By JOY FANG
excerpts
Dr Lee Boon Ooi, a psychology lecturer at the National Institute of Education, said the toys represent something that the people long for or lack in their personal lives.
The behaviour is normal and a part of their psycho-social development, he said.
"If (playing with) a stuffed toy represents a personal need to nurture someone, the person may grow and develop in this aspect of personality," he said.
He thinks a sense of emptiness and poor quality of social support can also cause people to seek companionship from inanimate objects.
Ms Portia Searle, a counsellor at The Counselling Place, suggested that such Facebook accounts might be a form of escape from negativity or pain in an individual's life.
People with negative self image may create an alternative reality by "recreating themselves or masking themselves as their pet or toy", she said.
I do not disagree with some of the probable assessment of the psychological drivers for creating any form of social media accounts for stuffed toys. But so what if it's truly escapism through inanimate objects? How is this different from a love for fictional characters, and desire for inanimate fashion/lifestyle products and brands for all that matter? At least the toy persona is entirely your own creation and manifestation of your own creativity and cognition of the world ;) So I say, blog on!
