The 'Illusion of Intimacy': Why 'Parasocial' Defines Our 2025 Digital Relationships
The term, which describes one-sided bonds with celebrities, influencers, and AI, has been named the Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year for 2025, reflecting a major shift in modern human connection
- The Cambridge Dictionary has named 'parasocial' its 2025 Word of the Year to reflect a major shift in how people form digital relationships.
- The term describes a one-sided, illusory sense of intimacy or familiarity with a person one has never met, such as a celebrity, influencer, or an AI chatbot.
- Its prominence grew due to strong fan investment in celebrity lives, obsessive influencer culture, and the emerging trend of people forming emotional bonds with AI like ChatGPT.
- Experts warn that these relationships can become unhealthy, creating a false sense of trust and connection, particularly for vulnerable individuals interacting with AI.
The term, which describes one-sided bonds with celebrities, influencers, and AI, has been named the Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year for 2025, reflecting a major shift in modern human connection.
The word 'parasocial' has been chosen by the Cambridge Dictionary as its Word of the Year for 2025, in recognition of its central role in defining how people form deep, emotional connections in the age of social media and artificial intelligence.
The term, managed by the Cambridge University Press & Assessment, was selected because it perfectly encapsulates the changing nature of human relationships, which are no longer limited to the people we meet in person.
What is a Parasocial Relationship?
A parasocial relationship is defined as a sense of attachment, intimacy, or familiarity with an individual that the admirer has never met in real life. This applies to artists, celebrities, influencers, and increasingly, AI chatbots.
The concept was first coined in 1956 by sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl to describe television viewers who felt they 'knew' the hosts or actors they watched daily, even though the feeling was entirely unreciprocated.
The phenomenon has exploded in the modern era. Online platforms provide constant access to influencers’ private lives, thoughts, and emotions via short videos and live streams.
This creates an illusion of a two-way connection, where the viewer’s brain processes the content as a familiar relationship.
From Taylor Swift to ChatGPT
Cambridge cited several examples that drove the word's prominence in 2025:
Celebrity Bonds: The announcement of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's engagement triggered widespread emotional reactions from fans who felt deeply invested in the relationship. Psychologists noted that millions of fans connected to Swift’s confessional lyrics, creating strong "parasocial bonds."
Influencer Obsession: The word experienced a major surge in lookups after streamer IShowSpeed publicly blocked an overly zealous fan, referring to them as his “number 1 parasocial,” highlighting the line-crossing behaviour that can result from these one-sided attachments.
AI Companionship: A new dimension to the trend is the emergence of parasocial relationships with AI chatbots. Users are increasingly treating tools like ChatGPT as confidantes, friends, or even romantic partners, leading to meaningful—and sometimes troubling—emotional connections.
The Psychology of the Unreciprocated
Experts explain that parasocial relationships thrive because they satisfy fundamental human needs for belonging and acceptance, often more easily than real-life interactions.
Platform design plays a key role, as algorithms continuously feed users content from the same personalities, deepening the attachment.
Prof Simone Schnall of Experimental Social Psychology at the University of Cambridge, called the choice of 'parasocial' "inspired."
She warned that many people are forming 'unhealthy and intense' parasocial relationships, developing a false sense of trust in influencers.
"As trust in mainstream and traditional media breaks down, people turn to individual personalities as authorities, and—when they spend many hours consuming their content—develop parasocial bonds, treating them more like close friends, family or cult leaders."
Prof Schnall noted the trend is particularly concerning among vulnerable young people who may treat AI chatbots like friends or therapists, mistaking the positive affirmation and 'glazing' (excessive, insincere flattery) for a genuine relationship.
