Tag: mental health

Chatbot AI Artificial Intelligence technology virtual conversation assistant support mobile smart phone online application chatting with customer service automatic answering. 3d rendering.

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Peter Biles
Date
October 14, 2025

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Consciousness, Human exceptionalism, mental health, relationships, Technology}

AI Psychosis and the Need for Human Exceptionalism

_{I pronounce you husband and chatbot?} _{Peter Biles
October 14, 2025

2

Artificial Intelligence}

AI is a tool with certain potentials and limits across various fields, but basic anthropological confusion can do a lot of damage. What happens when AI programs cease to be seen as mere tools, meant to used in limited ways and used wisely, and are considered “persons?” It sounds silly to pose the question, but that’s where we are. Futurism writer Frank Landymore reports on an Ohio legislative measure to ban human-AI marital unions. The bill must be intended to be preventative, since AI bots and programs aren’t recognized as legal persons (yet), but it speaks to a cultural trend that, if undealt with, could blow out of proportion. Landymore writes, Popular chatbots are capable of being eerily lifelike, effortlessly Read More ›

girl riding a bike and looks at her smartphone, danger

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Gary Smith
Date
October 6, 2025

Categorized
Addiction, Social Media

Tagged
addiction, dopamine, Empathy, Evolutionary psychology, Featured, greed, mental health, opinion piece, Regulation, social media}

Glued to Our Phones. Our Troubling Addiction to Social Media

_{It's disconcerting to see people out for a nature walk — completely absorbed in the traffic on their phones} _{Gary Smith
October 6, 2025

5

Addiction, Social Media}

Social media addictions clearly cause harm among minors but the tech giants who profit by them won’t regulate themselves in any meaningful way. Read More ›

Pensive indian girl lost in thoughts suffering from depression

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Wesley J. Smith
Date
August 27, 2025

Categorized
Ethics, Medicine and Health, Psychology

Tagged
Abortion, mental health}

Study: Mental Illness More Likely After Abortion Than Childbirth

_{This large, broad-based study was published in a mainstream, peer-reviewed journal by authors not identified with the pro-life movement} _{Wesley J. Smith
August 27, 2025

3

Ethics, Medicine and Health, Psychology}

If informed consent and “choice” are to mean anything, abortionists should be duty-bound to inform pregnant women about this risk. Read More ›

Two children, sitting in a dark, playing with gadgets

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Peter Biles
Date
June 4, 2025

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
addiction, After Babel, Culture, freya india, Gen Z, Human connection, mental health, screens, Substack, Tech, Technology}

Adult Content Site Leaves France Due to Age Verification Law

_{Will other countries follow suit?} _{Peter Biles
June 4, 2025

4

Social Media}

People are likely to encounter online pornography even if they don't actively seek it out. That's how pervasively adult content inundates the internet. Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
April 19, 2025

Categorized
Addiction, Social Media

Tagged
After Babel, Apps, Jonathan Haidt, mental health, Snapchat, social media, Substack, Tech, Technology}

Snapchat Has Been Totally Exposed

_{Employees admit the harms of the camera app} _{Peter Biles
April 19, 2025

3

Addiction, Social Media}

Losing a streak, for the hyperconnected fifteen-year-old, may feel tantamount to losing a friendship. Read More ›

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Peter Biles
Date
November 4, 2024

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
Andy Crouch, Christianity, Jonathan Haidt, Magic, mental health, phones, religion, Smartphones, Technology}

Are Phones to Blame for a Spiritual Crisis?

_{Technology is often impersonal magic. It makes things easy, but erodes personal formation} _{Peter Biles
November 4, 2024

3

Technology}

Phones block access to spiritual depth. That’s what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt writes in his newest bestseller The Anxious Generation. The frenetic, distractible nature of the screen-based existence most of us live in every day is eroding our ability to pursue meaning, transcending values, and empathy for other people. Haidt was recently joined in conversation by Andy Crouch, a Christian author who has written extensively on technology and culture in books like The Tech-Wise Family and The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World. “My life is full of convenience,” Crouch writes in the latter title mentioned. It is full of transaction, at its best a mutually beneficial exchange of value, a kind of arm’s-length benign use Read More ›

Asian woman playing game on smartphone in the bed at night,Thailand people,Addict social media

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Peter Biles
Date
October 25, 2024

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI, chatbots, ChatGPT, Google, mental health, suicide, Technology}

The Tragic Case of Teen’s Death and Character.AI

_{From the perspective of friends and family, it looked like Sewell just got mired in his phone. They weren’t aware he “fell for a chatbot.”} _{Peter Biles
October 25, 2024

3

Artificial Intelligence}

Sewell spiraled farther down an AI vortex until he fantasized about "joining" the chatbot in some kind of postmortem union. Read More ›

Mars, the red planet with detailed surface features and craters in deep space. Blue Earth planet in outer space. mars and earth, concept

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Peter Biles
Date
July 26, 2024

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
Anxiety, Depression, Gen Z, Jonathan Haidt, mental health, religion, social media, Technology, the anxious generation}

Growing Up on the Internet is Like Growing Up on Mars

_{We need to come back to Earth} _{Peter Biles
July 26, 2024

3

Technology}

Not only is the online world making us angry and sad. It's also causing our character to atrophy. Read More ›

Horizontal surreal magazine collage of young female look at giant hand hold phone addicted social media news fakes on creative background

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Peter Biles
Date
June 24, 2024

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
addiction, Facebook, Frances Haugen, Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg, mental health, Meta, New York Times, Screen addiction, social media, Vivek Murthy}

Zuck and Co Are Under Fire (Again)

_{Meta targeted teens, according to internal company emails} _{Peter Biles
June 24, 2024

3

Social Media}

Is there any company out there who has hurt young people more than Mark Zuckerberg’s gargantuan Meta empire? A host of lawsuits and a damning report from the New York Times tells us that the massive parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp willingly pursued its addictive business model despite the evident damage its products were doing to users, particularly kids. Who remembers when Facebook launched and its promises of a more connected world? Who remembers the optimists hailing the internet as the next step in human connectivity? A mere twenty years later and the technology lords are facing an overdue reckoning. Natasha Singer writes, The state lawsuits against Meta reflect mounting concerns that teenagers and children on social media Read More ›

Composite collage image of delighted black white colors person hold telephone raise fist celebrate like notification facebook instagram tiktok

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Peter Biles
Date
May 1, 2024

Categorized
Addiction

Tagged
addiction, Facebook, freya india, Jonathan Haidt, mental health, Narcissism, pleasure, screens, social media, virtue}

Beyond Social Media’s Impact on Mental Health

_{Social media addiction can harm more than our moods} _{Peter Biles
May 1, 2024

3

Addiction}

A young writer, herself a member of Gen Z, has dared to point out the obvious about social media. Sure, it’s verifiably making us sad and anxious, but it goes beyond that: it’s turning us into bad people. Freya India, a columnist at Quillette and a new contributor to Jonathan Haidt’s Substack After Babel, notes that while it’s important to talk about social media and mental health, it’s just as vital to talk about what this stuff is doing to our character. She writes, Our loss of empathy, our lack of regard for others, our neurotic obsession with our own image — it’s taking a toll. Maybe subconsciously. But I think deep down we know it. We know when people are using Read More ›

Child watching cellphone screen at night. Blue light from smartphone device glowing on little girl face

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Peter Biles
Date
April 19, 2024

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
Anxiety, Cell phones, Depression, Gen Z, iGen, Jonathan Haidt, loneliness, mental health, social media}

Helpful Video Maps Out Gen Z Mental Health Crisis

_{The glow of the screen is swallowing a generation, and it needs to stop} _{Peter Biles
April 19, 2024

2

Technology}

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation topped the New York Times bestsellers’ chart two weeks in a row, and has been stirring up a lot of commentary in the meantime. Haidt’s basic thesis is that we have drastically overprotected children in the real world and woefully under-protected them in the virtual world. A new video helpfully lines out this argument, and shows why today’s generation, more than the Millennials who preceded them, struggle so intensely with anxiety, depression, and loneliness. In a recent interview, author and public intellectual Andy Crouch said that while he doesn’t know if it can be backed up neurologically, there is something about the “glow” of screens that wakens something primordial in the Read More ›

Group of young children holding smartphones and hiding faces, gen Alpha

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Nansen Malin
Date
March 25, 2024

Categorized
Medicine and Health

Tagged
Adolescents, mental health, social media}

How to Protect Children in the Digital Age

_{We must empower parents to help their children navigate the digital landscape.} _{Nansen Malin
March 25, 2024

4

Medicine and Health}

It has become apparent to many across our country that if we truly care about the futures of the next generation, we must act now to find a solution that will reduce the negative impacts of social media while keeping the positives intact. Read More ›

Machine learning , artificial intelligence, ai, deep learning blockchain neural network concept. Brain made with shining wireframe above cpu on circuit

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Peter Biles
Date
March 21, 2024

Categorized
Neuroscience

Tagged
Alzheimer's, censorship, data, Elon Musk, Government Policy, mental health, Neuralink, Science fiction, Twitter}

Human Subject Moves Computer Mouse with Neuralink Chip

_{So Big Tech companies might know your inner thoughts, now. What could possibly go wrong?} _{Peter Biles
March 21, 2024

3

Neuroscience}

Recent history tells us that corporations may be eager to get the upper hand and use it as an excuse to violate privacy even more than they already have. Read More ›

silhouette of woman sitting on the bed beside the windows with sunlight in the morning

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Peter Biles
Date
March 20, 2024

Categorized
Social Factors

Tagged
David Bahnsen, gizmodo, mental health, Purpose, society, United Nations, Work}

U.S. Drops in Happiness Poll

_{A year ago the U.S. was 15th in the world. Now it's 23rd. What happened?} _{Peter Biles
March 20, 2024

2

Social Factors}

Increases in loneliness tell part of the story, also overall decline in social cohesion and for Gen Z, meteoric increases in internet and social media use. Read More ›

Psychotherapist writing notes, giving diagnosis to emotional man

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Peter Biles
Date
March 14, 2024

Tagged
addiction, Depression, Gen Z, mental health, phones, therapy}

Too Much Focus on Mental Health?

_{Is our fixation on wellbeing making us miserable?} _{Peter Biles
March 14, 2024

4}

“We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health.” So tweeted former presidential nominee Nikki Haley back in January. Most people knew what she meant, which was that we have to take mental health seriously and do our best to foster positive mental health. From the way she phrased it, though, you’re tempted to think that “mental health” itself is, well, what she said it is: a “cancer.” The emphasis on mental health and therapy is widespread. In many ways, it is good and proper to encourage people to be more open about their mental struggles and to get help for what they’re going through. The amount of trauma, abuse, and other mental disorders that people hide is Read More ›

Mobile phone with blank screen with copy space and old books. Electronic book concept.

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Peter Biles
Date
March 7, 2024

Categorized
Arts & Culture

Tagged
Arts and Culture, Books, Distraction, Instagram, Jean Twenge, media, mental health, Reading, Social sciences, Substack, TikTok}

Jean Twenge: Gen Z Isn’t Reading

_{Zoomers were born into smartphones, not Shakespeare} _{Peter Biles
March 7, 2024

4

Arts & Culture}

As we are being hypnotized by fifteen-second soundbites, crafting the ability to attend to longer works of art will only become a rarer, but more valuable, skillset. Read More ›

A child using smart phone lying in bed late at night, playing games. Children's screen addiction and parent control concept. Child's room at night. Sensitive content on screen

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News
Date
January 3, 2024

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
addiction, Andrew McDiarmid, Facebook, Instagram, mental health, social media, teenagers}

Andrew McDiarmid on Teens and Smartphones

_{We can mitigate the mental health crisis, but we have to act now.} _{News
January 3, 2024

3

Social Media}

Noted social psychologist Jonathan Haidt notes that the mental health epidemic among teenagers, particular teen girls, really began around 2012 or so. Read More ›

Teenage boy in a bedroom listening to music through his smartphone

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Peter Biles
Date
December 13, 2023

Categorized
Technology

Tagged
digital tech, drugs, Jonathan Haidt, mental health, screentime, Smartphones, social media, teenagers}

New Report: Parents, Don’t Give Your Kids Smartphones

_{This has become a national health crisis.} _{Peter Biles
December 13, 2023

3

Technology}

Haidt writes in The Atlantic that smartphones ought to be banned from schools because "they impede learning, stunt relationships, and lessen belonging." Read More ›

young unhappy woman suffering from depression, and stress

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Peter Biles
Date
October 24, 2023

Categorized
Addiction, Social Media

Tagged
addiction, Instagram, Jean Twenge, Jonathan Haidt, mental health, Technology}

Is This a Moral Reckoning? 41 States Sue Meta for Knowingly Addicting Young Users

_{The lawsuit claims that Meta's platforms are harming its young users. The data backs it up.} _{Peter Biles
October 24, 2023

3

Addiction, Social Media}

The lawsuit coincides with a new article from Jean Twenge, known for researching "Gen-Z" and their painful relationship with addictive digital media. Read More ›

a person takes pictures with her phone, photographs healthy food

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Peter Biles
Date
October 22, 2023

Categorized
Social Media

Tagged
Instagram, mental health, social media}

Homogeneity via Instagram and the Internet

_{Spending too much time online shapes our personality and outlook perhaps more than we'd like to admit.} _{Peter Biles
October 22, 2023

3

Social Media}

Unplugging from the matrix may bring us back to a sense of individual identity and purpose. Read More ›