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Are We In Parasocial Relationships With Our Friends?

Are We In Parasocial Relationships With Our Friends?

On millennial flakiness and being 'extremely online.' Plus, the cult of Reddit.

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Anna Haines
Dec 17, 2023
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Are We In Parasocial Relationships With Our Friends?
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Nostalgic for a time before group chats replaced four-way calls.

After several last-minute cancellations, no-shows and unanswered texts this week, I’m growing disenchanted with this whole making-friends thing. For context: I have spent the better half of the last decade being totally content alone. I retreated inward as a self-protective measure, and lost many friends along the way. The ones worth keeping stuck around and are still my friends today. But in the last couple years, I’ve started to feel insecure about how small my social circle has become. Having my teen and young adult years coincide with (what I would argue was) peak idealization of the female friend group—a trope that we now know is unrealistic—as an adult, I often worry my lack of friends means there is something wrong with me.

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