{"id":1139,"date":"2017-04-04T00:25:07","date_gmt":"2017-04-04T00:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2017-04-04T00:25:07","modified_gmt":"2017-04-04T00:25:07","slug":"are-parasocial-relationships-inherently-inauthentic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/2017\/04\/04\/are-parasocial-relationships-inherently-inauthentic\/","title":{"rendered":"Are parasocial relationships inherently inauthentic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

The part of our reading I found most interesting was the part addressing parasocial relationships with celebrities. \u00a0Of all the celebrity deaths of 2016, the one that provoked the greatest display of public mourning in my corner of the Internet was easily Carrie Fisher. \u00a0Just scrolling through her Tumblr tag for about five minutes, I came across these three posts. \u00a0Clearly, all three of these people feel a deep connection to her, whether as a motivating force or a parental figure (two posts refer to her as “space mom,” which is a common title of hers on the Internet).<\/p>\n

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Screenshot of a Tumblr post (shslsarcasticidiot.tumblr.com\/post\/159147131965\/scrolls-through-the-carrie-fisher-tag-to-force<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Another Tumblr post (priceforrottenjudgement.tumblr.com\/post\/159091343154\/im-still-not-over-the-death-of-carrie-fisher-and<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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People really miss Carrie Fisher… (madeleinedevalois.tumblr.com\/post\/159055295573<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sherlock describes these relationships as based on “false feelings of authenticity and intimacy” (168), and I want to push back on that assessment a little bit. \u00a0 She quotes another scholar who claims that an online or public presence is “an artificial build-up of ‘personality'” (168).<\/p>\n

Carrie Fisher’s online presence is\u00a0hilarious and authentic. \u00a0Her tweets do not look like they have been approved by a publicist. \u00a0I’ve included one of my favorite’s below.<\/p>\n

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A particularly hilarious tweet from Carrie (twitter.com\/carrieffisher<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Either Carrie has a crazy good publicist who manages to craft a perfectly unpolished, authentic presence on Twitter, or she’s just tweeting away of her own accord.<\/p>\n

Additionally, she’s written two memoirs that honestly document her experiences with mental illness and addiction (I only read part of\u00a0Wishful Drinking,\u00a0<\/em>and that was years ago, but I remember that it was extremely funny).<\/p>\n

Do these Tumblr users have an actual, mutual relationship with Carrie Fisher? \u00a0Of course not. \u00a0But I think it’s unfairly dismissive to claim every celebrity’s social media presence is inauthentic. \u00a0I think Carrie sparked such an enormous display of grief not only because she portrayed such an iconic character, but because she was unapologetically herself. \u00a0She aged unapologetically. \u00a0She was mentally ill unapologetically. \u00a0Seeing someone own everything about themselves, even the messy parts, allows us to do the same. \u00a0I think about the following tweet a lot in reference to celebrity deaths.<\/p>\n

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This tweet sums it up pretty nicely (www.vox.com\/2016\/1\/12\/10755600\/celebrity-death-grief<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In other words, I’m not trying to claim that parasocial relationships are the same thing as true, mutual relationships. \u00a0But I do disagree with this somewhat dismissive, cynical view of celebrities’ personas as inherently crafted and inauthentic. \u00a0Sherlock acknowledges that these feelings are not necessarily false “just because they are based on a falsity” (169), so she does acknowledge the significance of these relationships, but I don’t believe that they were\u00a0were necessarily based on a falsity in the first place. \u00a0I think what makes Carrie Fisher, and others like her, stand out is the authenticity of their public personas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The part of our reading I found most interesting was the part addressing parasocial relationships with celebrities. \u00a0Of all the celebrity deaths of 2016, the one that provoked the greatest display of public mourning in my corner of the Internet was easily Carrie Fisher. \u00a0Just scrolling through her Tumblr tag for about five minutes, … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Are parasocial relationships inherently inauthentic?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":113,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[150,151,152,153],"class_list":["post-1139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-group-b","tag-carrie-fisher","tag-celebrity-deaths","tag-parasocial-relationships","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/113"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1146,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions\/1146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.digitaldavidson.net\/dig215\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}