I am a man who is susceptible to limerence, and so parasocial interactions are a moral hazard for me. All it takes is for me to spot a nice singer in a cool video and then I get hooked, and I get into her life and study her bio, and follow her on all social media, and dream about her and create a verifiably artificial relationship in which she has no idea I exist, but we're close to getting married next month.<p>And if she's a distant celebrity on social media, at least it's safe. Sometimes I develop limerence for someone in real life, and it's even worse.<p>And I've had this all my life. I remember as a small child, I had McDonald's bed sheets (please don't laugh). And there were two child characters on the sheet, a boy and a girl who were friendly. And I would stay up at night kissing the girl and razzing the boy. So I had this parasocial romance with a 2D cartoon.<p>I watched a lot of TV and I had one crush after another. Elizabeth Montgomery on "Bewitched". Christina Applegate. Melissa Joan Hart. I collected magazine clippings, video shorts and edits, bios, I sought autographs, you know, all sorts of things before the Internet even happened. Once I was online I started fan-club mailing lists, I searched and read/edited Wikipedia articles, everything.<p>In fact I got wind that Melissa Joan Hart would be in Beverly Hills for a public appearance in 2011, so I purchased a ticket and rented a car. I visited her candy shoppe where she was not present, but I put on a show for the workers there, that's for sure. I went to the event and it was obvious that I desperately wanted to meet/touch/speak to her, and she wasn't having any of it.<p>Yeah, so parasocial interaction is a crazy thing, and I'd say that these days, I'm better equipped to discern the line between my fantasy and the reality of a relationship. But it's not easy when so many celebrities (especially obscure ones) are so accessible, just a DM away! Imagine the thrill you get when your favorite influencer "likes" your comment or replies! People are sure to shell out for a Patreon subscription when that happens.