It seems like people on the internet are always talking about «parasocial relationships.» For those of you who don’t spend your commute listening to video essays from 2019, a parasocial relationship is a one-sided relationship where one of the subjects is obsessed with the other and has a strong emotional attachment to them. The other subject doesn’t know that they exist. 

Parasocial relationships are something we all engage with: we all watch Paul Giamatti movies and think he’s super swell, but most of us do not know him personally, despite our fondness. Maybe some of y’all have parasocial relationships with the writers of some of the meme lists you read, and that’s okay! Honestly, as long as we are able to distinguish between feeling and reality, there’s nothing wrong with engaging in parasocial attachments to people on the internet. If you’re feeling a little parasocial right now, dive into these memes made by people who you don’t know.