PSermon Theme: “Parasocial Relationships”
Rev. “Twinkle” Marie Manning delivered this sermon to the UU Church of Waterville, Maine on Sunday, October 11th, 2026
Thought for contemplation:
“All human actions are motivated at their deepest level by one of two emotions—fear or love.”
― Neale Donald Walsch
“All human actions are motivated at their deepest level by one of two emotions—fear or love.” ― Neale Donald Walsch
Opening Words:
In his poem, “A Ritual to Read to Each Other,” American Poet & Pacifist, William E. Stafford wrote, in part:
“If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made
may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home
we may miss our star…
…And so I appeal to a voice,
to something shadowy,
a remote important region
in all who talk:
though we could fool each other,
we should consider—
lest the parade
of our mutual life
get lost in the dark.
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give — yes or no, or maybe — should be clear:
the darkness around us is deep.”
We live in a time when, increasingly via our mechanisms of social connection, we need not engage with those we do not understand, let alone those we disagree with. Yet, when we fail to communicate divisions grow. When such distance is fostered, fear and misunderstanding take root harmful patterns shape our shared lives. Respect and Dignity evaporate. And, we can no longer recognize each other’s humanity.
As today’s service unfolds, we will follow a thread that leads us to revitalize and fortify our common humanity.
***The following is a one-act play. Ideally with 3 people. In this service, “Twinkle” played all 3-roles. Please note it is a super-generalization of the Liberal-Conservative divide.
“Presumed Verity:
What ‘They’ Know to Be True”Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published
(Conservative): Such a tragic loss! It’s been a year since Charlie Kirk died! (Liberal): Charlie Who? (Liberal): Did you read Heather Cox Richardson’s latest blog? (Conservative): Heather Who? (Moderator): Do you watch Rachel Maddow, Don Lemon, Jon Stewart? (Liberal): Yes. (Conservative): No. (Moderator): Do you watch Ben Shapiro, Megyn Kelly, Joe Rogan? (Conservative): Yes. (Liberal): No. (Moderator): My friends are going with me to the No Kings rally! (Liberal): I’ll see you there! (Conservative): What a waste of time! (Liberal): My Body, My Choice! (Conservative): Protect unborn Life! (Liberal): Black Lives Matter (Conservative): All Lives Matter (Liberal): Abolish ICE, Defund the Police (Conservative): Back the Blue, Secure the Border (Liberal): Welcome Immigrants (Conservative): Build the Wall (Liberal): Diversity is Our Strength (Conservative): America First! (Liberal): All Are Welcome! ….except MAGA (Conservative): Everyone is Welcome - except the Radical Left! (Liberal): All Conservative Men Wear MAGA Hats. (Conservative): All Liberal Women have purple hair!! (Moderator): Sigh (Liberal): Allocate Taxes Better, Invest in Public Services (Conservative): Reduce Taxes, Limit Government Spending (Liberal): The mainstream media is too conservative. (Conservative): The mainstream media is too liberal. (Moderator): Sigh (Moderator): My son needs healthcare My daughter lost her job The cost of fuel is too high Winter is coming (Liberal): I love to garden (Conservative): I love to knit (Liberal): I am a dancer, a songwriter, a poet. (Conservative): I am a farmer, a scientist, a nurse. (Liberal): I want my children to have a good education. (Conservative): I want my children to be safe. (Liberal): I have a new grandchild (Conservative): I have a new grandchild, too! She just received her first book from Dolly Parton! (Liberal): It’s so sad Dolly Parton died. (Conservative): Yes, it’s so sad Dolly Parton died.
“Parasocial Relationships”
by Rev. “Twinkle” Marie Manning
Cleopatra, Jesus Christ, The Buddha, Julius Ceasar, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Pete Seeger, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Michael Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Emily Dickinson, Charles Dickens, Rumi, George Washington, Queen Elizabeth, Lady Diana, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, Dolly Parton.
Every celebrity we’ve never met.
Past or present
Every politician ever elected – or defeated.
Every blogger, YouTuber, podcaster, radio and television talkshow host, magazine and newspaper columnist and reporter.
Every person we feel connected to or disgusted by yet have negligible or no actual interaction with: These are parasocial relationships.
They are not inherently unhealthy.
Yet, they are increasingly given more weight in presumed verity than is wise…and our reliance on them can contribute to polarization and isolation, and – I believe – are one of the paramount influences to new technologies.
A couple of definitions:
Parasocial Interaction (PSI):
A one-sided, imaginary conversation or interaction a person feels with a media figure in the moment.
Parasocial Relationship (PSR):
A long-term, ongoing emotional attachment that a viewer develops toward a media personality.
The term “parasocial relationships,” was coined by sociologists Richard Wohl and Donald Horton in 1956 in their Psychiatry journal essay entitled: “Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance”
Parasocial interaction is a psychological phenomenon in which a media viewer develops a one-sided, illusionary sense of intimacy and a personal relationship with a media figure who remains unaware of their existence.
As such a reciprocal relationship is impossible.
At least in ways a Mutual Relationship is.
Horton and Wohl point to the kind of intimacy we feel when we watch our favorite TV and Film stars.
The outset of their article states:
“ONE OF THE STRIKING CHARACTERISTICS new mass media – – – radio, television, and the movies – – – is that they give the illusion of face-to-face relationship with the performer.”
Of course, we’ve come a long way since the 1950s. Now the concept of Parasocial Relationships applies to social media influencers, alternate ego & Nom de Plume characters, video game & virtual reality aliases, and even artificial intelligence:
from Siri, to ChatGPT,
to the emerging
Dedicated Companions
for Friendship and for Romance
for which their platforms are explicitly engineered to cultivate deep emotional attachments and intimacy.
For several years these have been in the form of onscreen devices largely as audio or video avatars. Nine years ago, the Robotics Company: UB Tech launched the Lynx Homebot which pulled the voice services from Amazon’s Alexa & put it in an adorable little robot about 20 inches tall. Lynx could do all that Alexa could – plus walk around, take photos (with their eyes) – send them to your email & even teach you Yoga poses.
It learned personalized commands for you and your household. Such as individualized greetings when you came home!
Mid-2026 Hyper-Realistic Humanoid Companions have become available for public purchase.
On June 30, 2026, UBTECH hosted a global launch event in Shenzhen, China, revealing the UWORLD U1 series. Deliveries began on September 16th. (More than 10,000 orders)
In my childhood, The Bionic Woman and the Six Million Dollar Man were strictly fictional (and, still, mostly – human) – though my cousins and I certainly reenacted out daring feats amid my apple orchard and the cliffs at our grandparents’ beach. (don’t tell our parents!) And, later in a Star Trek Generation, we were introduced to a believable humanoid android. Seeds planted for a future that we thought might be fun, but we never really believed we would see.
While the new Hyper-Realistic Humanoid Companions – at least the ones available to the masses – are not perfect human replicas, they are certainly more realistic than any avatars yet experienced on screens or in virtual reality programs, or by other Robotics Companies to date.
These Humanoid Companions have a speech-to-lip delay of less than 20 milliseconds to ensure hyper-realistic, natural mouth movements while speaking. Their operating systems allow the robot to converse contextually and pick up natural dialogue flows without requiring explicit activation commands.
U1 Series supports Mandarin Chinese natively at launch with – currently availability also in English, French, Spanish, Russian and Japanese, with additional language capabilities extensible or planned through software updates.
The skin is made of advanced bionic silicone material engineered to feel and look like real human skin.
They have what is referred to as 88 Degrees of Freedom (DoF). With 88 DoF distributed across its arms, hands, neck, torso, legs and face, they can replicate up to 90% of fundamental human movements.
Now…some of us may feel on a cold or rainy day that we barely have 90% of fundamental human movements accessible to us …but I digress.
The AI Companion also uses a sophisticated combination of physical engineering and an emotion-aware AI large language model to recognize and respond to over 20 fine-grained human emotional states as they interpret these real-time cues to estimate the user’s emotional state with more than 90% accuracy.
Somewhere a comedian is cracking a line…about their spouse, sibling or coworker, having selective hearing – or – listening only long enough to prepare a rebuttal.
Meanwhile these Companions are blinking, shrugging, tilting their heads, and smiling or frowning according to the information they gathered from their User’s interaction.
Not just from what their User has said to them, but how the Companion witnesses the physical cues as well.
For instance:
If the User becomes sad, the Companion will notice the emotional shift, detect the sadness and offer empathetic conversation, a soothing voice, and supportive expressions.
Moreover, the Companion recalls past preferences or personal details to provide tailored comfort over time. They can offer a hug or even dance with their User.
Hmmmm…
I bet you’re thinking the costs must be astronomical!
Depending on specific model and configuration, a Humanoid Companion is less than a new car with a starting price at around $23,400 and max price of $145,700.
For comparison with another era-based technological advancement just over 30 years ago:
In 1994 An IBM ThinkPad 755CD cost $7,599 (approx. $14,000 today with inflation-adjusted dollars).
The desk top (or torso-model) of the AI Companion only costs about $16,500.
Why am I talking to you about Robot Companions?
Our reliance on Parasocial Interactions have lead to polarization, ostracization and isolation.
Our habitual curation of media that supports only our preferences has built our collective stamina to be ready to accept these kinds of Robot Companions as replacements of real Human interactions.
Add to that perhaps no small amount of “generational trauma” and “traumatic relationships” resulting in us placing safety nets around the kinds of people we allow into our lives – namely those who agree with our specific points of view.
Those who are like us.
Yes, sophisticated societies are largely inclined to spend time only with like-minded people. People with similar backgrounds, cultures and beliefs. As such, it is likely that we will see a wide embrace of these Companions.
The roles they may fill in the future?
Certainly the base-level expectation upon inception of robotics is that they would be Coworkers on assembly line production and other automated work-related tasks.
Though these particular ones are not designed for that.
The speed at which they can gather and process information, as well as their memory capacity, with only a change in software, equips them for any number of jobs:
Attorneys, Accountants, Researchers, Physicists.
Add to that an adjustment in physical-bearing capacity, could equip them to become:
Chefs, Gardeners, Housekeepers, Construction Workers, Surgeons.
Some of the tech magazines covering this emergence include:
New Atlas, WIRED, Fast Company and Forbes.
Jesus Diaz’s article in Fast Company is titled:
“The first commercial human-like robot is here. Are replicants next?”
I suppose one way to retire early – or lessen your workload overall – would be to invest in a Made-in-Your-Image humanoid robot to do your job so you can have more leisure time to spend with those you love.
Imagine having a Substitute-You to sit in on a committee meeting who can perfectly memorize, transcribe and summarize notes for you?
Even make decisions on your behalf, because then know all your preferences.
We kind of assumed what would be rolled out to the general public first…at least what Sci-fi movies taught us would be the order of events would be robots replacing mundane or factory jobs and working up towards more complex positions.
And, that is happening increasingly.
Yet, these publicly available robots – aptly named:
Hyper-Realistic Humanoid Companions – have been designed with the express provisions for emotional intelligence.
In time, they will become:
Therapists; Psycho-analysts and others in the emotional sciences fields.
But for now….their primary function….is Companionship!
Perhaps someday they will be the buddy you take with you to ride ridiculous rollercoasters because no one in your friend group will!
Perhaps child-size versions as Playmates, Friends or “Siblings” for families with an individual child. Perhaps children for those who cannot have their own biological child. Once a concept in an iconic sci-fi movie, now an attainable near-future option.
For right now – Year 2026 – they are:
Confidants;
Home or even social companions for otherwise single people;
Romantic Partners; Friends.
Wherever your imagination can take you, at an emotional level these Companions are available to be programed to align with your thoughts, beliefs and opinions.
And respond supportively.
No one at present appears to be suggesting these Companions are sentient, so the relationship is one-sided.
Next-level Parasocial.
The psychological bond develops quickly as the User invests emotional energy of their own. Met willingly with loyalty from their Companion.
In an article published in Los Angeles Review of Books entitled:
“Our Truest Loves: On Poetry and Parasocial Relationships,”
Writer and Editor Sophia Stewart, points out:
“Screens have made parasocial interaction ubiquitous, creating ‘the illusion of a face-to-face relationship’ with another individual, or persona.”
How much more so will it be, when experienced not via a screen, but with a Human-esque bodied Companion!
Like the friendly, intelligent, reliable media figures people feel connected to, and are emotionally attached to, Humans are primed to become attached to these Humanoid Companions.
And, with the Loneliness pandemic spanning the globe, people are awash with big emotions and feelings without ready access to satiate them.
Not to mention grief that touches so many. Especially when people we love die.
With that in mind, Bernard Marr’s article in Forbes asks:
“Would You Bring A Dead Loved One Back As An AI Robot?”
(Sigh)
My Down-the-Rabbit-Hole researching for this sermon paused for a moment when I read that title & thought instantly about my deceased loved-ones:
my parents,
my boyfriend,
my brother,
my son.
Circling back to the theme of this message: Parasocial Relationships.
How did we get from sitting around campfires and on front-porches, raising families in multi-generational and village style-settings to a place in history where if you have enough money – and a desire to do so – you can literally have your friends, family or entire village manufactured for you in the form of your choosing.
They will agree with you. Always.
They will be loyal. Eternally – between battery charges.
It’s no longer science-fiction.
It’s happening in real time.
Right now.
I believe a huge contributor to market embrace of these Companions is the kinds of Fan-idol relationships we’ve adopted for our favorite musicians, poets, public speakers, civic leaders & politicians.
We feel such strong connections to some of these people of influence.
Musicians and poets writing lyrics and lines that feel lifted from our own diary entries; from our hearts and minds.
Political figures and Journalists espousing policies and beliefs akin to our own reasonings. They speak our truth out loud – sometimes even before we know what we believe to be true.
Persuasively drawing upon our Hopes & Fears.
Even though interactions with them are largely one-sided and unreciprocated, we feel they understand us.
We trust them.
More than we trust … our brothers, sisters, neighbors ….
Especially those with political signs and inclinations different than ours.
We cannot tolerate even listening to their perspectives.
So we don’t.
The Financial Market responds to the environment as it bolsters Segregation-by-Belief.
Detaching and Sequestering us into “Us” “Them” Groups.
They have media outlets and personalities that align with them.
We have ones that align with us.
We are not inclined to be open to hearing others, because we already have pronounced their version of ___Fill in the Blank___as incompatible with ours.
We prefer to be in the company of those who agree with us.
Time and again the media we choose to engage with, we know ahead of time that their view will be our view.
And, narratives told accordingly.
And, again, the Financial Market responds to the environment.
AI Companions are available to meet the demand of a public that is lonely, tired, and largely desiring the kind of peaceful, even if pseudo-edifying, interactions found with those of like-mind.
Perhaps this is the wave of the future and we should be satisfied in the name of progress. Or – perhaps, we should consider it as:
a sign,
a warning,
an invitation:
To be more welcoming of those we do not fully agree with;
To be curious about why our neighbors and others align differently spiritually, socially, politically;
To actively take steps to mitigate misconceptions with each other.
To make real human connections – because it is a radical act of resistance to do so in a world that is attempting to subvert interconnection AND eclipse humanity with alienation.
Our Thought for contemplation:
“All human actions are motivated at their deepest level by one of two emotions—fear or love.” ― Neale Donald Walsch
Too often we get caught up in fear in our world.
It is easy to do.
Fear instilled by the media, by those in power.
Fear that we will not be able to do enough to help solve very real problems facing society.
With the election season upon us, when we feel fear rising; when we notice our desire to turn away from neighbors, let’s do our best:
To let Love guide us.
To offer compassion
Human to human.
And maybe, just maybe have a “parasocial breakup”
When you notice that your media intake is increasing your blood pressure, & consuming more time than real human contact.
Let us
Pursue Truth
Seek Justice
Be open to understanding each others differences
And never forsake the opportunity
to choose:
Compassion over contempt,
Dialogue over discord,
Curiosity over assumptions,
Humility over arrogance,
Understanding over judgement,
Reverence over cruelty,
Let us live Courageously as we walk mindfully into an uncertain future.
May we be People of Peace:
Actively cultivating Unity.
Not merely to coexist, but to build a world where belonging is rooted in mutual respect.
Doing so elevating our humanity.
Amen.
—
Rev. Dr. “Twinkle” Marie Manning, D.D. is an ordained interfaith minister, retreat leader, poet and liturgist. She has offered retreat leadership and workshop facilitation for many years. She is currently serving as the contract minister for the Universalist Unitarian Congregation in Waterville, Maine and offers retreat facilitation, pulpit supply and public speaking nationally and internationally.
Twinkle is also a semi-retired media professional, award-winning television producer, author, artist and poet.
She is the Founder of TV for Your Soul and the Empowering Women Signature Series.
For more information about Twinkle and her work, visit: www.TwinklesPlace.org
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