Parasocial Interactions

Yesterday in class we discussed the idea of parasocial relationships. At first I thought the whole idea of having a relationship with a media character was super weird, but as I continued to think I was reminded of a couple characters that I feel close to when I am a part of their media. In class I chose Jenni Finch, who is a softball pitcher for the USA team. When we used the psychological scale to figure out our relationship with our certain characters I scored pretty low compared to everyone else. Through the day it stuck with me the whole idea of person and media relationships. While I was cleaning up my room I ran into a book that I had read awhile back called "Dreamland" by Sarah Dessen. The past few years starting in my younger teenage years I enjoyed reading books by Dessen and when I ran into this book I thought about what it was that made me so involved and connected with the books that she wrote and right then I realized my own parasocial relationship, my own media best friends, and that was all the main female characters in the Sarah Dessen novels. It occurred to me that I did miss these characters and I did miss these books that I had not read in awhile. When I read the books by Dessen I feel like I can understand what the main female character is going through, but if I don't understand and I have never been through it myself then I feel like a friend to the characters someone that they can vent to and share their story with, which puts together a novel. So, after discovering my own parasocial interaction/relationship I realized that maybe they are not so weird, but rather they are relieving and entertaining.