Social Media Is Now Parasocial Media
Danah boyd revisits the internet she helped study and shape in the 2000s, when blogs, forums, and early platforms still felt like tools for participation, experimentation, and mutual connection. She offers a scholarly paper that argues today’s platforms are better understood as parasocial media: spaces built less around interacting with friends and more around watching performers, influencers, and algorithmically amplified strangers. The shift changes what kinds of relationships are possible online, and what happens to the social fabric when scrolling replaces reciprocity. “We imagined a social media ecosystem that prioritized strengthening connections through media rather than one that replaced connections with media.”
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