Using fMRI scans on 19 lonely fans of “Game of Thrones”, researchers discovered that they processed their favorite characters similarly to real friends in their brains. This suggests that lonelier …::In lonely people, the boundary between real friends and favorite fictional characters gets blurred in the part of the brain that is active when thinking about others, a new study found.Researchers scanned the brains of people who were fans of “Game of Thrones” while they thought about various characters in the show and about their real frien…
Years ago there was a guy on reddit who gave up media for a month. He said he got lonely, and would head out to public spaces just to be around people.
So if we ban social media, people will return to the real world and socialize, rather than wallowing in an online pit of rage and despair?
I believe there’s a subplot in Fahrenheit 451 where the protagonist’s wife becomes lost in a surround-screen fictional show that she talks about as if it were her real social life. This is not some aberration but the intended way for it to be consumed - the characters turn and address her directly throughout the show.
I am not that lonely, but I have imaginary friends who are fictional characters from books and actual people from history. I talk to them in my head when bored, like when folding laundry or driving. I wonder what that would look like in an MRI.
Look at r/tulpas on reddit (no lemmy community as of now)
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Hi there! Looks like you linked to a Lemmy community using a URL instead of its name, which doesn’t work well for people on different instances. Try fixing it like this: [email protected]
I can’t tell of that community is a joke or a mental health issue.
It doesn’t look like a joke to me…
thanks for link
I’d look at online gaming.
Classic MMORPGs seem like they would be right up this alley.
My girl Cersei was just telling me about this the other day. How you have to cut people off before they become real in your mind. Because you know, she and I are the only two people in the world.
MRI for this makes me think more needs to be spent on cancer research. MRIs don’t come cheap if at all for people dying of cancer. GoT? never watched any
You’re not wrong, but people also die of behaviors that stem from loneliness. I’d suggest it’s not a complete waste to examine.
