According to the researchers from Miami University, people often seem to get genuine belonging feelings from their favorite characters on video games and their favorite TV shows.
In four linking studies on students, the researchers concluded that feelings of being lonely and rejected can be driven away with the help of technology.
In the first study, the participants reported that they tuned their favorite TV to get rid of loneliness and they
really feel less lonely after watching their favorite programs on TV.
Similarly, the rest of the studies show that most of the participants of the study feel excited when they watch, think or write about their favorite programs on TV.
Dr. Shira Gaberiel, the lead author of the study, says: “The study seems to offer evidence for the hypothesis of social surrogacy that says different technologies like TV can be used to get the feelings of belonging in no real belonging times.”
“ It’s not only TV that can be used to fulfill such requirements, some other technologies like movies, video games and music can also serve your such needs.”
However, the researchers say that the social surrogacy provoked by technology can be a poor substitution for human-to-human experience.
But researchers believe that this technology provoked social surrogacy can’t be a better alternative of human to human experiences.
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