Encyclopedia · 255 entries

The database

Two axes, and they are deliberately not the same axis. Kind is what a thing is — a term, a person, a work, a study, an event, a mechanism. Lane is what it does: application, consideration or manipulation. The ten sections on this site ask where attachment shows up. The lanes ask why anyone is using it. A fan club is application; the same fan club with a paid tier is manipulation; the study of both is consideration.

All 255, in date order

citation check only

Lane

Kind

What the other end is made of

Does it attach back

70000 BC	The dead kept in the cave	A work
40000 BC	The carved animals	A work
34000 BC	Beads, and one bull	A work
15000 BC	The dog	A mechanism or tactic
9500 BC	Eleven thousand years of pillars	A work
800 BC	The story told again	A work
660 BC	The craft of the sage Adapa	A mechanism or tactic
370 BC	Shag-eared and deaf	A work
250 BC	The wax masks in the hall	A work
210 BC	Eight thousand faces, all facing outward	A mechanism or tactic
200 BC	The congregation	A mechanism or tactic
8	Pygmalion	A work
100	The priest	A mechanism or tactic
325	A creed held rather than a god addressed	A work	?
787	The icon answers nothing	A work	?
1150	Ninety-three pieces, and a name	A work
1350	The god whose cult was dismantled from above	An event or moment	?
1373	Margery Kempe	A person
1438	Binding	A mechanism or tactic
1438	The Book of My First Showings	A work
1531	Am I not here, I who am your mother?	A work
1547	Miguel de Cervantes	A person	?
1600	The audience	A mechanism or tactic
1605	Don Quixote	A person
1650	Think of nothing but the guru	A mechanism or tactic	?
1740	Virtue rewarded	A work	?
1749	Johann Wolfgang von Goethe	A person	?
1758	The wall exists to keep you out	A mechanism or tactic	?
1774	Werther	A person
1812	Charles Dickens	A person	?
1861	Miss Havisham	A person
1880	Identification with a team	A mechanism or tactic
1880	The trading stamp	A mechanism or tactic
1890	Am I really like that?	A work	?
1890	Trying to live up to the standard of his girls	A work
1891	The Divine Sarah	A person	?
1897	The comic strip	A work	?
1899	Alfred Hitchcock	A person	?
1900	The coach	A mechanism or tactic
1900	The landlord	A mechanism or tactic
1900	The teacher	A mechanism or tactic
1900	The transfer	A mechanism or tactic	?
1904	If you believe, clap your hands	A work
1910	They killed her in the papers	A person
1911	Thousands came to gawk at the empty wall	An event or moment	?
1911	Thousands of letters, and a handful printed	A mechanism or tactic	?
1912	The film serial	A work	?
1914	A doodle of you used as your address	A person	?
1914	Known to more people than any other woman in history	A person	?
1915	Anagram of Arab death	A person
1917	The face he painted for the army was his own	A work
1920	The athlete and the city	A mechanism or tactic
1920	The bird that says the words without a person behind them	An event or moment	?
1920	The fan mail department	A mechanism or tactic	?
1921	Cordially yours, Betty Crocker	A person	?
1921	They were not his, and they had never been	A person	?
1922	Most faithfully, Rin Tin Tin	A person
1924	The first fans	An event or moment
1924	The radio church of Sister Aimee	A person	?
1927	The baseball the papers built	A person	?
1927	The girl the studio built	A person	?
1928	From two undelivered reels to a lunchbox	A work	?
1928	The audience organised against the show	A work	?
1930	A magazine that did not exist	A work	?
1930	Radio and the soap	A work	?
1930	Somebody always wrote back	A work	?
1930	The cliffhanger	A mechanism or tactic
1930	Your face is too well known	A work	?
1932	Let alone, not alone	A person	?
1933	As if he had joined them in their living rooms	A mechanism or tactic	?
1933	Nineteen years of the version they were shown	A work	?
1933	The soap opera	A work	?
1934	Sixty-five percent by seven	A mechanism or tactic	?
1935	The most widely known citizen	A person
1935	You within sound of my voice	A mechanism or tactic
1938	Nine to twelve million heard it	An event or moment	?
1938	The first superhero	A work	?
1939	The protagonist is a parasocial object	A term or concept	?
1940	Entitled to the adulation of all lesser mortals	A mechanism or tactic	?
1940	The bobby-soxers	An event or moment	?
1940	This is London	A person
1940	Wishful thinking	A term or concept
1941	A letter in words and music	A person
1942	I hope the feeling is mutual	A work	?
1943	Gigi	A work
1944	The band played without him	A person
1945	Not all ghosts are bad	A work	?
1945	Registered by the applause meter	A mechanism or tactic	?
1947	Say, kids, what time is it?	A work	?
1948	Nick Drake	A person	?
1950	Gazing at celebrities	A study or paper	?
1950	Nobody in that room argues with him	A work	?
1950	The fan club	A mechanism or tactic	?
1950	The local news anchor	A mechanism or tactic	?
1950	The neighbour	A mechanism or tactic
1950	The retail clerk	A mechanism or tactic
1950	The strip about unrequited love	A work	?
1955	The Macy's counter	A person
1956	Elvis Presley	A person	?
1956	He did not ask to be buried as Dracula	An event or moment	?
1956	Parasocial interaction	A term or concept	?
1958	Green Shield Stamps	A mechanism or tactic	?
1958	The mother that fed and the mother that held	A study or paper	?
1958	The tape could not answer	A work	?
1958	Vertigo	A work
1959	The manufactured teen idol	A mechanism or tactic	?
1960	The political parasocial	A mechanism or tactic	?
1960	The sitcom family	A mechanism or tactic	?
1961	A team built to answer a competitor	A work	?
1961	The voice you distrust	A term or concept	?
1962	Fifty copies of a face	A work	?
1962	The reply that was printed	A mechanism or tactic	?
1963	Dionne Warwick's fan mail	A person	?
1964	Beatlesmania	An event or moment	?
1965	A cohort nobody in it has met	An event or moment	?
1966	ELIZA	A mechanism or tactic	?
1966	The dialogue programs	A mechanism or tactic	?
1968	Charisma as a measurable asset	A study or paper	?
1968	Won't you be my neighbor?	A work	?
1970	Characters move in	A mechanism or tactic
1970	Grieving a person you never met	A mechanism or tactic
1970	SHRDLU	A mechanism or tactic	?
1970	The friend as you last saw them	An event or moment	?
1971	The figure you buy	A mechanism or tactic	?
1971	The first convention	An event or moment	?
1973	Elvis, in a hologram, from Hawaii	An event or moment	?
1976	Convention culture	An event or moment	?
1976	The audience became the show	An event or moment	?
1976	The finding that the satisfaction is not in the show	A study or paper	?
1978	The holiday special	A work	?
1979	The machine that answered back	A work	?
1979	The uncanny corridor of companionship	A term or concept	?
1980	The finale study	A study or paper	?
1980	The season finale	A mechanism or tactic	?
1981	The distance programme	A mechanism or tactic	?
1982	The supermarket club	A mechanism or tactic	?
1983	MAS*H	An event or moment	?
1985	Loneliness and local television news	A study or paper	?
1985	Parasocial interaction disorder	A term or concept	?
1985	The counter sits between	A mechanism or tactic
1985	Vote for the murderer	A work	?
1986	So many people want to believe he's real	A work	?
1988	Robin died by 72 votes	An event or moment	?
1990	Is it good for you?	A term or concept
1990	Mourning a person you met	A term or concept	?
1990	Shipping	A mechanism or tactic	?
1990	The comfort rewatch	A mechanism or tactic	?
1990	The stalker statute	A legal or documented case	?
1990	The stamp card	A mechanism or tactic	?
1991	The NEST letter	An event or moment
1992	The confessional that became a convention	A mechanism or tactic	?
1992	The death they scheduled	A work	?
1992	The table that carried a club nobody came to	An event or moment	?
1992	The window that structures the year	An event or moment	?
1993	Saturday morning cartoons	An event or moment
1993	The Power Rangers handover	An event or moment
1994	Kurt Cobain	An event or moment	?
1994	The character death	A mechanism or tactic	?
1994	The one you made, who you then miss	A work	?
1995	Clerks beat algorithms	A mechanism or tactic
1995	The brand that has a personality	A mechanism or tactic	?
1995	The companion bot boom	A mechanism or tactic	?
1995	The loyalty counter	A mechanism or tactic
1996	The device that was given a face	A work	?
1996	Will you help me?	A work	?
1997	The boy band	A work	?
1997	Webcasting	An event or moment	?
1998	After Diego	An institution or organisation
1998	The anime import boom	An event or moment	?
1999	Forum culture	An event or moment
1999	The narrator is Tyler Durden, and he is not told	A work	?
2000	Sasaeng culture	A term or concept	?
2000	The sasaeng	A term or concept	?
2000	Transparasocial interaction	A term or concept	?
2001	Transnational fandom	An event or moment	?
2002	The forum that scored the edit	A mechanism or tactic	?
2003	Second Life	An event or moment	?
2003	The reality celebrity	A person	?
2004	Michael Jackson	An event or moment	?
2005	Doxxing the person, not the character	A mechanism or tactic
2005	Fighting about a stranger in a reply section	A mechanism or tactic
2005	The character is not the person	A term or concept	?
2005	The crowd injury	An event or moment	?
2005	The goodwill gesture	A mechanism or tactic	?
2005	YouTube launches	An event or moment	?
2007	The phone becomes a person	An event or moment
2008	The actor and the character	An event or moment	?
2008	The pile-on	A mechanism or tactic
2009	The Bieber effect	An event or moment	?
2010	Grief merchandise	A mechanism or tactic	?
2010	Paid intimacy	A mechanism or tactic	?
2010	The attention economy	A term or concept	?
2010	The dark pattern in the loyalty card	A term or concept	?
2010	The quarterly audit	A mechanism or tactic
2010	The recurring delivery	A mechanism or tactic	?
2010	Watching the replies	A mechanism or tactic
2011	A mob is a parasocial event	A term or concept	?
2011	But the beaver resists	A work	?
2011	Justin.tv becomes Twitch	An event or moment	?
2011	Nobody answered	A mechanism or tactic	?
2011	The assistant arrives	An event or moment	?
2012	Fandom wars	An event or moment	?
2013	A slightly more awkward version of himself	A person	?
2013	Swatting	A mechanism or tactic	?
2014	Gamergate	An event or moment	?
2014	Parasocial research on creators begins	A study or paper	?
2014	The podcast as an intimate medium	A mechanism or tactic	?
2015	Live chat, two-way	A mechanism or tactic
2015	Parasocial persuasion	A term or concept	?
2015	The failing endorsement	A study or paper	?
2015	The free trial	A mechanism or tactic	?
2015	The people who are supposed to be reachable	A term or concept
2015	The ratio	A mechanism or tactic	?
2015	The subscription tier	A mechanism or tactic
2015	Who holds the dream	A term or concept
2016	He knows you are there and it is not in the script	A work	?
2016	Peak TV and the parasocial bargain	A term or concept	?
2016	Prince	An event or moment	?
2016	Tay	An event or moment	?
2016	The K-pop intimacy economy	A mechanism or tactic	?
2016	The algorithm decides	A term or concept	?
2016	The stadium	An event or moment	?
2016	The virtual creator	A mechanism or tactic	?
2017	Cancelling	A term or concept	?
2017	Replika	A work
2017	Replika	An event or moment	?
2017	The Replika user	A person	?
2017	The companion that talks back	A mechanism or tactic
2019	The ensemble farewell	An event or moment	?
2019	The finale nobody wanted	An event or moment	?
2020	Consent in one-sided attachment	A term or concept	?
2020	Envy, relief, and the two feelings at once	A study or paper	?
2020	Grief as a product surface	A mechanism or tactic
2020	Kobe Bryant	An event or moment	?
2022	Character.AI	An event or moment	?
2022	The assistant with your whole life in it	A mechanism or tactic	?
2022	The talent agency that is not an agency	An event or moment	?
2023	Keeping what the update cannot take	A mechanism or tactic
2023	The finale that moved the schedule	An event or moment	?
2023	The morning the update shipped	An event or moment	?
2023	The residency	An event or moment	?
2023	The same feeling, larger	A term or concept
2024	Digital orphans	A term or concept	?
2024	The AI Age Act and companion rules	A term or concept	?
2024	The dead celebrity, generated	A mechanism or tactic	?
2024	The lawsuits	A legal or documented case	?
2024	The year of the lawsuits	A legal or documented case	?
2026	A glimpse mistaken for access	An event or moment	?
2026	The creator joins the living room	An event or moment	?
2026	The platform executive and the creator, same stage	An event or moment
—	Mystical union	A term or concept	?
—	St John the Baptist, Church of the Sepulchre, Cambridge	An institution or organisation	?
—	The archivist	A person	?
—	The one who writes back	A person	?
—	The ultra	A person	?

181 of 255 entries are flagged ? for a citation check. That is the work queue, not a failure: a timeline format tells the reader somebody checked, so unverified dates are marked rather than hidden. Read it as a timeline →

The 3 lanes

Application

One-sided attachment put to work on purpose. Creator economies, community, fandom as infrastructure, and the things that genuinely help people. Not automatically good - a tool with an obvious use is a tool that will also get a bad one.

Consideration

The part where somebody stops and thinks. The research, the diagnosis, the ethics, the lawsuits, the regulators. Roughly fifty years of arguing with itself about whether this is a relationship.

Manipulation

One-sided attachment engineered for somebody else's benefit. Paid intimacy, parasocial persuasion, sasaeng, grief extraction, the streak. The lane that pays the bills and the lane that causes the most harm, frequently at the same time.

Ways in that are not the date order

Two axes the data already had and the page never showed. Format is a categorisation, not a citation — most of it was derived from each entry's era rather than sourced, so treat it as a reading aid and not as a claim. Click one to filter the full list below.

History61 · 70000 BC-2024 Technology30 · 1979-2026 Film30 · 1600-2019 Books22 · 370 BC-1971 AI and chatbots20 · 1966-2024 Games20 · 1971-2023 Scripted TV17 · 1930-2023 Unscripted TV14 · 1947-2026 Radio12 · 1921-1945 Theology and religion12 · 200 BC-1924 Sport10 · 1880-2020 Music8 · 1941-2016 Visual art7 · 787-1962 Comics7 · 1940-1992 Stage5 · 1891-1985

The same story, split across several entries

Replika is four rows in date order and reads as four unrelated things. Grouped, it is one company and one bereavement. These are the groups the database falls into on its own, largest first.

The vocabulary itself7 entries · 1939-2026

The protagonist is a parasocial object1939 → Parasocial interaction1956 → Parasocial interaction disorder1985 → Parasocial persuasion2015 → The K-pop intimacy economy2016 → Consent in one-sided attachment2020 → A glimpse mistaken for access2026

club4 entries · 1940-1999

Entitled to the adulation of all lesser mortals1940 → The fan club1950 → The supermarket club1982 → The narrator is Tyler Durden, and he is not told1999

Endings, and what people do about them4 entries · 1980-2023

The finale study1980 → M*A*S*H1983 → The finale nobody wanted2019 → The finale that moved the schedule2023

One app, four entries, one bereavement4 entries · 2017-2023

The Replika user2017 → Replika2017 → Replika2017 → The morning the update shipped2023

Culture as the unit of attachment3 entries · 1976-2000

Convention culture1976 → Forum culture1999 → Sasaeng culture2000

Fandom as a crowd with a memory3 entries · 2001-2012

Transnational fandom2001 → The character is not the person2005 → Fandom wars2012

Grief, and the business built around it3 entries · 1970-2024

Grieving a person you never met1970 → Grief as a product surface2020 → The dead celebrity, generated2024

The moment it arrived3 entries · 2005-2017

YouTube launches2005 → Justin.tv becomes Twitch2011 → Replika2017

The stream that became a membership3 entries · 2011-2026

Justin.tv becomes Twitch2011 → The subscription tier2015 → The platform executive and the creator, same stage2026