The Parasocial Socials

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Jo Piazza, Influence Inc.

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, Parenting, Personal Journals, Technology

4.3 • 833 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It is nearly impossible to find a therapist that is covered by insurance, doesn’t have a waiting list, or even just returns your phone calls. Nowadays, we tend to rely more on people we know through social media to provide us with the alleviation of our mental struggles rather than traditional paths such as face-to-face therapy. What are the dangers of this? Being diagnosed by unlicensed advice givers? Being given recommendations for prescription medication that will mess with your brain? Developing an unhealthy parasocial relationship with your mental health provider. Parasocial! What the hell does it mean? We dig into the history of parasocial relationships from 19th Century French philosophers, to 1950s TV celebrities to today's social media influencers. The stakes of this relationship only escalate when influencers are discussing mental health. Sure, there’s some good in destigmatizing mental illness, but what are the chances they’re exacerbating the mental health crisis we’re already in? Hint: the answer is somewhere in the middle and it's up to us to strike the right balance. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Under the Influence is brought to you by future fans. Future fans helping little kids become big
0:07.2	fans. My kids are just getting into sports for the first time, mostly basketball, football, and
0:16.1	soccer. And I've got to say, I'm not the biggest sports person. I mean, look, we all know that I love the
0:22.8	Eagles. Go birds. But I'm not the person and neither is my husband that can answer all of the
0:28.3	questions about all of the sports. Okay? I'm telling you if you have a kid's sports fan in your life,
0:33.5	the perfect holiday gift is future fans sports.
0:40.6	Essentially, it's a way to easily explain all sports to kids.
0:41.8	Here is an example.
0:46.9	Instead of trying to explain how downs work in football, they have a kid play a beanbag toss game with things like four tries and six points.
0:50.7	And then later, they connect those concepts back to the football game.
0:54.6	Future Fans is designed for kids under 10 and their sports fan adult.
0:58.7	It's only 4999 at FutureFans.com and use the code under U-N-D-E-R to save 10%.
1:06.5	Again, it's FutureFans.com code under U-N-D-R and start unlocking a lifetime of memories around sports this holiday season.
1:16.5	Quick warning before we start this episode. Today, we are going to be talking about mental health and various mental health disorders and also a little bit of suicide and suicidal ideation. If this is something that could be a
1:31.0	trigger for you, we want you to take care of yourself.
1:37.6	Pst. Come a little closer. Let's talk about how difficult it is to live with an anxiety disorder.
1:48.9	Here's some tips for showering on a very hard day.
1:52.8	There's a tool called Rebalance with Mindfulness, which I find really helpful.
1:57.4	And this is about helping you to accept your feelings.
2:01.8	I've spent the last month living inside mental health Instagram.
2:05.7	I've been affirmed.
2:07.4	I don't look like pain.
	...

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