When Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce announced their engagement, millions of people they'd never met felt genuinely invested in their happiness. Strangers typed out celebrations like they were texting a best friend. The Cambridge Dictionary just named the word for this feeling its word of the year: parasocial.
A parasocial relationship is a one-sided connection—you feel bonded to someone (a celebrity, influencer, content creator, even an AI chatbot) who has no idea you exist. It's not new. Sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl coined the term back in 1956 to describe how TV viewers connected with on-screen personalities. But the concept has exploded. What was once academic jargon is now something millions of people experience and openly talk about.
Why this matters
Our brains are wired for connection. "We are social creatures," says Simone Schnall, a social psychologist at Cambridge. "Our brains have evolved to be with other people. We see social connections everywhere, whether they're real or not." This isn't a flaw—it's how we're built. The trouble is, parasocial bonds can feel real enough to trick us into thinking we know someone we don't. Elizabeth Perse, a communications scholar, calls it an "illusion of friendship." When it intensifies, people start believing they can trust these figures, even develop fierce loyalty to them. All while the other person remains completely unaware.
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Start Your News DetoxSearches for "parasocial" spiked in June 2025 when media outlets started examining how AI chatbots might affect children's mental health. The term surged again after a YouTube creator blocked a follower who called themselves the creator's "number one parasocial." In September, Cambridge updated its definition to include parasocial relationships with AI—a first.
Most parasocial bonds are harmless. You can enjoy someone's work, feel inspired by them, even think about them fondly without it affecting your life. But Schnall notes the risk: when these one-sided connections start replacing real friendships and real-world interaction, they become a problem. The key is recognizing the illusion for what it is.
The Cambridge Dictionary's choice reflects a broader shift. The dictionary added over 6,000 new words and phrases in 2025, many tied to AI and social media culture. "Slop" (low-quality AI content), "memeify" (turn something into a meme), and "broligarchy" (extremely rich tech guys with political ambitions) all made the cut. As Jessica Rundell, a senior editor, puts it: "We're not here to judge what's a good word or a bad word. It's whether people are using it all over the place."
Parasocial relationships aren't going anywhere. As long as we have celebrities, influencers, and now AI, people will feel connected to them. The question isn't whether these bonds exist—it's whether we understand them for what they are.
