The Cambridge Dictionary recently elected “parasocial” 2025 word of the year, an accolade that reflects an increasingly central phenomenon of digital life: those one-sided connections people form with celebrities, online influencers, fictional characters, and even AI chatbots. But what exactly does parasocial mean, and why has it become so popular today?
It is not simply a question of admiration, devotion or even obsession towards a celebrity, for which the English have coined the term star-struck, nor even the curious case in which one finds oneself falls in love with a fictional character of a book or a TV series, where also in this case there is a very specific term: la fictosexuality or fictophilia.
The term “parasocial” derives from parasocial interaction, parasocial interactiona concept first coined in 1956 by sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl which serves to describe thatillusion of intimacy that an audience feels towards a media person. Even without a real mutual exchange, those who watch TV, listen to podcasts or follow an influencer on social media can end up feeling a bond similar to friendship of those on the other side of the screen, especially when we recognize ourselves in the events experienced, in the ways of thinking or in the values that they share publicly.
These interactions are initially brief, but over time they can evolve into deeper “parasocial” relationshipscontinuing over time and involving people to the point of developing a real emotional attachment. This creates a mechanism of identification in the other beyond the screen and the relationship even becomes a relationship psychological need for the fan. With the advent of social media and artificial intelligence, the experience has become even more intense and dynamic because not only are we continuously exposed to online celebrities who often interact with their fans through interviews, but some users also establish similar bonds with chatbots or digital personalities who use the continuous interaction with their users to evolve their algorithm.
Some psychologists warn about this phenomenon by pointing out that although parasocial relationships may initially provide comfort, when they are brought at the extreme they risk being dysfunctional. When they become obsessive they can even interfere with real life, pushing those who experience them to weaken authentic relationships.
It seems that the growth of this phenomenon is especially widespread among teenagers who often find celebrities as a source source of connection and reassurance. In digital contexts, parasocial interaction has evolved enormously since the 1960s and thanks to platforms such as Twitch or YouTube it’s easier to feel part of someone’s life content creator. Furthermore, some scholars point out that despite the perceived well-being From these parasocial relationships, it is real connections such as friends, family and one’s community that contribute most to the psychological well-being of users, rather than the one-sided connection with a streamer or a VIP.
The reason why parasocial makes so much noise today is linked to a broader theme: the crisis of social isolation that we often hear about today, and often the false perception of connection can be ambiguous as it is fueled by algorithms, media storytelling and increasingly “humanized” digital chatbots. We could take the opportunity to discover the word of the year to reflect on what “relationship” really means in the digital age.
In addition to parasocial, the other words that describe the era we are living in are vibe coding — indicating the use of artificial intelligence to generate code from natural language instructions — elected from the Collins Dictionary, e 6-7a term that Dictionary.com selected while calling it “ambiguous and senseless.” It is part of the viral slang among teenagers, who use it as an interjection meaning “so-so”, “maybe”.
