Parasocial Relationships as a Symptom of Addiction
In recent years, the term “parasocial interaction” has exploded in popularity, as concerns over social media sites like TikTok have received mass coverage in the media. The parasocial interaction and its counterpart, the parasocial relationship, refer to one-sided relationships. These biased relationships can be formed whenever an individual experiences a mediated encounter with a mass media performer as a member of their audience. Before the twenty-first century, these false connections were predominantly formed through television screens, however, the digital age has opened an entirely new avenue for these unbalanced relations: social media.
The emergence of social media personalities aligned with the developmental stages of children born from the late nineties to the 2000s, creating a generation engulfed in one-sided relationships. Contrary to the Millenials that preceded them, this “Generation Z” would experience parasocial relationships as a fundamental piece of how they formed connections. Instead of seeing social media as an additive to their already constructed lives, this new generation grew up with parasocial relationships as a cornerstone of their existence.
As a member of Generation Z, Gerbert Johnson saw how his peers had been affected by parasocial interactions and made an analysis video addressing the impacts that he saw internet relationships have on his age group. In this video, Johnson has several critiques about the impact of social media on the collective psyche, particularly, criticizing the supplantation of natural connections with parasocial ones. While this argument is logical, I would argue that parasocial relationships are but one piece of more substantial issue. In his analysis, Johnson evades a more significant generational issue of overstimulation, which actively destroys the population’s ability to form genuine bonds and value delayed gratification.
Johnson’s argument against parasocial relationships stems from their addictive nature, which, while true, points to a much deeper issue regarding instant gratification. Gratification is defined as the pleasurable emotional response caused by the fulfillment of a goal. Typically gratification is triggered in small amounts upon the accomplishment of everyday tasks, like feeding oneself and getting enough sleep. Larger goals like career milestones and paying off major expenses can cause more significant amounts of dopamine, increasing the satisfaction that is felt. However, with the introduction of entertainment technologies of the twentieth century, the gratification release of individuals has changed. New technologies like movies, video games, and electronic entertainment release far more dopamine than ordinary activities(Haynes). While exposure to these sources of entertainment did gradually change dopamine releases, the problem did not become serious until much later. This is because these activities were limited by scarcity. One could only watch so many movies, play so many games and experience a certain number of new ideas before one had to return to reality. The new problem comes from the internet, which erases that scarcity. The internet provides a constant stream of free and engaging content, which forces the brain to endure constant stimuli. This overuse of dopamine rewrites the gratification response in the human brain, causing people to crave cheap and easy stimulation. Rather than look at important goals and work for any marginal amount of dopamine, the Internet has changed the way that people think, steering them towards instant gratification. The social media that Johnson is alarmed by is merely the newest form that this addiction to stimulation has taken in the twenty-first century.
While the dangers of this overstimulation, specifically via parasocial relationships, are briefly mentioned in the Johnson analysis, the greater dangers of constant stimulus are left unexplored. The avenue that Johnson takes is the unfortunate supplantation of real relationships due to a lack of reflection. Johnson speculates that Generation Z has used social media to numb themselves to negative emotions. Johnson uses an idea of a youngster eating alone to illustrate this point. Rather than sit alone at the dinner table, members of this new cohort elect to watch YouTuve videos to mask their loneliness. They do not allow time to look at their circumstances because if they did, they would face uncomfortable truths. This point holds merit, as deep reflection is almost impossible in a world filled with attention-draining ventures, however, this is a result of a deeper lack of basic connection in general. The constant overstimulation from a young age has caused Generation Z to have shortened attention spans. Since the beginning of the internet’s adoption by the public, the attention span and social interaction among the youth have dropped by nearly fifty percent(Hayes). While this has caused teens to be less reflective, it also has more massive implications for their ability to form connections. Rather than seek out natural thrills which take time to provide gratification, modern teens and young adults are far more likely to run to electronic vices. Johnson poetically calls the preference for electronic stimulation in the modern era a “violation of [his] deep psychological need for connection and community.” While this may seem hyperbolic, recent data suggests that this is true. The consumption of media on a massive scale to avoid reality has greatly affected the natural neurological mechanisms of Generation Z(Talked Team). This intense constant interaction has eroded a generation’s ability to accept delayed gratification. The aversion to delayed gratification does not only hurt how the young cohort handles rewards in the future but also how they deal with unpleasant situations in the present.
The “un-learning” of delayed gratification is critically important in the narrative of the overstimulated generation and is critically missing in the Johnson narrative. Furthermore, the intense focus on social media and parasocial relationships specifically neglects a more important sphere that will define the future of Generation Z, the workplace. With decreased attention spans and a depleted understanding of delayed gratification, this new workforce will face immense difficulty in the working world. Long unpleasant days coupled with weeks without paychecks will eat away at dopamine-addicted brains. This trend has already been observed through the “hustle culture” that has stormed the internet, advising young people to make money quickly, without the hard work that defined previous generations. This sentiment has built into bustling online communities like r/antiwork, where thousands of online users advocate for work reform by quitting their standing occupations. Although there is not an explicit link connecting excessive interenet usage and these mentalities, the growth of these communities and the growth of short-form Internet content has risen on a nearly linear path(Google Trends). The death of delayed gratification is an extremely important piece of the argument that is strikingly absent from the original piece.
The future impact of this new mindset will have massive effects on the success that Generation Z has with assimilation into the greater world. Unless the newest members of the workforce can train themselves to ignore two decades of detrimental behavior in their day-to-day life, electronic stimuli will continue to hinder what they can achieve. The internet has created many great things, including, arguably, social media, but it has also grown into a far more malevolent force than expected. The hyper-addictive world of content has already proven detrimental in its infancy, and current social media is just one piece of that evolution. In the future, the detrimental impacts of this phenomenon will likely only grow in the lives of future generations as addictive technologies become more advanced.
Works Cited
Hayes, Adam. “The Human Attention Span.” wyzowl, Infographics, 05 September 2022,
https://www.wyzowl.com/human-attention-span/#:~:text=According%20to%20research%C%20our%20attention,or%20object%20for%209%20seconds.
Haynes, Trevor. “Dopamine, Smartphones & You: A battle for your time.” Harvard University,
SITN, 2018, https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2018/dopamine-smartphones-battle-time.
Talked Team. “Don’t Feel Good Enough? Social Media Stress and Escapism.” Talked, Talked
Blog, 04 September 2021, https://www.talked.com.au/blog/dont-feel-good-enough
-social-media.
“Parasocial Relationships and the Loneliest Generation.” YouTube, uploaded by Gerbert Johnson,
04 October 2021, https://youtu.be/U1UtRV0ZHGM.
