ABSTRACT
Relationships make up an important part of social life. In the past two decades or so, the majority of research on mediated relationships has focused on sketching the similarities between mediated and social relationships and on uncovering the effects of mediated relationships on attitudes, behaviors, and the self. A final issue that has been explored in recent years is the role of social media in mediated relationships. Parasocial interaction (PSI) occurs between audience members and media personae and is generally characterized by a feeling of closeness between the audience member and the character who is presented as 'down to earth' and rather normal. Finally, new technological developments raise new questions about mediated relationships. As mentioned above, there is some evidence that interactive video games intensify engagement with game characters. Control over how the character appears and some of its traits may increase similarity or attractiveness and in turn the characters appeal.
