Cambridge Dictionary has named ‘parasocial’ its word of the year due to its viral and “unhealthy” relevance in today’s online world
The Cambridge Dictionary has just announced ‘parasocial’ as its word of the year for 2025 due to it being relevant to today’s social media relationships between celebrities and followers, and due to our recent “connections” with AI.
The term was actually coined in 1956 by sociologists Donald Horton and Richard Wohl, who wanted to describe how television viewers formed “para-social” relationships with television personalities – in short, feeling like they ‘know them’ even if just watching them religiously on the tube, when in fact there is no real personal connection.
With more and more celebrities – from TV, film, and of course various internet channels – having direct avenues for communicating with their fans and vice versa, we can see why the word suddenly has a certain buzz around it. In fact, we could even apply ‘parasocial’ to our communications with artificial intelligence since we spend so much time speaking with Siri, Alexa and the like. Who hasn’t yelled a swear word to the voice dictating directions on Google Maps while driving frantically to an appointment that they’re already late for?
Cambridge cited several examples in pop culture where parasocial activity is rife – including Taylor Swift and her relationship with meathead NFL player Travis Kelce, as well as Lily Allen’s recent intimate detail-dumping in songs on her album, West End Girl.
The term appears to have run rampant online this year, particularly due to parents’ concerns that their kids are spending too much time fussing over celebrities’ relationships rather than going out and forging real ones of their own. Also, it seems a lot of us are fostering unhealthy, even “dangerous” liaisons with AI chatbots.
Colin McIntosh, a lexicographer at the Cambridge Dictionary, said the word “captures the 2025 zeitgeist” and demonstrates how language changes. “What was once a specialist academic term has become mainstream,” he said.
Simone Schnall, professor of experimental social psychology at the University of Cambridge, also said in a statement that the word “is an inspired choice” but that the phenomenon itself is disturbing since we’ve entered an age where people form intense and unhealthy parasocial relationships with influencers – when in actual fact the relationships are completely one-sided.
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