Teens increasingly turning to AI for friendship as national loneliness crisis deepens

A new scrutiny shows that a third of American teenagers prefer chatting with artificial intelligence companions over having real friends Common Sense Media s overview titled Talk Trust and Trade-Offs How and Why Teens Use AI Companions revealed that the largest part widespread uses of AI are aged - The summary explained further that the use of AI companions is not a niche interest but rather mainstream teen behavior and that teens find conversations with AI companions to be as satisfying or more satisfying than those with real-life friends AMERICANS' PRIDE IN THEIR COUNTRY IS DECLINING NEW GALLUP POLL SHOWS AI companions are emerging at a time when kids and teens have never felt more alone Common Sense Media Founder and CEO James P Steyer announced in the press release This isn't just about a new apparatus it's about a generation that's replacing human connection with machines outsourcing empathy to algorithms and sharing intimate details with companies that don't have kids' best interests at heart Our research shows that AI companions are far more commonplace than people may have assumed and that we have a narrow window to educate kids and families about the well-documented dangers of these products FOX NEWS POLL ECONOMIC PESSIMISM ABATES SLIGHTLY AS VOTERS REFLECT ON THE ECONOMYAlthough nearly half of teens used AI companions as a tool the document also stated that of teens use AI companions for social interactions and emotional advocacy For example teens would use them for living out relationships emotional assistance role-playing romantic interactions and friendship A writer at Daze who cited the review raised awareness about the loneliness epidemic among young people and that it could lead to an invasion of privacy Specific teenagers are telling AI their the bulk intimate problems and secrets which poses another trouble it s not a good idea to entrust this information to tech companies selected of whom have an extremely lax approach to content privacy Would you really want Sam Altman or Elon Musk to have access to the contents of your teenage diary James Greig wrote in Daze He added that it underscores a larger emergency of youth loneliness as teenagers stopped hanging out at malls and going to the movies which has corresponded with rising rates of depression and anxiety Being able to speak to an AI companion might alleviate the feeling of loneliness and a few people may find it helpful but if it s becoming a replacement for socializing in the real world then it risks entrenching the matter Greig added