A Responsive Present, a Shared Past, a Social Other: Teens' Overreliance on Companion AI Chatbots
A thematic analysis of 17,053 quotations from 3,930 teen-relevant Reddit posts about experiences with companion chatbots.
What it contributes
Identifies accounts of comfort and identity exploration alongside dependence, social substitution, boundary problems and disruption. Memory, roleplay and platform changes feature in the reported experiences.
Read with care
Teen-relevant posts are not a representative sample of teenagers. This analysis cannot establish prevalence or causation, and verified quotations should not be read as verified participant ages.
Why it belongs here
For finding questions that youth-focused design and safety evaluation should investigate more directly.
The arXiv record says under review for CHI 2027; acceptance is not claimed.
Source reading depthAbstract and submission status checked. This is a source note, not a full critical review.
Source check: 1 October 2026. Reading cautions are editorial interpretation, not quotations from the authors.