Studies involving longitudinal effects of parasocial interactions on children are still relatively new, according to developmental psychologist Sandra L. Media personas have a significant amount of influence over media users, positive or negative, informing the way that they perceive certain topics or even their purchasing habits. Media users are loyal and feel directly connected to the persona, much as they are connected to their close friends, by observing and interpreting their appearance, gestures, voice, conversation, and conduct. Parasocial relationships are enhanced due to trust and self-disclosure provided by the media persona.

Positive information learned about the media persona results in increased attraction, and the relationship progresses. Ī parasocial interaction, an exposure that garners interest in a persona, becomes a parasocial relationship after repeated exposure to the media persona causes the media user to develop illusions of intimacy, friendship, and identification. The term was coined by Donald Horton and Richard Wohl in 1956. PSI is described as an illusionary experience, such that media audiences interact with personas (e.g., talk show hosts, celebrities, fictional characters, social media influencers) as if they are engaged in a reciprocal relationship with them.

Viewers or listeners come to consider media personalities as friends, despite having no or limited interactions with them. Parasocial interaction ( PSI) refers to a kind of psychological relationship experienced by an audience in their mediated encounters with performers in the mass media, particularly on television and on online platforms. Media personalities seen regularly through mass media, such as online videos, may come to be perceived as friends by the viewer

Jstock look and feel