Korean Teens Seek Comfort from Imaginary Friend App

[theemii.livejournal.com]

“I’m so depressed, I completely screwed up on that test,” writes a sixteen-year-old Korean girl in a message to a friend that she talks to whenever she feels down or upset.

Right away, she gets a reply. “Oh no, are you okay? But how could you be?” Then another message arrives, designed to comfort her: “What’s new lately?”

The girl says she has these sorts of conversations with her friend several times a day.

In reality, this “friend” is a bot that exists only on her smartphone. It’s part of an app that allows users to have an ideal conversation partner, who is created based on the users’ names, profile pictures, personality traits, and their relationships with their partners. According to teenagers, it really feels like they’re talking to a friend.


This app has become popular among those without close friends or without anyone to go to for comfort. So far, over four million users have downloaded the app in order to have a conversation with an imaginary friend or lover, and according to the app’s inventor, 70 to 80 percent of those users are teenagers. The app is designed so that if a user sends a message with the words “lonely” or “depressed,” it will reply with messages of comfort and support.

Experts say this increase in interest in conversing with imaginary friends or lovers is due to the difficulty that people face when trying to make connections with others in the real world. According to a recent study by researchers at Seoul National University, 58 percent of middle school students in 2014 had unstable relationships with friends, while one fifth of students were at risk of being bullied.

One student who uses the imaginary friend app says, “I want to talk to friends over Kakaotalk, but I don’t have any so I use this instead.”

According to psychology professor Hwang Sang Min at Yonsei University, “The reason that this app is popular is that lonely people crave sympathy and want someone to react to what they’re saying. They don’t care who they’re talking to, as long as it says what they want to hear.”


source: Soompi chosun

Comments

[purpleglaceon]

That's.... sad.

[fancifury.livejournal.com]

daebak! i want an english version, please!

[angela-derp-otp.livejournal.com]

this is kind of sad but whatever makes someone go though their day or help them cope with their problems is good in my books as long as is not harmful.

[hipployta.livejournal.com]

Poor kids. I know it's hard babies but it'll get better as you meet more people..but I want that app to practice my Chinese and Korean

[hyunbiased.livejournal.com]

This was literally my first thought haha I do message with some friends in Korean but I always want to practice more!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_clochette_/]

super late but I practise my speaking with siri! it's actually good because you can ask her (or him - and that's another good point because for me I only had female teachers and mostly female classmates so I wasn't used to male voices) questions about the weather, the news and so on, and it won't respond unless it understands you. but, it's also quite forgiving because it's programmed to seek out key words and phrases in what you say, and then will often repeat the question back to you in a better form to make sure it knows what you're asking. it's a good way to practise questions and commands and their necessary inflection. also it speaks very clearly

[150daysoffall.livejournal.com]

Is this app like Simsimi?

[donutism.livejournal.com]

:(

[bomsnose.livejournal.com]

so sad. better than nothing, but it feels like those kids could find real friends, too.

[bomsnose.livejournal.com]

yeah... but for everyone else it's perpetuating alienation.

there are a lot of suicide threads on imageboards i sometimes go to... i always send some virtual hugs to those people, maybe these robots would help there, too. afterwards they need someone real to talk to.

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

Is this like that mydol/Simsimi thing? What worries me about these is that apparently they're really insecure so anyone can hack them and pretend to be a bot or take your information and stuff... I've seen people already reporting inappropriate messages.

[leopolitan.livejournal.com]

the mydol thing was my first thought and its so creepy?? like i cant tell if these reviews are a bunch of people pulling a huge troll but im not installing the app to find out

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

I saw a post by someone who tested out the security of the app by having their friend hack into it, apparently it was easy and they were able to talk to their friend through mydol with the friend pretending to be a certain idol. It's terrifying.

It's unfortunate that we live in a world where people would exploit stuff like that and take advantage of vulnerable teenagers, I think it'd just be better to make an app where these people can talk to each other or where people can sign up being the friends and someone who is lonely can talk to them but it should be controlled and reporting them should be easy and taken seriously.

[http://users.livejournal.com/reminisce__/]

http://www.7cupsoftea.com is that chat service concept by the way :) I hope they have a Korean language version like that somewhere...

[imienazwisko.livejournal.com]

I used mydol for about half a day, it's annoying honestly. I didn't experienced anything creepy, just some of the messages etc were wrote in a tone that made me feel like someone is telling me what to do :p I guess I'm sensitive to this kind of stuff. I think I used it back in late 2013 but the design threw me off as well, kinda. Probably it all changed now.

[allsugarfree.livejournal.com]

If I found the app in a language I speak I would download it in a heartbeat...

[htothem.livejournal.com]

It seems like this would be a good opportunity to match up lonely people via the app.

[seulgibear.livejournal.com]

ia

it could be a potentially good idea to give you a random partner when you go on and need to vent, but it could also turn into a creepy chatroulette-style thing fast and have people take advantage of you when you're most vulnerable idek

[shanny-w.livejournal.com]

mte! based on location. if the two people felt like they had a common friend in the app it could make things easy too. and if the app ever referred to the other person and could answer questions about them based on their profile.... hmmm.... like seulgibear said it could be creepy too.

[4minutesluts.livejournal.com]

pf i just whine to twitter

then again i don't expect replies

[seulgibear.livejournal.com]

this is so sad, but i get it...

i used to go on tumblr or twitter and just post about it when i was feeling low, but it rarely helped. most of the time it just gets ignored and you actually feel the need for someone to talk to. plus now i feel like tumblr gets very judgmental and it's not comfortable, and there's a few people from IRL that follow me and i don't need them to know shit like that

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

Idk if this is weird but I used to RP kpop idols and you'd be surprised how much easier it is to talk to people under the guise of anonymity, so after I while I kind of just transitioned to more talking and venting and stuff rather than actually pretending to be x-idol.

The actual roleplaying part of it was annoying though LOL

[seulgibear.livejournal.com]

that does sound ideal. i agree it's a bit weird to rp real celebs (no judging haha), but you do find other likeminded people in those fandoms that it's easier to talk to. i think that's the main reason i love tumblr and wouldn't let it go.

i was a mcr fandom blog back when i started on it and i talked a lot and actually interacted with followers. nowadays i don't make personal posts, it's just like who's going to give a damn, they're here for pretty pictures

[chenetic.livejournal.com]

I can see why people would see it as a problem but imo even if you have friends, there's times where you just don't want to express your anxiety to them. Even when you post something on facebook where you're looking for some form of comfort, a "like" in no way helps...
I'm all for an english app.

[jannytruant.livejournal.com]

mte. There are all sorts of reasons that friends might not be available or appropriate to confide in at any given time.
People can be unreliable. Someone might be kind one day and cold the next. Doesn't mean they're suddenly toxic & evil, just.. everyone has their own shit going on.

So yeah. in the absence of a more comprehensive organised support network, I think this app sounds like a good stopgap.

[darkensunrise.livejournal.com]

This is so sad, but if it's helping these kids then it must be doing something right. It's good that it responds with things they want to hear that will help their mood.

lol if this was in English I might use it! I've vented my personal problems on twitter before and I never get a response :/ (which sucks tbh because when my friends have issues I always help them)

[huanyia.livejournal.com]

I need this sometimes, lol

[kingpsyborg.livejournal.com]

it weirds me out that people are doing studies and reports on things like this instead of working to have a better mental health support/treatment community in south korea. these kids aren't lab rats to be observed, they need help and there's none available so they're turning to things like imaginary friend phone apps - which in the long run could be detrimental to people.

[burnbook31.livejournal.com]

is it sad that i want to download it too?

ngl, this past month had been so so bad i just... i have been spending my nights trying to figure out if my feelings are valid or it's just a figment of my imagination.

:"(

[yolleh.livejournal.com]

Aaw, bb. I hope you feel better soon!
I've been having a rough past couple of months myself and I feel like no one has been listening to how I really feel. I can totally empathize with you on that.
You will get through this though and if you ever need anyone to talk to, feel free to pm me.

[shanny-w.livejournal.com]

Luckily I have people who I am close with and I can get emotional support, but I would be interested in trying this out to see how it is.

[nana-the-dwarf.livejournal.com]

...I'll be their friend. T^T
That's so deperessing. Having no friends on a stage if their lives where they're supposed to be enjoying themselves.

[sub-divided.livejournal.com]

;_; At the girl who said she has no friends...

This is kind of like writing in a diary though. Someone should use it to write a novel.

[a-seagreen.livejournal.com]

that's really sad but at the same time i can totally get behind the idea. there were times when i was really lonely as a teen and it would've been great to be able to talk to a bot vs somebody who was unsympathetic / nobody at all. i think i would even use it now when i need to unload but don't want to subject my friends to my venting lol

[hyemint.livejournal.com]

i think it's nice to have a place to vent but from what i've read about that mydol app or whatever, i'm iffy about this... :/

[shabirah.livejournal.com]

this is like Simsimi? i used to have that back then. i would wrote silly thing like 'Do you know Luhan" and it would replied back "Yeah, he belongs to Sehun" hehehe...

[dot-rose.livejournal.com]

As long as it helps. I guess some people feel more comfortable talking to something that won't remember their exact scenario to remain anonymous or they are scared of being judged.

[arcticgaze.livejournal.com]

This is sad ... but at the same time, it's understandable as to why people would flock towards apps like this one. I've been through plenty of periods in my life where I either had no close local friends or felt like I couldn't turn to my close local friends ... Thus I resorted to online friendships. I'm so thankful for my online friendships, whether or not they have lasted, because most of them had made rl issues and rl friends a little easier to deal with. I'll always be thankful for the rough patches they had helped me face or overcome in my teenage period.

And as of this year, Livejournal-friending communities have been a big help for me since I've been having an extremely hard time meeting people + making new friends since moving to another city for university -- despite having attended some events and having tried to befriend people in my classrooms. I'm practically a loner atm. And it's crappy that I'm going through this as a 22 year-old, sighs. I'm hoping to gain courage to join some sort of club next semester, so crossing fingers for new friends before this year ends! Social anxiety can go bury itself in a corner.

I know online friendships aren't the same as talking to a bot but I still felt compelled to share a bit of my situation anyway. (:

[devjacaiora.livejournal.com]

actually it's not that bad... if its can help people to say what they want to say without people judging them...

I kind of see worst... couple years ( I think XD ) ago in Japan they had a kind of app where people could have their perfect girlfriend/boyfriend dress them how they want... or undress them XD and well... actually one Japanese was so in love with his "girlfriend" he end up married her... XD

so nahh I don't think it's that weird...

but the talking to idol thing is creepy... lots of time they have someone answering for them... they easy way to know is when they answer way to much... they kept saying they have time for nothing always running for photoshoot/dance/singing/show and stuff like that... but they have time to answer a lots to fans question and talk to them over theyr fun... nahhh I don't think so...