What is a parasocial relationship?
You must have heard about crazy fans of film heroes or cricketers-footballers. You must have also heard that fans want to marry their favourite celebrity and claim that they love these celebrities. This is a parasocial relationship.
Geetanjali Sharma, relationship counsellor at DGS Counselling Solutions, says, 'When you develop a relationship with someone who is known to a wide range of people, it is called a parasocial relationship.'
'Such a relationship can be with a politician, film star or any influential person. But the biggest thing about such a relationship is that the celebrity is not aware of this relationship.'
'This is a one-sided relationship that you have formed by being impressed by someone. But on the other hand, you are not important to that celebrity, he does not even know you. In many cases, people even associate themselves with fictional characters.'
Why and when do young people start falling in love with stars?
There is no doubt that most of the fans of celebrities are youngsters. In such a situation, most of the youngsters become a part of such relationships.
According to Geetanjali Sharma, 'The foundation of such a relationship is laid in childhood itself. A child starts liking a star at an early age. Gradually, he starts getting influenced by his words and in adolescence, he gets into a parasocial relationship with that celebrity.'
Experts say that 'parasocial relationships are not just limited to love or girlfriend-boyfriend relationships, but a person can consider a celebrity as his best friend or even see him/her as his/her sibling.'
'But this relationship is made by the person himself, about which even the stars themselves are not aware. Relationship expert Dr. Ishita Mukherjee says, 'This kind of relationship is formed in teenage. But people between the age of 20 and 30 can also get into such relationships.'
Somewhere there was a ruckus over love and someone's matter was settled
Recently, a crazy fan of Salman Khan reached his farmhouse in Panvel to marry him. She created a lot of ruckus about her desire to marry Salman. Ultimately, she had to be arrested. One such girl proposed Kartik Aryan for marriage during an event.
Well, we have seen many such cases where the love of fans has blossomed. Like Shilpa Shetty's husband Raj Kundra was once a big fan of her. It is said that RJ Anmol fell in love with actress Amrita Rao at first sight, because her simplicity was worth seeing. Later, love blossomed between the two and they got married.
Is this a relationship or a mental illness?
Many people also consider it a mental problem. Does it cause any kind of problem? Regarding this, Dr. Ishita Mukherjee says, 'As long as you feel love from someone that makes you feel good, it is called parasocial relationship.
If you feel happy or inspired by seeing someone, then such a relationship is not bad. But when you start desiring to possess that person, then that relationship starts turning into a mental problem.
Geetanjali Sharma explains, 'The problem in such a relationship starts when you start feeling sad, lonely due to that one-sided relationship or you are ready to go to any extent to get that star.
We divide parasocial into three categories. Entertainment SocialSecond Intensely Personal And thirdly borderline pathological,
In entertainment social, a person has a relationship with a star up to entertainment. In deep personal, a person has more feelings for that star in his heart.
The third borderline is pathological, in this the person has no control over himself. He is ready to do anything. He does not even hesitate to commit any crime. Such a person needs treatment.
