Chatbots and teenagers: the metaphor of dialogue in a new social reality

Context and relevance. The rapid integration of chatbots into everyday practices poses a challenge for psychology to conceptualize a new format of communication whose socio-psychological nature and consequences for personality development remain insufficiently studied. This issue becomes especially significant in adolescence, when communication serves as a leading activity and a condition for the development of self-consciousness, empathy, moral norms, agency, and the ability to build deep relationships. The lack of empirical and theoretical models of adolescent chatbot-mediated communication determines the relevance of the study and creates risks of insufficiently grounded pedagogical and technological decisions.
Objective. A theoretical understanding of adolescents’ communication with chatbots as a new sociopsychological phenomenon: conceptualization of this type of interaction, its differentiation from real and virtual “human–human” communication, classification of existing bot systems, and hypothetical modeling of risks for personality development and positive socialization of adolescents.
Methods. Theoretical analysis, extrapolation of basic theories of personality development (leading activity, socialization, development of agency) to botmediated communication; method of analogies using data obtained from the study of related phenomena (communication with robots, virtual communication, Internet addiction); comparative analysis and classification.
Results. The ontological differences between real, virtual, and botmediated communication are identified. A classification of chatbots in the communicative space of adolescents is proposed. Data on the prevalence of chatbot use among adolescents in the United States, Great Britain, and Russia are presented. Probable risks under the dominance of botmediated practices are substantiated: distortions in selfawareness, deficits in empathy development, weakening of communication skills, reduced cognitive autonomy, simplification of valuemeaning regulation, and diminished subjectness.
Conclusions. Communication with chatbots represents an independent type of subject–object interaction that is fundamentally different from real and virtual human–human communication. Despite its superficial resemblance to dialogue, it lacks intentionality, reciprocity, and personal responsibility, which creates risks of anthropological simplification and deficient conditions for adolescent personality development. Chatbots can serve as a useful supportive resource in educational and assisting practices, but they should not replace live interpersonal communication as the key environment for adolescent socialization. The results confirm the need for empirical verification of the proposed risk model, especially in the Russian cultural context, as well as the development of psychological and pedagogical recommendations for the safe and developmentally supportive use of chatbots.

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