<![CDATA[This study was motivated by the phenomenon of parasocial interaction among adolescents aged 13–18 years at the Ikhwanus Shafa Orphanage, who experience limited personal interaction with caregivers due to the loss of an attachment figure. This study aimed to describe the profile of parasocial interactions among adolescents and identify the social media application most predominantly used in these interactions. The study employed a descriptive qualitative approach, with data collected through observation and interviews involving five adolescents as key informants and one caregiver as a supporting informant. Data were analyzed through data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing, while data validity was assessed through source triangulation. The results showed that the adolescents experienced parasocial interactions, including feeling as though they personally knew their idols, intensively monitoring their idols’ posts to the extent of disrupting study time, becoming emotionally involved in their idols’ happiness and sadness, regarding their idols as role models and imitating their speech and behavior, and feeling directionless when access to their idols was interrupted. TikTok emerged as the most dominant application in the adolescents’ daily lives, facilitating one-way interactions by continuously displaying content on users’ feeds without requiring reciprocal relationships. These findings indicate that the absence of close personal relationships within the orphanage environment encourages adolescents to seek emotional fulfillment through media figures, with TikTok serving as a space for the emergence and development of parasocial interactions among adolescents.]]>
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