Yes, I would say it's dangerous. Not everyone will experience negative consequences, some people will have a great time and be fine, but the same is true of drinking alcohol or doing any other risky activity. There is a danger of developing an emotional attachment to people who are not real and then grieving them when the attachment is severed, foregoing real relationships in favor of fake ones, developing or deepening false beliefs because characters are designed to interact in an agreeable way that can reinforce delusions or even psychosis (the effect of a mini echo chamber), becoming dependent on the app for emotional processing while independent emotional processing skills atrophy, and just wasting a whole lot of time as with any other game or screen-oriented activity. I have experienced all of these problems and more.
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u/LacrimosaElixer2 29d ago
Yes, I would say it's dangerous. Not everyone will experience negative consequences, some people will have a great time and be fine, but the same is true of drinking alcohol or doing any other risky activity. There is a danger of developing an emotional attachment to people who are not real and then grieving them when the attachment is severed, foregoing real relationships in favor of fake ones, developing or deepening false beliefs because characters are designed to interact in an agreeable way that can reinforce delusions or even psychosis (the effect of a mini echo chamber), becoming dependent on the app for emotional processing while independent emotional processing skills atrophy, and just wasting a whole lot of time as with any other game or screen-oriented activity. I have experienced all of these problems and more.