Chapter 19: Exercises — Parasocial Relationships and the Influencer Economy

Reflection Exercises

1. [Reflection] Your Own Parasocial Map Make a list of five public figures — creators, musicians, athletes, podcasters, or other media personalities — with whom you have some ongoing relationship as an audience member. For each, estimate where on the parasocial spectrum (casual interest / engaged following / parasocial bond / parasocial obsession) your relationship falls. What makes you place each relationship where you did? Are any of your placements surprising to you?

2. [Reflection] The Knowledge Asymmetry Choose one media figure you follow closely. Write for 10 minutes listing everything you know about this person — their history, their opinions, their habits, their relationships, their struggles. Then write for 5 minutes about what that person knows about you. Reflect: how does it feel to sit with this asymmetry? Has your awareness of it changed how you think about the relationship?

3. [Reflection] Parasocial Breakup Memory Think of a time when a media figure you followed changed significantly, disappeared, was cancelled, or otherwise disrupted your relationship with them. Describe what you remember feeling. Using the concept of the parasocial breakup from the chapter, how would you explain those feelings? Did you recognize them as grief-adjacent at the time?

4. [Reflection] Purchase Trace Identify three purchases you have made in the last year that were influenced, even partly, by a creator's recommendation or lifestyle. For each purchase, examine: Did you consciously register it as influenced by the creator? Did you think of the recommendation as advertising? Would you have made the purchase if a stranger on the street had made the same recommendation? What does the difference reveal?

5. [Reflection] Authenticity Detection Think of a creator whose content you experience as genuinely authentic. Now try to identify three specific choices — stylistic, format-based, behavioral — that contribute to your sense of their authenticity. Are these choices that could be strategically manufactured? Does the possibility that they are manufactured change how they feel to you?

6. [Reflection] Parasocial Need The chapter notes that parasocial relationships are more intense in people experiencing loneliness, social anxiety, or insecure attachment. Without self-judgment, reflect: can you identify any times in your life when parasocial relationships have served needs that real-world relationships were not meeting? What does this reveal about the relationship between parasocial and real-world social connection?

7. [Reflection] The Creator's Perspective Re-read the anonymous creator quote in the "Voices from the Field" section: "Nobody told me that the deal I was making when I started posting personal stuff was that I would never be allowed to stop." Imagine you are this creator. Write a journal entry from their perspective, one year into their account, the day they first realize the emotional obligations their audience has created.

Research Exercises

8. [Research] Platform Algorithm Audit Spend one hour engaging with a social media platform you use regularly, but with deliberate attention: notice which content the algorithm recommends, and identify which specific features of each recommended piece of content (vulnerability, confession, informal production, direct address) correspond to parasocial bond formation signals. Document your observations. What patterns emerge?

9. [Research] Sponsorship Disclosure Survey Select a creator you follow and examine their last 20 pieces of content. Identify every sponsored or commercially affiliated piece of content. For each, evaluate: Is the disclosure clear and conspicuous as the FTC requires? Where is it placed? In what language is it communicated? Calculate what percentage of commercially affiliated content meets a reasonable interpretation of FTC standards.

10. [Research] Fan Community Ethnography Spend two hours observing (not participating) in a fan community — a subreddit, a Discord server, a fan Twitter community — organized around a creator or celebrity. Document: What kinds of content circulate? What norms govern behavior? How do community members talk about the creator? How do they respond to critical perspectives? What evidence do you see of collective parasocial bonds operating?

11. [Research] Influencer Marketing History Research the history of the FTC's approach to influencer marketing, from the 2009 Endorsement Guides revision through the 2023 updates. Identify three specific enforcement actions the FTC has taken against creators or brands for disclosure violations. What were the outcomes? What does the enforcement history suggest about the effectiveness of the regulatory approach?

12. [Research] Creator Economy Revenue Analysis Select one mid-size creator (100,000 - 1 million followers) in any niche and research as much as you can about their revenue model. Identify all visible monetization mechanisms — sponsorships, merchandise, subscriptions, live streams, affiliate links. Estimate (roughly) how each mechanism might contribute to their total income. What does this revenue map reveal about the commercial structure of parasocial relationships?

13. [Research] Academic Literature Review Using your institution's library database, find three peer-reviewed academic articles on parasocial relationships published since 2015. Summarize each article's central argument and methodology. How does each article's findings extend or complicate the framework presented in this chapter? What aspects of parasocial relationships does academic research still have gaps in understanding?

14. [Research] Cross-Platform Comparison Choose one creator who maintains a significant presence on three or more platforms (e.g., TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter/X). Document how their self-presentation differs across platforms. Which platform's version of their persona seems most intimate? Most commercial? Most relatable? What do the differences reveal about how platform design shapes parasocial relationship architecture?

Analysis Exercises

15. [Analysis] Authenticity Theater Deconstruction Find a confessional or "vulnerable" video from a creator with more than 500,000 followers. Analyze it using the "authenticity theater" framework from the chapter. Identify: specific production choices that signal authenticity; emotional disclosures that activate parasocial responses; the video's likely effect on parasocial bond formation. Write a 500-word analysis distinguishing between what the video presents as spontaneous and what is likely the product of deliberate craft.

16. [Analysis] Dark Pattern Identification Examine a product launch by a mid-to-large creator (a merchandise drop, a course launch, a book release). Identify every dark pattern present in the launch campaign — manufactured scarcity, urgency, social proof, identity-relevant appeals. For each dark pattern identified, explain how the parasocial relationship amplifies its effectiveness beyond what it would be in a non-parasocial commercial context.

17. [Analysis] The Parasocial Premium in Practice Find a creator who has both a long-term audience relationship and active brand partnerships. Examine two sponsorships: one that appears to fit naturally within their established persona and content, and one that appears more incongruous. Analyze how the parasocial relationship might affect audience reception differently in each case. What does this reveal about the limits and conditions of the parasocial premium?

18. [Analysis] Algorithmic Selection Pressure Consider a specific content category — say, mental health discussion, relationship advice, or financial guidance — and trace how algorithmic selection for "relatable" content shapes what information audiences actually receive. What perspectives get amplified? What gets filtered out? What are the potential consequences for audience understanding and decision-making in this category?

19. [Analysis] BTS Army or Swifties as Case Study Choose either the BTS Army or Taylor Swift's Swifties fan community. Research their history, their organizational practices, and their collective behaviors (streaming campaigns, chart coordination, defensive responses to criticism). Analyze this community using the chapter's concepts of collective parasocial bonds, parasocial jealousy, and the community framing. What makes this community commercially powerful? What makes it psychologically complex?

20. [Analysis] The Creator Mental Health Paradox The chapter notes that influencer burnout is common and that parasocial audiences' intimacy expectations contribute to it. But audiences who care deeply about a creator's wellbeing are, paradoxically, contributing to conditions that harm that wellbeing. Analyze this paradox: How is it produced? Who has the power to change it? What structural changes to the creator economy might reduce creator burnout without eliminating the parasocial bonds that drive creator income?

Creative Exercises

21. [Creative] Write the Pitch You are a social media consultant advising a new creator on how to build an audience. Based on what you have learned in this chapter about parasocial bond formation, vulnerability currency, and algorithmic promotion of relatability, write a concrete content strategy document (500-700 words). Now step back and reflect: does anything about this document make you uncomfortable? Why or why not?

22. [Creative] The Other Side of the Screen Write a short story (800-1,000 words) from the perspective of a creator who has become aware — through analytics, through fan messages, through observation — of the intensity of the parasocial bonds their audience has formed with them. The creator must make a decision about a piece of content they are considering. How do they think through the decision? What tensions arise?

23. [Creative] A Letter from Fan to Creator Write a letter from a deeply invested fan to a creator they follow — a letter the fan would never actually send, but that expresses everything they feel about the parasocial relationship. The letter should be emotionally honest rather than performatively critical. When you're done, analyze: What needs is this fan expressing? What real social needs might the parasocial relationship be meeting or substituting for?

24. [Creative] Redesign the Disclosure Current FTC disclosure requirements are imperfectly enforced and largely ineffective at disrupting parasocial trust in commercial contexts. Design a disclosure system that would more effectively communicate the commercial nature of sponsored content to audiences, particularly adolescent audiences. What would it look like? Where would it appear? What language would it use? How would you test whether it worked?

25. [Creative] The Parasocial Interview Write an imagined interview between a journalist and a creator who has built a large parasocial audience and is now reflecting critically on what they've built. The creator should be thoughtful, honest, and ambivalent — neither fully defensive of what they've done nor uncritically self-condemning. What questions would the journalist ask? What would the creator's honest answers reveal?

Group Discussion Exercises

26. [Group Discussion] The Line Between Normal and Concerning In small groups, discuss: How would you define the difference between a healthy parasocial relationship and one that has become problematic for the fan? Try to develop specific, observable criteria rather than vague judgments. What factors make parasocial relationships more or less risky? How do individual, relational, and structural factors interact? Report your group's conclusions to the class.

27. [Group Discussion] Who Bears Responsibility? In groups, assign each member a role: a platform executive, a creator, a brand advertiser, a fan, and a regulator. Each person argues, in character, that the responsibility for the commercial exploitation of parasocial trust rests primarily with one of the other parties. Then break from your roles: Where does your group actually think responsibility primarily lies? Is it distributed? Can it be shared without being diluted?

28. [Group Discussion] Regulating the Parasocial Economy As a group, develop a proposed regulatory framework for the influencer economy that goes beyond current FTC disclosure requirements. Consider: What would you require platforms to do differently? What obligations would you place on creators? What protections would you create specifically for adolescent users? What would be unworkable or counterproductive? Present your framework to the class and be prepared to defend it.

29. [Group Discussion] The Ethics of Authenticity Theater Discuss: If a creator is genuinely vulnerable, genuinely shares real feelings, but has also learned that specific types of vulnerability drive engagement and strategically deploys what they know works — are they being authentic or not? Does the strategic dimension undermine the authenticity? Does it matter whether the creator is conscious of the strategy? Try to arrive at a coherent group position, and identify where disagreements within the group remain.

30. [Group Discussion] Maya's Choice Return to Maya's situation with Jade. As a group, discuss: What, if anything, should Maya do differently? What do platforms owe Maya? What does Jade owe her? If you were Maya's friend and she described her anxiety about Jade's break, what would you say? What does your group's discussion reveal about how we think about responsibility for parasocial relationships?

Extended Projects

31. [Research/Analysis] Semester Project: Longitudinal Creator Study Select a creator to follow closely for six weeks. Document weekly: their content themes, disclosure patterns, commercial activities, and evident parasocial cultivation strategies. At the end of the six weeks, write a 2,500-word analysis of their parasocial relationship architecture, their monetization model, and your own evolving response to their content.

32. [Creative/Research] Podcast Episode Design Design (but do not necessarily produce) a podcast episode exploring parasocial relationships in a specific creator niche — gaming, beauty, finance, mental health, etc. Develop: a host approach, three guest interview questions and likely responses, one case study to discuss, and a concluding segment for listeners on navigating parasocial relationships in that niche.

33. [Analysis] Policy Brief Write a 1,500-word policy brief addressed to a legislative committee considering expanded regulation of influencer marketing. Summarize the relevant research, identify the gaps in existing regulatory frameworks, propose three specific policy interventions, and address likely objections from the creator and platform industry.

34. [Group Discussion/Creative] Curriculum Design In groups, design a one-week media literacy curriculum for high school students (approximately Maya's age) on parasocial relationships and the influencer economy. What would students need to understand? What activities would build their critical capacities? How would you make the curriculum engaging without being condescending? Share your curriculum outline with the class.

35. [Reflection/Research] Personal Media Audit and Manifesto Conduct a two-week audit of your own social media consumption with specific attention to parasocial dynamics: Which creators do you follow? How deep are those relationships? What commercial influence have those relationships had on you? At the end, write a personal manifesto (500-700 words) about how you want to relate to parasocial figures going forward — what you will keep, what you will change, and what principles will guide your decisions.