.
How do you feel about the use of AI chatbots for that kind of thing?
Kind of a tangent but I’d be curious to hear your thoughts considering a lot of them are paid services and people can develop connections to those personalities. I feel like the word parasocial gets real muddy at that point.
First of all, ai bots will probably steal all kinds of information from people. And the money that is spent on them could be useful for so many more useful things. I would suggest to seek genuine connections or even go to chatrooms over bots, ai or otherwise.
Not to mention how dealing with bots might warp your ability to socialise. A lot of things that are acceptable to bots are unacceptable to real people. Some people use them to play out fantasy scenarios of non-consent, abuse, etc.
Having said all that, if somebody wants to play around with that stuff, it’s fine as long as it’s not your only way to socialise or seek intimacy. I remember The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker and it talked about how video games are not inherently bad and don’t make us more violent, but they take time away from us that we can use to do social things instead.
Depending on how hard it is for a person to socialise, a group hobby or even group therapy sessions might be the solution.
The parasocial part is enough, fapping is just a step beyond.
I don’t think people should idolize other people. You can respect someone, but parasocial seems just all around unhealthy to me. Then the person does something out of line and stans will defend them with their lives and find them all other excuses in the book.
Yes, I agree that people you like online are not your friends and you should not defend them when they get called for their toxic behaviour.
