At OffKai, Panel Room 2

Doctor, Is New Parasocialism a Prescription for Loneliness? Presented by Ichika Maia and JFMD

• When you are with your Oshi, maybe you think about whether or not what you say is too parasocial. Or maybe as a VTuber, you change what you say based on whether or not you want to attract a more parasocial audience.
• Loneliness Epidemic
  • Think about when you were a child. How did you spend time with your friends and family? These activities you did with others were done together in person.
  • Today, spending time with friends is often done online.
  • Friends might drift away, especially in-person. Life changes a lot for everyone.
  • The US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said that loneliness is an epidemic, a public health problem.
  • Carl Jung: Loneliness does not come from having no people around, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissable.
  • Lacking social connection is as dangerous as smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, by odds of premature mortality. (Source: Office of the US Surgeon General)
  • Number of close friendships have declined over the past several decades.
• What is Parasocialism?
  • What do people say about parasocialism on twitter?
    • Attachment that goes beyond the "norm" that can range from healthy to obsessive
    • Replacing the part of your life for friends and cared ones with VTubers
    • What started out as fun became codependent, and made them angry that they didnt get the attention they "deserved"
  • Parasocialism is not new, first described in 1956 in Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction by Donald Horton and R. Richard Wohl
  • Parasocialism back then was one-sided, controlled by the performer, and could not be changed by the viewer.
  • Performers attract and share intimacy from crowds of strangers. Performers offer the bubble of a continuing relationship. Their appearance is a regular, dependable event that can be integrated into your life. in time, the fan comes to believe they know the persona more intimately than others do.
  • What's different now is that interaction can go back and forth now.
  • Parasocialism is something creators think about when presenting themselves both online and in-person. Setting boundaries are important. Some fans might think they deserve more than others.
  • Ban people who don't respect boundaries.
  • Parasocialism can be positive, by creating a supportive community.
  • A good community makes you want to help others, makes you happy, makes you enjoy being human.
  • Foster positive experiences.
  • Fans can make fanart, fangames, etc, starting with parasocial intentions
  • Parasocial feelings can help build real, meaningful social connections.
  • Maybe the solution for loneliness is to build community.

Q&A:

• What advice would you give to a community that wants to foster healthy parasocialism?
  • Everyone needs to respect boundaries, and the boundaries need to be clear. This helps build social norms.
  • Establish rules right away, and put your foot down when rule violations happen.
• Why do you think parasocialism has gotten more attention recently?
  • You have direct interaction now which didn't exist before. The old definitions didn't take this into account.
• How does parasocialism affect different demographics?
  • The difficulty is in getting the data. It's also challenging to collect it and define what parasocialism is for a study.
• What do you think about parasocialism between vtubers? How do you navigate that?
  • You have to understand that we are all colleagues. But you also have to understand boundaries and know that you might not vibe with everyone. You need to recognize if there are social cues that indicate whether or not someone has enough time for more friends. Don't take things personally if things don't happen, maybe it isnt just the right time yet.
• Do you have advice for someone who gives others too many chances and won't put their foot down on rule violations?
  • It's understandably hard for content creators to put their foot down.
  • It might be a matter of changing the boundaries; of making them less lenient.
  • It's worth it to try and talk it out tactfully, but it's not worth it to tell them over and over again. It's their show. It's going to be hard.
• (could not hear question)
  • It is shocking to hear how bad loneliness is compared to smoking. It can be due to cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases near the end of life. There's a whole host of issues.
  • There's no straightforward answer.
• A community is the ideal goal, but how do you go about creating or joining one?
  • You don't have to join a large group all at once. Connect with at least one person that shares interests or hobbies with you. Then, you can find more people who are similar to you.
  • You could try streaming, to find people with like-minded hobbies and interests.
• How important is communication in establishing boundaries and to realize if you are stepping over a boundary you should not cross?
  • If you feel like your boundaries have been crossed, try to let the other know in a non-judgemental way.
  • A lot of us have the danger of overthinking.
  • It's a two-way street. If there was a bad interaction, it's important to be mindful.

Left before q&a ended.