>>39862920Time for ojisan's story.
Around 15 years ago I started using Facebook. I would write the occasional post, comment under my friends' posts, like some pictures, you know the drill. But in my mind I was already confusing my list of Facebook friends with my actual social circle.
It all dawned on me one fatal night, when I went to a concert with a bunch of friends-of-friends, whom I had been in contact through Facebook almost daily. I considered them more or less regular friends (not best friends, but not mere acquaintances.) But when we met again in person, it turned out they barely recognized me or remembered who I was.
This was a cold shower to me. I was tech savvy, but I was not socially savvy enough to manage a tool like Facebook safely. (Totally on me, by the way, due to being a bit aspie.) So I deleted that profile and I haven't mixed social media with IRL friends ever again.
At the time I did not have a name for it, but that was a parasocial experience. Those friends-of-friends were slightly more famous than me (they had their own 1-view indie band) and therefore any interaction we might have had online was necessarily asymmetrical, which is the definition of parasocial.
In any case, like all other things, when you know it and understand it, parasocial relationships can be nice. Nowadays I like having them with vtubers (esp. 2 views) but I know full well that the most I can expect from them is maybe having my username recognized every once in a while. If you know what to expect, you won't get hurt and you won't misplace your real life priorities.
