Meanings
- uncountableThe quality or condition of being parasocial.
Much has been written about the perverse parasociality of fandom, the blurring line between public displays of devotion and invasions of privacy.
2023 July 18, Emmeline Clein, “A Celebrity Lesbian Romance Changed My Life. (Even if It Never Happened.)”, in The New York Times Magazine, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 Jul 20231 more example
Podcasts, on the other hand, are built on parasociality: Michael Barbaro isn’t your friend, but, after making coffee with him in your ear a hundred times, you start to feel as if he were. And then there’s the world of always-on streaming, in which the temptations of parasociality are even more acute.)
2025 March 17, Andrew Marantz, “The Battle for the Bros”, in The New Yorker, →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 Mar 2025 - uncountablebiologyThe exhibition of behaviour that is communal, quasisocial or semisocial.
The two commonalities of parasociality are the exhibition of parental investment and socialisation in a single cooperative dwelling (i.e., a nest).^([Wikipedia])
Origin
Cite this entry
parasociality. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/parasociality
“parasociality.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/parasociality. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “parasociality,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/parasociality.
Source: parasociality on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.