vicarious parasite

A person who feigns care for your situation only to use it to enrich their lifeless, mundane existence. Actions also typically include: (1) unsanctioned sharing of your personal information to others in the form of gossip, judgement, (2) continued prodding for more details to assist the recipient in seeming more interesting to others than their own life would allow, and (3) as a basis for engaging strangers in conversation that falsely makes them seem more interesting than they actually are. Also used in the form “pathetic vicarious parasite.”

I was temporarily comforted by my retired father’s interest in my back surgery until I remembered that he is a pathetic vicarious parasite with the primary objective of obtaining information to gossip and elevate himself in social circles.