Youth, Teens, and Social AI, Are We Witnessing A New Evolution?
- The White Hatter
- 11 minutes ago
- 10 min read
Recently, we read an excellent article by Dr. Sameer Hinduja titled, “From Social to Parasocial Media: Rethinking Youth Online Safety. (1)” We agree with Dr. Hinduja’s central thesis that the nature of online relationships is changing in ways that parents and caregivers need to understand. However, based on what we are seeing in our work with thousands of young people, we believe the evolution may be moving even further than many people realize, or what Dr Hinduja spoke about in his article.
Over the past two decades, the online world has undergone several significant shifts. What began as platforms designed primarily to help people connect with other people, is now evolving into environments where artificial intelligence is becoming an active participant in social interactions. In fact, we are beginning to observe what appears to be a progression from human centred social media toward AI integrated social experiences.
During our nearly three decades at The White Hatter teaching digital literacy and internet safety, we have had a front row seat to the changing ways young people interact, communicate, and form relationships online. Through that experience, we have observed four distinct evolutions in the digital social landscape that help explain where we are today and where we may be heading next:
1/ Human-Based Social Media (Friends based)
2/ Human Parasocial Media (Human Influencers based)
3/ Technology-Based Parasocial Media (AI Companionship based)
4/ Social AI (Humans and AI Sharing Social Spaces based)
Understanding these categories can help parents, caregivers, and educators better understand where many young people are spending their time online today and where these digital environments may be heading tomorrow.
The First Evolution: Human Based Social Media
The first generation of social media was built around human to human interaction with sites and MySpace and the original Facebook taking hold in the early 2000’s.
Platforms were designed to help people communicate, share experiences, build friendships, collaborate, and maintain relationships. Whether through photos, videos, comments, livestreams, direct messages, or group discussions, the primary purpose was connecting real people with other real people. These are what we like to call legacy social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
In these environments, content was largely created by humans. Friendships were formed between classmates, teammates, family members, peers, and sometimes people who you met online. Social dynamics such as belonging, popularity, support, mentorship, conflict, romance, and even bullying emerged through interactions between actual people.
Although anonymity sometimes existed, there was generally a real person behind the screen. The core question in this evolution was simple, “How do I connect with other people?”
For many parents and caregivers, this is still what comes to mind when they think about social media.
The Second Evolution: Human Parasocial Media
The second stage emerged as influencers, creators, streamers, podcasters, and online personalities became central figures in young people’s online lives. Parasocial media became popular online in stages, but it really accelerated in the late 2000s and early 2010s with sites like YouTube where it allowed everyday people to build loyal audiences and vloggers, bloggers, and online personalities began developing strong fan communities.
A parasocial relationship is essentially a one sided relationship. A young person feels connected to a creator, while the creator has little or no knowledge of that individual follower.
Today’s social media platforms such as TikTok have dramatically intensified these relationships. Influencers share their daily lives, struggles, victories, relationships, opinions, routines, and emotions. Followers often learn intimate details about creators and may feel as though they genuinely know them. A teen may know:
Their favourite foods
Their family members
Their relationship status
Their personal challenges
Their political or social views
Their daily routines
Yet, the influencer may have no idea that particular teen even exists. The emotional connection feels real because, psychologically, it often is real from the follower’s perspective. In this evolution, the central question shifts slightly, “How do I stay connected to the people I admire?”
The Third Evolution: Technology Based Parasocial Media
AI companion apps started appearing around 2017–2018, with Replika being one of the earliest popular examples. They became more mainstream in 2022–2023, especially after tools like Character.AI opened publicly in 2022 and Snapchat released it’s companionship AI in 2023 called “MyAI”. We are now witnessing something fundamentally different. Instead of developing emotional attachments to real people, some young people are forming meaningful relationships with artificial intelligence systems designed to behave like social actors, something commonly known as AI companionship applications, this includes:
AI companions
AI friends
AI mentors
AI coaches
AI-generated influencers
AI-powered characters
AI relationship bots
AI agents embedded within platforms
Unlike traditional parasocial relationships, these AI systems can respond directly to users. They can remember prior conversations, they can personalize interactions, they can role play scenarios, they can offer encouragement, they can appear empathetic, and they can adapt their personality based on what a user likes or dislikes.
This transforms the relationship from observation into interaction. A youth or teens is no longer simply watching someone online, they are having ongoing conversations with something that appears to know them. This is particularly appealing because AI companions offer qualities that some believe human relationships cannot consistently provide such as:
Immediate responses
Constant availability
No fear of rejection
Personalized conversations
Emotional validation
Endless patience
Opportunities for creativity and role-play
An AI companion never sleeps, it never gets busy, and it never forgets to respond. In this evolution, the central question becomes, “How do I connect with an AI that feels like a person?”
For parents, caregivers, and educators, the concern is not necessarily that these companionship apps are inherently dangerous. Rather, these relationships represent something previous generations never experienced. Historically, parasocial relationships involved real people. Today, a youth or teen can become emotionally attached to an entity that is entirely artificial but behaves as though it understands, cares about, and remembers them like a human being.
The Fourth Evolution: The Development of Social AI
What we are now beginning to observe may represent the a new phase in the evolution of digital socialization. Human social environments and AI driven social environments are no longer developing along separate paths. Instead, they are starting to merge in ways that could fundamentally change how youth and teens communicate, build relationships, seek support, and experience influence online. This is a trend we first noticed and wrote about last year (2). Rather than existing separately, AI is increasingly being integrated directly into environments where groups of humans already gather, something we are calling Social AI.
Social AI is not simply an AI companion talking to one person. It is a shared social environment where multiple humans and one or more AI entities interact together often within a messaging type platform. In these environments, AI becomes another participant in the conversation.
For example:
Friends in a group chat can invite AI into discussions.
Students collaborating on projects can interact with AI together.
Gaming communities can have AI characters participating alongside players.
Social platforms can host conversations involving both humans and AI agents.
Users can create and share AI personalities that others interact with collectively.
Platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger are already experimenting with versions of these capabilities through Meta’s AI ecosystem (3). In these spaces, AI is no longer simply a tool, it becomes part of the social fabric itself.
So why does this matters for parents, caregivers, and educators? One of the most important things parents and caregivers need to understand is that Social AI can blur the distinction between peer influence and AI influence. In the early evolution of social media, influence came primarily from other people. Young people connected with friends, classmates, teammates, and family members through platforms that allowed them to share photos, videos, messages, and ideas. Opinions, trends, behaviours, and social norms were largely shaped through human-to-human interactions. Whether positive or negative, the influence being exerted was typically coming from real people within a young person’s social network. Peer approval, belonging, popularity, and social status often played significant roles in shaping how youth behaved both online and offline.
As social media matured, the rise of influencer culture introduced a new layer of influence. Youth and teens were no longer only being influenced by their immediate social circles, they were increasingly exposed to content creators, celebrities, athletes, gamers, lifestyle personalities, and online experts who often had audiences numbering in the hundreds of thousands or even millions. These creators shared personal stories, opinions, recommendations, and aspects of their daily lives in ways that made followers feel connected to them. Although these relationships were largely one sided, many youth and teens developed strong emotional attachments to these creators and often looked to them for guidance, inspiration, entertainment, and even validation.
More recently, the emergence of AI companion platforms introduced yet another form of influence. Rather than observing or following another person, users could now engage directly with an artificial intelligence that was designed to simulate conversation, companionship, mentorship, or emotional support. Unlike influencers who broadcast content to large audiences, AI companions interact one on one with each user. They can remember details from previous conversations, adapt to individual preferences, provide encouragement, answer questions, and respond in ways that feel highly personal. For some youth and teens, these interactions can create a sense of connection that feels more immediate and responsive than traditional social media experiences.
Today, we are beginning to see the development of what we are calling Social AI environments, where these different forms of influence are no longer operating separately. Instead, they can become intertwined within the same digital space. A youth or teen may interact with friends, follow influencers, and engage with AI characters all within a single platform or online experience. In these environments, influence can come simultaneously from peers, content creators, algorithms, and artificial intelligence systems that actively participate in conversations. The result is a social ecosystem that is far more complex than anything previous generations experienced.
This convergence creates both opportunities and challenges. On one hand, Social AI may offer new forms of learning, creativity, collaboration, and support. On the other hand, it can make it more difficult for young people to distinguish where information, advice, emotional reinforcement, or social pressure is coming from. A recommendation from a friend, an opinion expressed by an influencer, and guidance offered by an AI system may all appear within the same conversation. Understanding how these various sources of influence interact with one another may become an increasingly important digital literacy skill for youth, teens, parents, caregivers, and educators in the years ahead.
A youth or teen may believe they are simply chatting with friends. However, an AI participant within that conversation may also be:
Shaping the tone of the discussion
Providing advice
Suggesting solutions
Recommending products
Reinforcing beliefs
Amplifying emotions
Introducing new ideas
Becoming perceived as the most knowledgeable voice in the group
The challenge is that Social AI influence can often feel neutral because it is presented as assistance rather than persuasion. For many youth and teens, the AI may gradually become viewed as an authority figure, trusted advisor, mediator, coach, or even friend within the group itself.
History shows that every generation has encountered new forms of communication that adults initially viewed with uncertainty. The telephone, television, video games, text messaging, social media, and smartphones were all met with concerns about how they might change the way young people communicate, learn, and build relationships. While some concerns proved valid, many were eventually addressed through education, adaptation, and the development of new social norms.
We are predicting that Social AI appears to be the next chapter in that ongoing evolution. It is important for parents, caregivers, and educators to recognize that this technology is not inherently good or bad. Like most technologies, its impact will largely depend on how it is designed, how it is regulated, how it is used, and how well young people are prepared to navigate it. Social AI may create remarkable opportunities for learning, creativity, collaboration, personalized support, and even meaningful forms of connection. Youth and teens may use AI enhanced social spaces to brainstorm ideas, solve problems, explore interests, receive academic assistance, or engage in creative projects with both friends and intelligent digital assistants.
However, effective parenting in the online world has always required understanding the environments in which youth and teens spend their time. Parents and caregivers do not need to become experts in every new technology, but they do need enough familiarity to ask informed questions, recognize potential concerns, and engage in meaningful conversations with their children. It is difficult to guide a young person through a digital environment that we do not understand ourselves.
For many years, online safety discussions focused primarily on human interactions. Parents and caregivers worried about online predators, cyberbullying, privacy risks, scams, misinformation, and the influence of social media creators. Those concerns remain important and deserve continued attention, however, the online ecosystem is changing. Increasingly, youth and teens are not only interacting with other humans online, they are interacting with artificial intelligence systems that can communicate, advise, encourage, entertain, persuade, and even appear to empathize.
This shift introduces a new dimension to digital literacy. In the past, we taught youth and teens how to evaluate information coming from people. We encouraged them to think critically about what friends, influencers, advertisers, and strangers were telling them online. Going forward, digital literacy may also require teaching youth and teens how to critically evaluate information, recommendations, emotional support, and guidance coming from artificial intelligence systems that are designed to sound knowledgeable, trustworthy, and socially engaging.
One of the unique challenges that we are predicting of Social AI is that the source of influence may become less visible. When advice comes from a friend, a parent, a caregiver, a teacher, or an influencer, the source is usually obvious. When advice comes from an AI participant embedded within a group chat, gaming community, virtual world, or social platform, the distinction between human influence and machine influence may become increasingly blurred. Youth and teens may not always stop to consider how much of a conversation is being shaped by their peers and how much is being shaped by an algorithm designed to participate in that social environment, and what is its purpose for doing so.
This does not mean parents and caregivers should fear AI. Rather, it means parents and caregivers should become curious about it. The goal is not to reject new technologies but to understand them well enough to help youth and teens use them thoughtfully and responsibly. Just as we have taught youth and teens how to manage friendships, navigate social pressure, identify manipulation, and evaluate online content, we need to teach them how to recognize when artificial intelligence is influencing a conversation, shaping opinions, or contributing to decision making.
For decades, one of the most common questions parents and caregivers asked was, “Who are your friends online?” That question still remains important today, however, in the emerging era of Social AI, it may no longer be sufficient on its own. Increasingly, parents, caregivers, and educators may also need to ask, “Which AI systems are participating in those friendships, and what role are they playing in shaping the conversation?”
Digital Food For Thought
The White Hatter
Facts Not Fear, Facts Not Emotions, Enlighten Not Frighten, Know Tech Not No Tech
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