My Parasocial Relationship: A love letter to Taylor Swift

Dearest Taylor Swift,

I am writing you this letter to inform you that we are in a relationship! It’s a one-sided, parasocial relationship, but it still counts! You may be wondering what a parasocial relationship entails, my love, and I am going to tell you. Deanna Sellnow describes our relationship as a relationship where one party knows a great deal about another party, while the other does not. That’s us!

I, for instance, know your birthday, height, hometown, middle name, and (thanks to the media) every boy you have ever dated. You know absolutely nothing about me, and apparently that is perfectly okay. This kind of relationship emerges when a bond of intimacy develops. That means that while an increasing amount of the population hates you, I still love you because I feel like I know you on a personal level. I refuse to let the haters deter my love and/or psychotic obsession with you. You are, after all, my future ex para-social relationship.

You see, Tay-Tay. (Is it okay if I call you Tay-Tay?) I have no delusions that our relationship will last forever. I may finally feed in to the hate and backlash that you encounter.  The sad truth is that our bond of intimacy is based on two factors, realism and privacy. You seem like the portrait of what a good, wholesome girl should be. That realism is why I am obsessed with you and I fear that I may finally jump on the T-Swift hate bandwagon. Your lack of privacy heavily influenced my infatuation with you and may be the cause of my distaste for you later. The obsession the media has with your personal life has given you a somewhat negative reputation.

Alas, I’ll move on to a different para-social relationship, and you will not change at all because you have no idea I exist. At least you know I won’t write a break-up song about you. (That would be crazy…right?)

Sincerely,

Your parasocial stalker Brandon