‘In a recent Gallup/Lumina survey of higher education, 60 percent of students experiencing emotional stress cited loneliness as a factor. Such reports are so common that we’ve spent years casually referring to the “loneliness epidemic” as a fact of life. That means that many startups smell money and have pushed chatbots as a potential solution for helping people feel a bit of needed companionship. But that idea may just be a fool’s errand. A new study found that texting with a stranger reduced feelings of loneliness among college students more than chatting with a chatbot did.…’ (via Gizmodo)