Marriage will not be called: is it possible to marry an avatar
Virtual space knows practically no boundaries, expands the circle of acquaintances, promotes self-expression and self-education. Even the most outspoken skeptics do not deny digital tools and their necessity for a comfortable life. But often communication with AI goes beyond reason, and virtual connections lead to rejection of real ones. About how to distinguish an Internet freak from an enterprising blogger, whether passion for an avatar is considered treason, and whether it is possible to marry a virtual partner - in the Izvestia article.
Global economy and AI development
There are not many cases when people prefer virtual reality to ordinary life. Among the latest is information that in Japan, a 32—year-old woman married a boyfriend created by AI, and in Krasnogorsk, a girl broke up with a guy because he cheated on her with a virtual beauty. Because of the resonance, it sometimes seems that such users set the tone for the whole society. But experts in the field of psychiatry and psychology disagree with this and advise analyzing what lies behind these fashionable fads, whether there is any commercial interest in non-standard behavior or a hint of mental disorders.
The transition of all spheres of life into the information space is a global trend for all mankind, says clinical psychologist, sexologist, and body therapist Sergey Volkov. According to the expert, this situation was predicted by economists and cyberneticists back in the middle of the twentieth century.
"Moving away from matter into the information field has expanded the world's economy, which reached its limit by the end of the last century," says Volkov. — In fact, the Internet, the development of social networks and virtual services, and the creation of various online technologies have brought humanity to a new stage of the economy.
However, the most daring transformations are far from being able to abandon real life and move into a purely virtual existence. It is impossible to separate information, including mind, from matter, emphasizes Sergey Volkov. And for those who are seriously afraid of going into the virtual world, the clinical psychologist reminds them that the material infrastructure supports the information infrastructure, and vice versa. Thus, it is impossible to completely immerse yourself in the figure, but it is also unrealistic to abandon it, which retrogrades advocate.
— We call the world after 2010 the "information age". And those societies that limit or neglect technology will find themselves on the sidelines of civilization," says Volkov.
Virtual husband and real wife
Many fields of activity and communication are going online. Personal life is also shifting into the digital space. People separated by circumstances and distances "hold on" to each other through threads of social networks and messengers. And for those who are just getting to know each other, it is sometimes more comfortable to do it in virtual reality.
— It's easier to communicate there, it's easier to talk about uncomfortable topics, you don't have to be afraid of your interlocutor or feelings of shame, — says sexologist Volkov. — If something went wrong, you can always delete the correspondence and block the person.
From Volkov's point of view, such opportunities create the illusion of world security. That's why virtual life attracts people: no responsibility and maximum comfort with minimal effort.
"This is a new reality with new conditions, breaking old ideas about everything," the expert continues. — We need to adapt to this and accept new living conditions, as if the climate had suddenly changed.
As for the wedding of a Japanese woman with a virtual partner, the sexologist draws the attention of interested citizens — this is not a real wedding. The government of the Land of the Rising Sun does not recognize this as a marriage, the expert emphasizes. From his point of view, this is just a good example of creating profitable content. The woman came up with a vivid information guide, the media replicate it, fueling interest and increasing views. And the avatar's wife gets her dividends as a blogger. "This is a new area of the economy," says Volkov.
Fashion bloggers often choose attention-grabbing content to attract attention and increase monetization. But you shouldn't imitate them — it's just business.
However, virtual objects of sympathy and love existed before, and the rituals associated with them persist today.
— Historically, in Asia, the ritual of giving a woman in a ritual marriage for a sacred object is more or less common, — says Sergey Volkov. — In India, for example, there is a marriage with a tree. It has no legal force — this is a popular belief, they say, in this way the spirit of the tree will protect the village. Ghost weddings are common in China, when a woman or man is married to the ghost of another family in order to prevent clan wars.
According to the expert, these traditions are more than 5,000 years old. But what for some is part of the culture, for others it looks like something completely abnormal.
Passionate feelings for virtual chosen ones can also be compared with sighs for a beautiful lady, dreams of a knight on a white horse, or falling in love with popular artists and singers.
— This is a very "comfortable" relationship when you don't have to wash your lover's socks, feed him, talk to him, get involved in his problems, — says the sexologist. — On the one hand, a person closes his personal "debt" to society, on the other hand, he calms his anxiety about failure in his personal life.
And, of course, at all times there have been people whose behavior has been out of bounds and condemned by society. They tell a joke about them: "Son, before only the family knew that you were a fool, but now, with the advent of social networks, everyone knows about it."
"Before the Internet was so widespread, people with very specific disabilities were isolated in their social circle," says clinical psychologist Sergey Volkov. — Few people knew about them, but with access to the Internet, they took the opportunity to bring their ideas online, where thousands of users read them. We just started noticing them.
Internet addiction
Daria Serebryakova, a clinical psychologist and deputy head of the rehabilitation program at Dr. Isaev's Clinic, advises that the emphasis should be placed correctly when it comes to addiction and various inappropriate behaviors that are currently associated with artificial intelligence.
— We really see examples of excessive enthusiasm: endless formatting of photos, withdrawal into an artificial, "edited" world, unwillingness to show themselves as real, emotional immersion in virtual images and scenarios. All this may look like dependent behavior," Serebryakova warns.
The expert notes that it is important to understand the causal relationship - innovations and advanced technologies themselves cannot be the cause of inappropriate behavior. These are just forms that the psyche comes into contact with.
— It is the human psyche that is primary, its stability or instability, characterological features, the presence or absence of mental disorders, — Serebryakova comments. — A well-known psychiatric fact: until 1961, patients practically did not encounter space-themed nonsense. After man's flight into space, such themes appeared in delusional constructions. But not because space "caused" the disease, but because the cultural and informational context in which the disease began to "integrate" has changed.
The same thing is happening now with artificial intelligence, Serebryakova believes. For example, a person experiences some seemingly strange feelings towards an AI character. But if there were no artificial intelligence, then these same feelings would be directed at a real person and would manifest themselves just as inadequately. "A person with a dependent type of attachment or an unstable psyche will find an object — the only question is which one," says Serebryakova.
"If a person is faced with addiction, whether it's social media, artificial intelligence, or the endless creation of "perfect", fantastic images, in any case, they will not have to start by trying to ban or "cancel" something at the technological level," comments the clinical psychologist. — We are talking about the need to build boundaries with the object of one's addiction, to learn emotional self-regulation, to rely on existing and well-studied psychological ways of helping.
Times and epochs change, but psychological mechanisms remain largely the same, the expert emphasizes. And he advises you to take this into account, so as not to substitute working with a personality for fighting another phenomenon of modern civilization.
Clinical psychologist Volkov once again draws attention to the fact that the reasons for virtualization are economic and technological. And, in general, there is no way back.
— No matter how much you deny modern technology, but a person without a smartphone is now practically losing touch with society, — Sergey Volkov emphasizes. — It deprives itself of many modern functions like calling a taxi, ordering groceries or minor repairs, paying bills quickly, and having easy access to banks and government services. Basic convenience and improved quality of life encourage people to study technology and live with it.
Abandoning digitalization is tantamount to giving up comfort, quick access to information, and other benefits. So you should make reasonable use of the advantages of modern life, observe digital and information hygiene.
— Do not deny yourself functionality, but do not look for emotionality on the Web, — says Sergey Volkov. — Do not replace your life with virtual avatars, but do not dismiss learning or information search. Do not substitute virtual communication for contact with real people, but use quick messages in your work.
From the expert's point of view, information hygiene is one of the most dynamically developing areas of cybernetics and neuroscience. Volkov likens it to how in the old days people were taught to wash their hands, take a bath, and brush their teeth. Now you should learn time management of social networks, the ability to distinguish impulsive purchases from reasonable spending, not to leave your data on suspicious sites, and be able to transfer communication from virtuality to reality.
Jealousy of the avatar
While a new reality is being formed, mixed up with "numbers" and vivid emotions, people are trying to determine their attitude to it. In particular, they are even wondering whether it is normal to have virtual affairs or to be jealous of partners of fictional characters. In general, from the point of view of logic and common sense, virtual "relationships", communication with artificial intelligence or with an avatar can hardly be attributed to real infidelity, says psychiatrist and sexologist Alexei Vilkov. The interaction in this case is artificial, but the expert advises to take into account that the perception of the fact of betrayal is always subjective and is determined by the attitude of a particular person to this moment.
— For some, cheating is a direct physical contact in reality, for others it is a fleeting glance at another girl or a young man, — the psychiatrist comments. - Some people attribute her fascination with porn films. Partners usually agree among themselves that there is cheating for them.
As for the "traitor" from Krasnogorsk, in this case, the psychiatrist does not exclude the presence of certain character traits in the young man, which most likely complicate his relationship with girls.
— It can be excessive isolation, or anxiety, or a tendency to fantasize, — the expert lists. — That's probably why he created a virtual world with an ideal artificial girl without flaws. In such a world, there are no quarrels, conflicts, or getting used to a partner. And there he could realize himself as successfully as possible, since he created an idealized artificial image for himself.
For a real girl, this departure into the fantasy world clearly caused negative feelings, real jealousy and a whole range of reciprocal emotions, which led the couple to break up. From the point of view of a psychiatrist, it is difficult to judge whether this person needs specialized help without knowing anything about him and his personality.
"Probably not,— says Vilkov. — Maybe it was just a game, an entertainment that he considered his secret secret. And he probably thought that infatuation would have no effect on his relationship with a real girl. Or it was a way of avoiding the problems that had accumulated in a relationship with a real partner. Perhaps in this way he was simply relieving stress, or maybe he was preparing for a breakup, believing that such an outlet would allow him to minimize negative experiences.
Do I need to animate photos
There are also active discussions about whether "reviving" photos affects a person's mental health, as well as other forms of using AI — asking for advice, discussing personal life, and trying to partially replace real relationships with this communication.
— As a rule, if a person is mentally healthy and stable enough, then he can take some recommendations of a virtual assistant for himself, especially since most often the AI does not give out something fundamentally new - a person is able to formulate a lot of this himself, - says Daria Serebryakova. — At the same time, I have never observed that a mentally healthy person is excessively and pathologically addicted to this. Usually people "play around", and then they are pulled back into the space of living human relationships.
As for the "revival" of photographs of deceased relatives, clinical psychologist Serebryakova does not see anything clearly pathological or dangerous in this, but only if a person has managed to live through the loss, to burn it out. If we are talking about pathological grief, when people endlessly review such images, then this begins to noticeably affect their daily lives. They refuse to communicate with real people and actually spend all their time "communicating" with images of the deceased. In such cases, you should seek professional help. At the same time, Daria Serebryakova once again emphasizes that this is not about the "fault" of artificial intelligence, but about an individual reaction.
— If we recall the history, at the beginning of the 20th century, people were massively interested in spiritualism — it was a kind of offline way to "communicate" with deceased relatives, - the expert continues. — This hobby quickly faded away, although, probably, even then there were people who were excessively immersed in it.
The boundaries of the norm in the case of artificial intelligence run in the same place as with the influence of any other factors on our lives, Serebryakova believes. The universal criterion is the degree of impact on a person's daily functioning.
— We can always assess whether different areas of life are affected: relationships with loved ones, work or study, financial situation, household organization of life, physical and mental health, value and spiritual sphere, — says Daria Serebryakova. — In the most egregious cases, problems with the law can also become an indicator of trouble.
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