After two weeks of pure nostalgia I thought it might be best to re-enter the 21st Century. I was interested to see that ‘parasocial’ is Cambridge Dictionary Word of the Year for 2025.
“Parasocial” is defined tby he Cambrtidge Dictionary as ‘a relationship felt by someone between themselves and a famous person they do not know’.
There is nothing particularly new about this phenomenon. People have been fascinated by celebrity for centuries, but film, TV, and now the internet and social media have accelerated the interest.
An item on the BBC News website suggests that the confessional lyrics of singers like Taylor Swift have made fans relate their own relational ups and downs to those referenced by the singer.
The article also notes the visceral break-up album West End Girl by the singer Lily Allen. When I first heard the title song from this album I was not surprised to hear that the musicians who helped to record the song were taken aback by the candor of the singer in singing about the disintegration of her marriage.
On a positive note, there is a sense in which a star’s relatability makes them more compelling as a artist. Yet there are some potential downsides to this:
- Lacking a sense of reality. It is possible to begin to imagine that we know a famous person and that they know us. Bob Dylan famously speaks of seeing the late Buddy Holly on stage shortly before Holly’s death in a plane crash. Dylan says that Holly looked the unknown Dylan in the eye, fixing him with such a gaze that it appeared to be like a passing on of the baton to the young would-be singer. There is the danger, particularly in a world where we live much of our lives online, that we spend time with our online friends because we do not have any real friends.
- This lack of reality can create an unhealthy sense of dependence. This is particularly the case with the advent of AI, where personalised AI bots can become our friends, advisors or romantic partners.
- This dependence can take a sinister turn when an interest in a famous person becomes a fascination and then an obsession. And such an obsession can lead to online or in-person stalking.
It occurred to me tha the word ‘parasocial’ could inform the way that Christian readers and preachers of the Bible can interact with biblical characters. Evangelicals Now ran a monthly feature where it asked 10 questions to a Christian leader. One of the questions was:
Which Biblical person (other than Jesus) do you most look forward to meeting in glory, and why?
When I did the feature my answer was:
“The prophet Obadiah, because he contributed to Scripture, but has been largely ignored. I want to say I read his book and preached on it.”
Coming up to Christmas, I am impressed by the stories of Zechariah, Elisabeth, Joseph and Mary. These four demonstrate how, despite massive obstacles, they managed to be excited about God.
Of course, that is the point. These are real people who deflect our attention away from themselves to the reality of who God is and what he is doing.
Preachers need to be relatable but not celebrities. After all, we must remember that there is only one show in town and the star is Jesus!
Photo by Dayne Topkin on Unsplash