The experience of loneliness by people who prefer virtual relationships with fictional characters

• Черемискина Ирина Игоревна

  Irina I. Cheremiskina. Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service. Vladivostok. Russia

• Kseniya A. Kholupova

  Kseniya A. Kholupova. Vladivostok State University of Economics and Service. Vladivostok. Russia

The article presents the results of a study of the experience of loneliness in young people who
prefer virtual relationships with fictional people to relationships with real people. In the modern world,
digital technologies affect literally all aspects of human life. Through the Internet, you can maintain re-
lationships not only between real people, but also create virtual relationships with fictional characters.
Unfortunately, in this case, the refusal to interact with real people and going into the virtual world can
have a destructive effect on the person and society as a whole. The work used diagnostic methods of
questionnaire, testing, as well as statistical processing methods, which allows us to talk about the high
reliability of the results obtained, and reliability is provided by a large sample size, 308 young people
took part in the study (N = 308). The results showed that people who prefer virtual relationships with
fictional characters have medium and high levels of experiencing loneliness, as well as a positive atti-
tude towards loneliness; and those who do not see themselves in such relationships have a low and me-
dium level of experience of loneliness. Thus, the results show that virtual relationships with fictional
characters cannot compensate for the negative experiences of young people, which is a serious problem
for practice psychologists. Thus, the results can be used in psycho-consultative practice, as well as in
psychotherapy to better understand the client's problem and improve his psychological support.
Keywords: loneliness, virtual relationship, fictional characters.