Parasocial Relationships

I'm really interested in this concept of parasocial relationships. When we filled out that survey on Monday, my score was average. I am a fan of certain celebrities and characters, but I don't go too crazy about them. I can remember a time in my life when I did, though. My first parasocial relationship was pretty amazing, and it's one I probaby shared with a million other girls. Blog readers, I present to you my first parasocial relationship, and probably one of the best friendships I had as a child: The Baby-Sitters Club.

When I was in second grade, I was a pretty normal kid. I played baseball, took ballet classes, and was a Girl Scout. I had friends to play with. I wasn't "pathologically lonely" or anything like that. But I loved to read. When I discovered this awesome series by Ann M. Martin, I knew that these girls were going to be the greatest friends I could find.

My friend Emily also read the books, and we would always pretend we were the girls. I was Mary Anne, because she was quiet and polite and liked to read. But I could relate to all of them in some way, the way you can relate to real friends. Jessi Ramsey was a dancer, just like me. Mallory Pike had glasses and wanted to be a writer. Stacey McGill was obsessed with New York City. Claudia Kishi was an artist. Dawn Schaffer cared about the environment. Kristy Thomas was the hardest to relate to, because she was a tomboy who liked sports, but I still thought she was a pretty good friend.

I took these books very seriously. When Dawn decided to leave the club and move to California with her dad, I felt like one of my best friends was moving away. When Mallory Pike was obsessed with the book "Harriet the Spy," I decided to read it. And when Kristy decided that maybe starting a baby-sitting club was the worst idea she had ever had, I thought the world would end.

Luckily the series went on for at least 20 more books after that awful experience.

I think parasocial relationships are totally normal and even healthy. As I got older, the girls in the Baby-Sitters Club and I grew apart, but I have fond memories of them, just as I have fond memories of the other friends I've lost touch with since childhood. Is that weird? You might think so, and that's totally okay with me. I think it's normal. I think we NEED to have parasocial relationships, especially when we're young. We need to be able to have "friends" that are there for no purpose other than to entertain us. It's a way to escape and get our mind off of the real world. It helps us deal with the bad things in life. The characters (or celebrities)become real to us. We care about what happens to them almost as much as we care about what happens to people in real life. Why? I honestly don't know. Maybe we'll talk about it in class on Wednesday....