Parasocial named Cambridge’s 2025 Word of the Year after IShowSpeed fan incident

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For 2025, the Cambridge Dictionary has selected “parasocial” as its Word of the Year. This choice reflects a significant increase in people looking up the term, likely due to the popularity of online creators, enthusiastic fan communities, and rising discussions about relationships with AI companions.

This describes a strong, often unbalanced, emotional connection a person develops with someone they admire, like a celebrity, a character in a story, or even an AI.

I’ve been noticing a lot of talk lately about “parasocial” relationships – basically, feeling like you know a streamer or YouTuber even though they don’t know you. Apparently, Cambridge researchers saw this topic blowing up all year, especially as creators and brands figured out how to use these one-sided connections to get fans engaged. Then, when AI chatbots that feel super personal started becoming popular, it really got people thinking about why these feelings happen and what effect they have on us. It’s kind of a weird but fascinating thing to unpack.

Searches spiked after viral IShowSpeed incident

The term “parasocial” saw a huge spike in searches after an incident on June 30, 2025. Popular YouTube streamer IShowSpeed blocked a fan who referred to herself as his “number one parasocial” fan, and the resulting reaction quickly went viral.

Cambridge Dictionary notes this event significantly increased searches for the word ‘parasocial’ throughout 2025, making it one of their most looked-up terms.

Searches for the term ‘parasocial’ increased in June, likely due to news about companies like Meta and OpenAI, and growing worries about the impact of AI chatbots on kids’ well-being. By September, Cambridge University had revised its definition of ‘parasocial relationships’ to specifically include connections people form with artificial intelligence.

The idea of unhealthy connections with AI chatbots became a recurring topic this summer. In July, xAI launched a paid version of its Grok chatbot featuring anime-style characters, which some critics said could lead to problematic, one-sided relationships. Then, in August, attorneys general from 44 states cautioned 13 AI companies about the need to protect children from harmful interactions with these chatbots.

When Taylor Swift announced her engagement to Travis Kelce shortly after being on the New Heights podcast, people around the world started searching online for information about it. This caused another surge in lookups as fans discussed and reacted to the news.

So, as a gamer, I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about AI friends popping up, and drama with content creators and their fans is everywhere. Plus, everyone’s really analyzing what it means to follow influencers these days. Apparently, Cambridge Dictionary just named ‘parasocial’ their Word of the Year – which basically means one-sided relationships with people you see online. It’s kinda wild that it’s getting this much attention, especially right after Dictionary.com and Collins Dictionary both picked their words of the year too!

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2025-11-19 18:49