Risks of cybersocialization: Present and the near future

There are identified the current and the possible future psychological risks that are based on the transition of modern digital technologies from the field of scientific development to everyday life. The main tasks of the study were: qualitative analysis of scientific and popular science literature by Ukrainian and foreign authors and the author’s vision of the most relevant risks of cybersocialization and prediction of the risks that humanity may face in the near future. There are presented eighteen risks that are embodied both at the individual level (or small group level) and in the global world, namely: (1) impoverishment of the emotional sphere of human, (2) excessed confidence in new technologies, (3) reduced cognitive function, (4) psychological dependence on technology, (5) health threats, and blocking of physical development, (6) cyborgization of the human body, (7) destruction of social relations, and separation of people from each other, (8) reorientation of emotional attachments, (9) distortion of ideas about sexual life, (10) distortion of ideas about human beauty, (11) imposition of «fake life» phenomenon, (12) cybercrime dissemination, (13) destruction of reputation, (14) ousting people from their jobs, and replacing them with robots, (15) destroying the social structure of society, (16) intensification of the state information dictatorship, (17) parasociality, and simularization of political actors, (18) threat to human life by robots, and artificial intelligence. The authors clarify that each year the global technology market produces new products which can improve human life and make it more complicated at the same time, creating a new round of psychological risks. Therefore, the descriptions of the risks presented in this paper may become irrelevant in a few years. The results of the study can be used for educational work with juveniles in school or family circles; in the development of practical classes or training sessions on media literacy; as well as for the preparation of lectures for students in media-, and cyberpsychology. The limitations in the form that the presented risks are the most problematic only at this stage of social development or those that may create real problems in the near future. The further perspectives are in the detailed study of psychological aspects of interaction at the «human-robot» level: people’s attitude to cyborgization of their own body, analysis of risks associated with the robotization of society at the level of media images created by the film industry, coverage of current phenomenon of sex robots