228: Grieving for a Social Media Influencer: Exploring Parasocial Relationships on Reddit with Emily Rose

The rise of social media influencers means it is easier than ever to form parasocial relationships with celebrities or online influencers. Although parasocial relationships are one-sided and don’t involve any contact in the real world, the death of someone whose life you have been closely following online can cause a visceral reaction.In the case of Dave Hollis, his sudden death at the age of 47 sent a subreddit community of over 13,000 people into an emotional freefall. In this conversation ...