PERFECTLY IMPERFECT RELATIONSHIPS

Typically, what would you say your ideal night looks like? There are endless options, but many of us would go straight to the simplest one of all: Netflix. A night of watching your cherished show and binging your favorite snacks is more than ideal. There is no greater freedom than relaxation, but there is condemnation in prioritizing fictional personas over relationship intentionality. Getting wrapped up in a fantastical television show is addicting and that addiction is only heightened by the presence of characters in which we are beyond attached. Love makes you do crazy things, no matter how obsessive or delusional that love is. Parasocial relationships feed into a love that encourages us to choose a night with Damon Salvatore over a night with friends that are physically right in front of you and craving the reciprocal treatment that you are so clearly seeking in a realm that is incapable of offering anything real. Replacing real friends with our fictional ones offers the short-term solution of never having to worry about your social battery running out. However, in the long run, this solution ensures unfulfillment, loneliness, and exhaustion in focusing all of your energy on relationships that do not reciprocate the praise you pour toward them on a constant basis. Everyone deserves to be surrounded by a social circle that is eternally grateful for their existence. Real relationships of all kinds are messy, tiring, and take an equal effort, but their value is found in their humanity. Perfection is not a reality out of show business, so appreciate the fictional worlds for their shiny exterior, but hold strongly to your real-world relationships, for they will prove to be far more valuable than any parasocial relationship ever can.

Writer: Zoey Frederick

Photographer: Peri Shaink

Design: Anna Keller

Model : Logan Hansen