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With the surge in social media use and the ability to follow every aspect of your favourite celebrity’s waking moments, you may have come across the absorption addiction model in real life. Despite how technical it sounds, the absorption addiction model essentially describes the parasocial relationship between a celebrity and a fan, but to an extreme extent. When reality is no longer satisfying or it is hard to cope with, some rely on their favourite celebrities for relief.
Psychologists are interested in exploring these types of relationships, especially with the recent uprising in social media access and the explosion of celebrity worship. Is our obsession with celebrities healthy? Or is there something more nefarious going on in our brains?
We are a celebrity-obsessed society. How healthy is that? flaticon.com/freepik.
The absorption addiction model was first proposed by McCutcheon et al. (2002) and states that those who have a weak sense of self-identity form parasocial relationships with celebrities to escape from their reality. This could be due to a multitude of reasons:
They choose to follow a celebrity to gain the sense of fulfillment they feel they are lacking.
Considering this model involves parasocial relationships, here’s a quick refresh on the definition of what they are:
Parasocial relationships are one-sided relationships between a person and a prominent, well-known individual, usually a celebrity, who is unaware of the other’s existence.
The model has two stages.
In the model of parasocial relationships, absorption is:
The process where a person becomes absorbed in the following of a celebrity. Here begins escapism for the person. They achieve a sense of fulfillment they are lacking in their own lives, and this motivates a more intense attachment.
Absorption can come in many forms.
For instance, a person can search forums to find facts about their favourite celebrity, and follow the celebrity on every form of social media. They can listen, purchase, and engage in the celebrity's work to an extreme extent, and some dedicate their entire lives to being ‘loyal’ to their obsession.
Many celebrities are often hounded by media sources such as the paparazzi, who provide detailed (and often inaccurate) information about the personal life of a prominent figure. This can fuel absorption.
Addiction in parasocial relationships is when this sense of fulfillment becomes somewhat of a problem for the person. They become addicted to the feeling of fulfillment and satisfaction that absorption in the celebrity’s life has given them, and in turn, they become more obsessed with the celebrity. They need to feel even closer to them. The person's behaviour escalates, becoming more extreme.
Where addiction is concerned, extreme cases can eventually lead to risky behaviours in an attempt to feed their obsession further.
An addicted person may engage in activities such as stalking to achieve a new sense of closeness with the celebrity.
Man being stalked by another in a coat and hat, flaticon.com/max.icons.
Parasocial relationships have three levels identified by Giles and Maltby (2006) through the Celebrity Attitude Scale (CAS).
The absorption addiction model has close ties to the different levels of parasocial relationships described above (entertainment-social, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological).
When a person is in the absorption stage of the model, they are engaging in the first level of parasocial relationships. They engage in celebrity worship that gradually worsens or becomes more intense.
If this obsession becomes addictive, they then enter the second and third levels of parasocial relationships, engaging in intense obsession, entertaining unrealistic thoughts and fantasies, and potentially reaching the level of stalking.
Two people talking about their favourite celebrity with one obsessing, flaticon.com/noomtah.
We need to evaluate the absorption addiction model to understand its strengths and weaknesses.
According to Giles and Maltby (2006), there are three levels of parasocial relationships: entertainment-social, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological.
The absorption addiction model was proposed by McCutcheon et al. (2002) and states that those who have a weak sense of self-identity form parasocial relationships with celebrities to escape the reality of their daily lives. This is due to dissatisfaction with their life, and a failure to form intimate relationships with their peers.
It involves absorption in the prominent figure’s life (through engaging in their work, for instance, obsessively listening to their music or buying merchandise), and addiction from that fulfillment that descends into obsessive behaviours.
This could be due to a multitude of reasons. According to the absorption addiction model, it is because they have a weak sense of self-identity (their own life or reality feels deficient) and seek fulfilment in their parasocial relationship with celebrities.
You form parasocial relationships by having a one-sided relationship with a prominent figure who is unaware of your existence.
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