PARASOCIAL DEPENDENCY ASSOCIATED WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CHATBOTS

Artificial intelligence has increasingly become commonplace in everyday life without much consideration for effects outside of the commercial or academic realms. In the aftermath of the significant shifts in perception and usage of media following COVID-19 lockdown regulations, media usage rates are still significantly higher than in preceding years. Particularly, these patterns are seen in young people as they approach adulthood, whose social development was greatly impacted by strict social distancing policies. This study investigates the links between stunted social development skills, increased media usage, and the advent of individual-oriented artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots. Referenced literature highlights para-social theory, investigating the lens of self-formed attachments to distant or fictional person-adjacentfigures to fulfill existing social and emotional needs. To investigate these findings, nineteen current college-age students, in high school at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown, were individually interviewed about their AI, media, and social habits. Findings suggest that there is in fact, a correlation between difficulties socializing and increased individual media habits. This study is exploratory into a developing field and ultimately suggests further research is needed..