It turned out that the most vulnerable are those under the age of 29 and those who enthusiastically follow other people’s lives through the platform.
Think about it – you’re making “friends” on YouTube, learning more about their lives than yours, but… they don’t know anything about you.
These “one-sided relationships” are called “parasocial”. Of course this can be a consolation for those suffering from social anxiety, but unfortunately such relationships only exacerbate the problem as they do not involve any real communication.
Dr. Against the background of his discovery, Balcomba advises: “Watch less on YouTube and communicate more in real life.” As they say, “Get off the Internet, there are people!”
At the same time, the researchers noted that YouTube is increasingly being used for mental health purposes. And the AI boom has the potential to help that even more.
Source: Ferra
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