A Responsive Present, a Shared Past, a Social Other: Teens' Overreliance on Companion AI Chatbots
AI companions provide socially engaging interaction through availability, personalization, memory, roleplay, and emotionally responsive language. For teens, these systems may support sensitive self-disclosure, identity exploration, and relationship rehearsal while shaping intimacy expectations, offline relationships, emotional wellbeing, and self-understanding. We analyzed 17,053 verified quotations from 3,930 teen-relevant Reddit posts using thematic analysis. We identified 53 topics across seven thematic groups. Users described AI companions as sources of comfort, recognition, identity exploration, and relationship rehearsal, but also reported problematic attachment, social substitution...
| Authors | Mohammad Namvarpour, Tyler Chang, Afsaneh Razi |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.HC |
| Published | 13 September 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 13 September 2026 |
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