Heavy chatbot usage is correlated with loneliness and reduced socialization

I really didn’t think I’d be saying this… but I genuinely feel ChatGPT has positively impacted my mental health.<p>I often use it as a therapist. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but it actually works pretty well. It has an exceptionally high EQ and often uses language far better than I ever could to help uncover the thoughts and feelings I’m processing.<p>Sometimes, just finding the right words to express myself relieves a great deal of stress, and by God, these bots are good with words…

I&#x27;m a senior citizen and I use it sometimes to explain what is happening to me as I age. For example, I noticed myself doing &quot;excessive rumination&quot; about the long gone past, which I attributed to the near-dystopian nightmare I am living through in the U.S. presently.<p>I asked ChatGPT about it and it said, no, excessive rumination is a problem for many people as they age due to various factors. Then it suggested some remedies, which is very good for my mental health.

For the last years of my dad a chat robot would have been a godsend. He had increasing dementia and the last years you had basically the same conversation every ten minutes. It’s really hard to stay nice and play along when this goes on for months and longer. It would have been a great relief for my mom and the rest of the family if he had been able to have these conversations with an always patient and cheerful robot.

Or they might not. Or they might be a net mental health benefit. Or they may benefit some users and harm others. Or it may be impossible to disentangle their effect from all of the other changes going on.<p>Probably one of those things, unless it’s something else.

A good heuristic test of correlation vs causation in headlines: flip the dependent and independent variable and see which explanation sounds more reasonable.<p>Heavy llm chat usage leads to loneliness | or | Loneliness leads to heavy chat usage.<p>To my eye the second seems far more likely than the first.

Wet streets cause rain.

I would be interested in retention stats for these companionship chatbots. The novelty factor is powerful and addictive, but it fades fast. There is a reason all of these bots gamify everything. The most concerning thing is all these bots are already trying to be as addictive as possible. They are built to exploit the users loneliness. They don’t cause it, they devour it.

Subtitle makes it clear that this is a correlation, but the title (falsely) implies causation. Obviously lonely people are going to flock toward a technology that provides pseudo social interaction

Imagine being schizophrenic (or anything like that) and hearing from Snowden that yes, &quot;they really are always listening&quot;, and now you&#x27;ve got chat bots to give instant confirmation of all the other things you think of due to your mental disorder.<p>It&#x27;s going to be mental.

The dependence on it could be an issue for human to human interaction as the machine always says the better thing

Correlation doesn&#x27;t equal causation. It could be that those with traits like loneliness and reduced socialisation are more likely to use chatbots in the first place.<p>The question is does it help and if not, is it harmful? The article doesn&#x27;t seem to give hard data on this one way or the other.

I like the innovative use of public gaslighting in the same vein as &quot;drugs are bad&quot; and &quot;psychedelics will make everyone mad&quot;. I rush in panic to vote that we should regulate all chatbots schedule 1, prevent the masses accessing them, and let them only be used by the elites in secret. It was always gonna be this way, governments are terrified of individuals getting more power and control.<p>I also totally agree with the other commenters: chatbots can be great for expressing to, and gaining perspective.

Correlation vs. causation is so important when looking at this data.

Blaming tools instead of the systems yet again.

The article leaps from correlation to causation while trying to make an argument.<p>Correlation is not causation. They might reinforce each other but the problem is likely more complex.

people getting addicted to a chatbot is so weird to me…<p>just talk to another human, i mean…<p>the lengths some people will go to in order to diminish other people is bizarre. just talk to another person.<p>if you’re paranoid people are judging you or something, consider if you judge others harshly and maybe this makes you needlessly paranoid. we’re all just trying moving about through the world trying our best to figure shit out the best we can. that includes everyone here.<p>just talk to another person, give it longer than an awkward first impression tho. just talk to another person—we’re not scary.