Now go up to the blackboard and write 50 times, "'Parasocial' does not mean being on friendly terms with someone who has slightly more followers than you."
I am on the order of 30,000 followers on twitter, 10,000 on mastodon (which is much, much nearer the top there) and several severals on cohost, and I’ve repeatedly had to reassure people: speaking to me in a place I’ve chosen to be available for speaking to is not parasocial! Presuming we might count as friends after six months of talking to each other about our lives and interests is not parasocial! That’s just social! I promise I’m not mad! I get a lot more @’s from randos than the median internet user but I’m not actually some mega celebrity who needs to approach all human interaction with extreme caution for their own safety. Reader, I married one of my low follow count randos.
The only people I’ve considered to be treating me parasocially are those who are clearly obsessively stalking me out of “love” or “hate” based on superficial stereotypes.