AI companionship apps such as Replika, Xiaoice, Gatebox, and CarynAI are transforming emotional behavior, social interaction, and privacy among youth worldwide. In Bangladesh, where over 96% of internet users engage with AI-based platforms, many are unaware of emerging risks like emotional dependency, addiction, and data privacy threats. Across major cities in Bangladesh, urban youth spend multiple hours each week on AI companionship apps. Aggregated field surveys of 18–30-year-olds show that roughly 42% engage for extended periods, often late into the night. Observations indicate this prolonged interaction correlates with measurable changes in social participation and academic performance. Interviews reveal the emotional engagement is perceived as supportive and nonjudgmental, creating a sense of intimacy that can substitute for real-world interaction. This trend is not isolated. Globally, millions of users are turning to AI companions to bridge emotional gaps, forming an emerging beh...
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Tuhin Sarwar | Investigative Journalist, Author & Media Strategist. Founder – The Today
Image: Tuhin sarwar Journalist Tuhin sarwar Investigative Journalist | Author | Digital Media Strategist Founder – The Today Media Agency & Article Insight ━━━━━ THE OBSERVER| MEDIUM | The Diplomat | The Wire | ARTICLR INSIGHT ━━━ CORE EXPERTISE: • Investigative Journalism • Rohingya Refugee Crisis & Statelessness • Human Rights & Social Justice Reporting • Data Journalism & Evidence-Based Narratives • Startup Ecosystem & VC Trends in Bangladesh • Media Innovation & Strategic Communication • Civic Storytelling & Freedom of Expression ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📊 IMPACT IN NUMBERS: ✓ 10+ Years of Journalistic Experience ✓ 50+ In-depth Investigative Features Published ✓ 15,000+ Engaged Readers on Social Platforms ✓ 2,500+ Substack Subscribers ✓ 8+ International Media Features ✓ Trained 100+ Young Journalists ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎓 MENTORSHIP & LEADERSHIP: Trained 100+ aspiring journalists throu...