My Parasocial Relationship

My Addiction/Parasocial Relationship
Sara McInerney
1-29-13

I love How I Met Your Mother. Plain and simple, I am obsessed. I have seen every episode at least twice and I continue to watch to this day, over and over and over and over...  Needless to say, I am addicted, and I know it. 

Luckily, I do not completely fall under the definition we discussed in class. While I do not physically depend on the show, I definitely depend on it in a psychological manner. I have seen the show so many times, it even helps me go to sleep because I don't actually have to listen, so I can lay there and not have to be consumed with thoughts of what I need to be doing tomorrow or should have done today, I can just drift into sleep from the voices of Ted, Lily, Robyn, Barney and Marshall. When I have had a bad day and don't want to think about anything, I turn on the show and soon enough, I am asleep. The definition also says that the person addicted will schedule time around the addiction. While I do not schedule time to watch the show when it airs, I always watch it the day after.. Thanks to my iPhone and Netflix, I even watch the show when I only have ten minutes to do so. I watch it when I brush my teeth, get ready for class at 7 a.m. and when I cook. While I am not scheduling time to watch the show, I definitely make time for it, even if it is multitasking. Unfortunately  my few friends who watch the show are back at home so I don't talk too much about it but if I slip a phrase here and there, my boyfriend catches it and rolls his eyes. He hasn't seen half the episodes I have, and he is over the show and does not want to hear about it because he is usually around when I am watching it.

I had to laugh out loud when we learned the definition of a parasocial relationship in class. A parasocial relationship is one sided, a bond of intimacy and you think and act like you know that person. While I do have a particular person in mind but my relationship is with an entire show, I definitively feel this way about this show. The show makes me feel at home. When I hear their voices and am watching them interact in the bar or their apartment, I feel like all is right and I can relax.