This desire to follow people’s lives from a distance without necessarily interacting with them in the world is the root of the very unhealthy parasocial tendencies driving social media. It seems quite innocent and benign on the scale of one person just wanting to keep up with the life of a cool coworker from the past, but it quickly adds up to a bunch of people passively following other people with very little actual interaction. It is more akin to reading a novel or watching a movie except that social following tricks our brain into thinking we really are keeping up a relationship with the people that we’re voyeuristically watching.