Following Your “Friend”: Social Media and the Strength of Adolescents' Parasocial Relationships with Media Personae

Abstract

Social media have permeated the lives of adolescents and may be altering the way that teens engage with their favorite media celebrities and characters. This study surveyed 316 adolescents to examine the relationship between social media surveillance and the strength of adolescents' parasocial relationships (PSRs) with media personae they follow on social media. Results indicated a significant positive relationship between exposure to media personae on Twitter and strength of PSRs. Adolescents who had experienced social interactions with their favorite media personae on Twitter in the form of retweets or responses to tweets had stronger PSRs than adolescents who had no such interactions. The realism of the media personae did not moderate findings as expected. The findings suggest that Twitter provides intimate glimpses into the personal lives of media personae that increase audiences' feelings of connectedness to those celebrities and characters, an important finding given that teens are more likely to learn from media personae with whom they have PSRs.

Introduction

Social media platforms have become nearly ubiquitous among adolescent users. The average United States teen spends at least 1 hour a day engaged with social media.¹ Almost 90 percent of United States teens use social media and 24 percent report being engaged almost constantly.² Research suggests that social media can influence adolescents' identity development, access to information, and relationships.³ Social media may not only impact real-life relationships, but may also alter teens' parasocial relationships (PSRs)—unilateral, intimate relationships that audience members develop with media characters and celebrities. The purpose of this study is to explore how social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and SnapChat contribute to the strength of adolescents' PSRs with media personae (i.e., characters and celebrities).

Parasocial relationships

PSRs are mediated interpersonal relationships between audiences and media personae.⁴ PSRs may arise from our instinctive need for social relationships; audiences may gratify their need for attachment to others not only through their real-life interactions, but also by interacting with media personae. Individual one-sided interactions between audiences and media personae are referred to as parasocial interactions.⁵ Parasocial interactions work in similar ways to real-life interactions; more frequent and intimate interactions reduce uncertainty and increase feelings of connectedness.⁴

PSRs are similar to face-to-face friendships in their development, maintenance, and function.^6,7 Unlike face-to-face friendships, however, PSRs are one-sided. On television, for example, characters' actions are observable to viewers, but viewers' actions are not observable to characters. PSRs are, therefore, characterized by their one-sided sentimentality. PSRs may be particularly noteworthy for adolescents.

Young people are more likely to learn from media personae whom they perceive as trusted friends.⁵ In one study, adolescents who reported strong PSRs with the cast of Jersey Shore had sexual attitudes that mirrored those of the cast more so than adolescents who did not have PSRs with cast members.⁸ If teens are more likely to learn from media personae with whom they have PSRs, scholars must better understand the underlying factors that influence the creation and maintenance of PSRs. Social media are likely altering the way that adolescents experience PSRs because they provide media personae with novel platforms to reveal tidbits of personal information to young audiences.

Social media

When media personae post to social media, they provide audiences with intimate, behind-the-scene peeks into their everyday lives and taste preferences. The ability of media personae to carefully craft an image and create a sense of closeness and familiarity between themselves and their followers on social media is referred to as performative intimacy.⁹ For celebrities, performative intimacy could increase branding and marketing opportunities.¹⁰ For audiences, performative intimacy likely strengthens PSRs.

Let us assume that a teenage girl in 1986 experienced a PSR with pop musician Cyndi Lauper. In line with the conceptualization of PSRs, the teenage girl would have built her emotional connection to Lauper through parasocial interactions. However, in 1986 the media landscape would have limited the teen's parasocial interactions to watching Lauper on television, reading about her in print, and listening to her music. Though the teen may have learned intimate details about Lauper's personal life from television appearances or magazine interviews, such appearances would have been relatively infrequent. Fast-forward 30 years. Today's teenage girl has a PSR with Katy Perry. The teen watches Perry on television, reads about her in print, and listens to her music. She, however, also has access to Perry's posts on social media. These posts can provide quick glimpses into the everyday occurrences of Perry and, in turn, create or reinforce a sense of privilege to Perry's personal backstage.^9,11 In just 1 week, Perry posted to Twitter twelve times, disclosing her support for a presidential candidate, love of tacos, wardrobe difficulties at a music festival, and excitement for cherry trees to blossom. Perry's taste preferences in politics, food, clothing, and botany were self-disclosed in a matter of days on social media. When adolescents follow their favorite media personae on social media, they increase the frequency and intimacy of their parasocial interactions, reduce uncertainty about their PSRs, and likely strengthen PSRs.

H₁: A positive relationship will exist between PSR strength and exposure to favorite media personae on social media.

A key element to PSRs is realism. For individuals to develop PSRs, they need to be able to make person judgments much the same way individuals do when developing real-life relationships.^12,13 Users must perceive social media posts by media personae as authentic for the information garnered from social media to strengthen feelings of connectedness.¹³ Giles¹² argued that individuals are more likely to develop strong PSRs with nonfictional celebrities than with fictional characters given the importance of realism. Realism may then moderate the predicted relationship between PSR strength and social media.

H₂: The predicted relationship between PSR strength and exposure to favorite media personae on social media will be stronger for participants who reported PSRs with nonfictional personae than for participants who reported PSRs with fictional personae.

Though PSRs are characterized by their one-sidedness, social media permit two-way interactions between media personae and their followers. Media personae can repost and respond to their followers in unique and novel ways not afforded by more traditional media.¹⁴ Though such interactions are rare,¹¹ media personae can mention their followers to increase feelings of connectedness, give back to loyal fans, and manage their image.⁹ If parasocial interactions lead to PSRs, a repost or response that briefly transforms the parasocial into social will likely have an even stronger influence on adolescents' perceptions of their PSRs with media personae.

H₃: Participants who have engaged in computer-mediated interactions with their favorite media personae will have stronger PSRs than participants who have not.

Method

Sample

Vice principals from six randomly selected southern California middle and high schools were invited to recruit their students to participate in the study. Vice principals reviewed the questionnaire before providing written consent for participation. A university institutional review board approved replacing parents' consent with school administrators' consent because the study presented minimal risk to participants. School administrators who provided consent were instructed to send recruitment email messages to their students. The recruitment email included a hyperlink to an assent form. Once participants provided assent, they were directed to an online survey. The adolescents in the sample (N = 316) ranged in age from 13 to 17 years (M age = 15.64, SD = 1.19). More females (74 percent) participated in the study than males (26 percent). The sample was composed primarily of participants identifying as White (73 percent), mixed race (9 percent), Latino/Hispanic (8 percent), and Asian (7 percent). Few participants identified as Black (1 percent) or another racial identity (2 percent).

Measures

The first item on the online questionnaire asked participants to report their favorite media persona, a common practice in the data collection procedures of studies examining PSRs based on the assumption that individuals will most likely have PSRs with media personae that they consider to be their favorite.¹⁵ Participants were instructed to name anyone they would consider their favorite regardless of the reality status, nature, or role of the persona. However, participants were asked to list only individual names rather than groups (e.g., the entire cast of a television show or a musical group). Two coders blind to the purpose of the study then coded each of the favorite media personae to determine whether they were fictional characters or nonfictional celebrities using information garnered through independent internet searches of the media personae (κ = 1.00). Following the favorite media persona item, participants responded to items measuring PSR strength, exposure to favorite media personae in traditional and social media, and demographics. Age and race were presented as open-ended questions; gender was measured using a single close-ended item. Following the favorite persona item, all other measures were presented to participants in random order to control for potential order effects.

PSR strength

The 15-item parasocial interaction scale quantifies the strength of one-way emotional connections that television audiences experience with television characters.¹⁶ The measure was altered for the purpose of this study to account for media personae not on television and to allow the questionnaire to electronically pipe the names of the participants' favorite media personae into each item. For example, the original item, “I look forward to watching this character when his/her show is on” was altered to read, “I look forward to watching, listening to, or reading about [name of media persona].” Other examples include, “[Name of media persona] would fit in well with my group of friends” and “[Name of media persona] makes me feel comfortable, like I am with a friend.” Responses to the items were measured on a five-point scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Mean scores were calculated for the 15 items (α = 0.86) and ranged from 2.20 to 5.00 (M = 4.10, SD = 0.57).

Exposure to favorite media personae

Participants reported how often they were exposed to their favorite media persona “on television, in film, in magazines, or on the radio” (i.e., traditional screen media) as one item on a scale from 1 (never) to 7 (at least once/day) (M = 4.05, SD = 1.95). The same anchor points were then used to measure how often participants checked the posts of their favorite media persona on Facebook (M = 2.76, SD = 2.29), Instagram (M = 3.37, SD = 2.56), SnapChat (M = 1.95, SD = 1.88), and Twitter (M = 2.68, SD = 2.42). These four social media platforms were included on the questionnaire because current national survey data suggest that they are the most popular among adolescents.² Participants were also asked how many times their favorite media persona had ever reposted or replied to any of their posts on Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat, or Twitter.

Results

Descriptive analyses

Favorite media personae

Participants reported 201 different media personae as favorites. The most frequently cited favorites were Jennifer Lawrence (11 percent), Taylor Swift (3 percent), Harry Styles (2 percent), Sheldon Cooper (2 percent), and Miley Cyrus (2 percent). Only 28 percent of participants reported favorite media personae that were among the top 10 most cited, indicating considerable variance among adolescents' favorite media personae. Media personae were more likely nonfictional celebrities (60 percent) than fictional characters (40 percent).

Media use

Most adolescents (70 percent) reported following their favorite media persona on at least one social media platform, and half (50 percent) reported following their favorite on at least two different social media platforms. A smaller percent (15 percent) noted that they use all four social media platforms included in the study to follow their favorite media persona. Instagram was the most popular for following media personae (55 percent), followed by Facebook (46 percent), Twitter (36 percent), and SnapChat (26 percent).

Hypotheses and research questions

The first hypothesis predicted a relationship between PSR strength and frequency of exposure to favorite media personae via social media. The second hypothesis predicted that this relationship would be moderated by the realism of the media personae. To test these hypotheses, a linear regression analysis was conducted using age, sex, race, media personae realism, traditional media exposure, exposure to the four social media platforms, and interaction terms as predictor variables and strength of PSR as the criterion variable. All variables were mean-centered before analysis to prevent issues related to multicollinearity. The resulting model was significant, F (9, 289) = 5.68, p < 0.001. Participant sex was related to PSR strength (β = 0.26, p < 0.001) such that females had stronger PSRs than males. Twitter (β = 0.22, p < 0.01) significantly contributed to PSR strength. Facebook (β = 0.06), Instagram (β = −0.05), SnapChat (β = 0.07), traditional media (β = 0.02), and realism (β = −0.01) failed to contribute to PSR strength (Table 1). Hypothesis 1 was partially supported; exposure to favorite media personae on Twitter was significantly related to PSR strength. Interaction terms were not significant contributors to PSR strength. Thus, realism of the media personae failed to moderate the relationship between social media and PSR strength. Hypothesis 2 was not supported.

Table 1.

Summary of Regression Analysis Predicting Parasocial Relationship Strength

	B	SE	β
Sex	0.32	0.07	0.26^***
Age	0.03	0.03	0.07
Race	0.09	0.07	0.07
Realism	−0.02	0.07	−0.01
Traditional Media	0.01	0.02	0.02
Facebook	0.02	0.02	0.06
Instagram	−0.01	0.02	−0.05
Twitter	0.05	0.02	0.22^**
SnapChat	0.06	0.05	0.07

Note. Sex (male/female), race (White/racial minority), and realism (fictional/non-fictional) were dichotomously coded. Interaction terms were nonsignificant and thus removed from analysis to preserve power.

F (9, 289) = 5.68, p < 0.001. R² = 0.15. ^**p < 0.01, ^***p < 0.001.

The third hypothesis predicted that participants who had engaged in computer-mediated interactions with favorite media personae would have stronger PSRs than participants who had not engaged in such interactions. Only 3 percent of the sample (n = 9) reported engaging in computer-mediated interactions with their favorite media persona. All of these interactions came in the form of a retweet or response tweet on Twitter. No participant reported more than one such interaction. Participants who had interacted with their favorite media personae on Twitter had stronger PSRs (M = 4.50, SD = 0.40) than participants who had no such interactions (M = 4.08, SD = 0.56), t (312) = 2.23, p < 0.05. Hypothesis 3 was supported.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to examine how exposure to media personae on social media was related to PSR strength among adolescents. A positive relationship was found between surveilling favorite media personae on Twitter and strength of PSRs that was not significant for other social media platforms. Though more adolescents reported following favorite media personae on Instagram and Facebook than Twitter, the relationship between Twitter and PSRs may be explained by the nature and function of the social media platform. Twitter has emerged as a legitimate channel of celebrity voice. Tweets from celebrities and politicians are often cited as official statements by news media, a privilege not often afforded to other social media.¹⁷ The improvisatory quality of tweets or the inability to edit posted tweets may contribute to their perceived legitimacy. Not only are tweets deemed authentic, but they are also often intimate. A qualitative analysis of 12 media personae Twitter accounts suggested that celebrities disclose personal information on Twitter and that such disclosure is meaningful and potentially influential for those who consume the messages.¹¹ The legitimacy and intimacy of tweets may increase the importance of parasocial interactions on Twitter compared to other social media and, in turn, influence the strength of PSRs between teen audiences and their favorite media personae.

Frequency may also explain the contribution of Twitter to PSR strength. Media personae may post more frequently on Twitter than other social media. The casual observation of Katy Perry's Twitter account noted earlier found that Perry had tweeted 12 times in 1 week. In the same week, she had posted to Instagram just once. Perry's decision to tweet considerably more than to post on Instagram may be because Twitter followers are more than twice as likely than other social media users to repost content on Twitter and other social media.¹⁸ Reposts from everyday people are the lifeblood of building and maintaining fan loyalty on social media.¹⁰ If media personae are posting more frequently on Twitter, teen audiences may engage in more parasocial interactions on Twitter and, thus, strengthen PSRs.

The relationship between Twitter surveillance and PSR strength was not moderated by the realism of the media personae as hypothesized. Twitter may give life to fictional characters in ways that traditional media never could. Voldemort, the Harry Potter villain, has never been interviewed on The Tonight Show or featured in GQ. Voldemort, however, is active on Twitter and is followed by over 2 million people. The account has no affiliation with those who own rights to Voldemort's likeness. Though followers are aware that a fictional character cannot tweet, Voldemort's tweets serve as parasocial interaction between him and his followers, allowing fans to suspend reality in novel ways beyond the books and films and strengthen their PSRs with the villain.

Adolescents who had experienced computer-mediated communication with media personae on Twitter via a retweet or response to a tweet had stronger PSRs than those who had not experienced such communication. Such a finding reinforces the argument that a one-time social interaction can intensify an otherwise PSR.^9,11 Retweets or response tweets strengthen emotional connections, and emotional connections characterize PSRs. Computer-mediated communication with media personae may even have a greater impact on perceived intimacy than more traditional public appearances where audiences might engage in face-to-face interactions with their favorite celebrities like autograph signings. Autograph signings are scheduled and highly structured; social media posts are perceived as spontaneous and genuine.⁹ Such a finding could have implications for media personae managing performative intimacy as a means of branding and marketing. Social media platforms like Twitter may be safe spaces from which to connect with fans and increase PSR strength, all while avoiding the risks associated with real-life interactions with fans.¹¹

This study is not without limitations. The cross-sectional nature of the data does not allow causal claims. Teens with strong PSRs could subsequently follow their favorite media personae on Twitter. The relationship is likely mutually causal, but longitudinal and experimental research would provide additional insight into causation. A larger, more diversified sample would be beneficial given the lack of males and the small number of participants who had experienced computer-mediated communication with their favorite media personae. Additionally, the content of tweets from media personae was not examined here. A content analysis of celebrity tweets that teens are exposed to would also add to our understanding of how performative intimacy takes shape and its relationship to PSRs. Another area for future research lies in the social media literacy of adolescents. For example, assistants often author celebrity Twitter accounts rather than the celebrities themselves, a practice known as ghost-tweeting.¹³ Ghost-tweeting could alter the perceived authenticity and, in turn, influence PSRs.¹³ Research has also suggested that reliance on social media to follow media personae may be related to lower psychological well-being.¹⁹ Future research should continue to examine how adolescents interpret and understand parasocial interactions on social media and the effects of PSRs.

In sum, the findings presented here suggest that Twitter provides adolescents intimate glimpses into the backstage, personal lives of media personae. Exposure to the backstage increases teen audiences' feelings of connectedness to the characters and celebrities they follow and strengthens their PSRs. Given that research suggests teens are more likely to learn from media personae with whom they have PSRs, social media may be altering the function of media personae in creating, reinforcing, or changing adolescents' beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank Kat Pfost and Hayley West for their assistance with data collection and analysis.

Author Disclosure Statement

No competing financial interests exist.

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