By Jeffrey A. Rendall
Unintended consequences of technology have corrupted today’s youth. Can we reverse?
“What have we done?”
The question has no doubt been raised by nearly every adult, the posers wondering how a decision they made could’ve gone so awry. No one’s perfect, and often times the best of intentions won’t necessarily generate the most sympathy from those who were the victims of inventions gone bad.
Examples? History suggests the Wright brothers (specifically Orville Wright) eventually regretted how their noble idea to craft an individually powered flying machine was eventually taken and exploited to create airplanes that carried civilization destroying bombs that killed tens of thousands of people in the blink of an eye.
Likewise, the modern purveyors and harnessers of communications technology might not have foreseen how smart phones, social media – and now, Artificial Intelligence – have impacted those who are too young to understand that the world used to look different.
Time marches on. Great minds make great inventions with limitless possibilities, but no one has the power (except God) to understand what comes next when you’ve unleashed Pandora’s Box on an unsuspecting world.
Unfortunately for humankind, the younger generation isn’t handling the new tools wisely. Could/should we have predicted what was coming? What have we done?
In a fascinating report titled, “AI and Screens Fueling a Generation of Depressed, Isolated and Gender-Confused Youth, Experts Warn”, Dylan Kresak reported at the Daily Caller News Foundation (as published at the Star News Network):
“Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at NYU-Stern, predicted the situation will get much worse for the youth. ‘AI is going to intervene very early. The AI is going to be so much more responsive than the parent because parent has a job and the kitchen and two other kids … but the ‘AI teddy bear’ is always there for you,’ he said in an interview with The Diary Of A CEO. ‘[S]o we’re gonna have a whole generation growing up having an attachment to AI generated holograms.’
“’Gender confusion is skyrocketing as a result of rampant pornography, herd mentality in social media, and just overexposure to awful, awful content,” [Michael] Marinaccio said. He argued this trend was compounding a broader youth crisis, which he tied to rising youth suicide rates, increased sedentary lifestyles, declining belief in religion, and record-low reading and math scores.
“Marinaccio traced these trends to what Haidt called the ‘great rewiring of childhood’ or ‘the phone-based childhood replac[ing] the play-based childhood,’ according to Haidt’s 2024 Substack essay on the matter. ‘[T]een depression [ages] 12 to 17 has doubled since 2004. It’s bad for girls and it’s terrible for boys,’ Marinaccio said.”
Wow. That’s heavy stuff. The technology has altered the way we do things and interact with each other and served up a serious challenge for policymakers to keep up. They tend to see an issue and try to “fix” something by automatically assuming government involvement or control is demanded. Is this right?
That’s not all. “’Chatbots are even more dangerous,’ according to Marinaccio. A chatbot is ‘a speedy indexer … a next-best word guesser’ that is only about 50 percent accurate.”
Having grown up in an environment where us students earned extra credit if we provided additional definitions to “bonus” words on our vocabulary lists, it’s practically inconceivable that today’s young folks and budding adults don’t need to do more than input a few data points into a phone or computer and all of it is done for you!
Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? I’m frankly surprised the robotics departments of major universities haven’t yet fashioned super robots that could take over sports and lead to AI generated outcomes based on contrived criteria and desirable plotlines.
Or is that what’s really happening when transgender advocates fight so hard for the “rights” of confused biological males who think they’re females to qualify for membership on girls’ sports teams so they immediately have a “built-in” physiological advantage?
No wonder we’re so confused. In today’s culture, say you’re a chick even if you have male genitalia and the “woke” bureaucrats forbid anyone from inquiring “why” or “how”?
“What have we done?”
I’ve got to admit, it’s started churning my stomach whenever I see a group of young people sitting together in a confined area with each soul fixated on their device. Us “enlightened” – through experience – older humans have seen that there’s more to life than what’s presented on such small screens, yet books and movies and backyard pickup basketball games or ping-pong matches don’t always provide the instant gratification that a programmable device would.
I think it’s safe to say we’ve all known families where the kids return home after school and immediately retreat to their segregated personal living spaces to pursue their unrefined electronic whims to visit God knows where. As mentioned above, artificial intelligence can’t filter anything from the user, and AI doesn’t teach values or honor connection or offer companionship to an adolescent who needs it desperately.
It’s only in this ultra-mixed up reality that self-interested individuals work on boys and girls and try to convince them that they aren’t who they are – a biological human – in favor of a load of crap preaching that there are more than two genders and a limitless number of fashioned derivatives. What does “non-binary” mean anyway?
It’s always fun to ask a liberal how to define a “woman” – or whether a growing fetus is a human being. “When does life begin?” It’s a question they can’t/won’t answer, and until they do provide a logical explanation that refutes basic common sense, conservatives will continue to believe life begins at conception.
The “Divine Spark” theory. Take that, AI!
All of this leads to monumental ethical questions including asking, “Who programs the AI bots?” Who tells them how to answer questions? I’ll be the first to concede that I don’t know. But type in a query to a search engine and chances are it will return a politically correct answer that doesn’t always match your sensibilities and worldview.
Yet these “things” are teaching today’s youth? “What have we done?”
It’s not as though we haven’t recognized what’s going on and still felt powerless to do anything about it. We can make policies and rules that forbid students from using AI and there are things like parental controls and limitations on smart phone use. But what would you do if you had the power to change something about today’s culture?
The only thing I can say for sure is we aren’t going back to the way it was. We can’t un-ring the bell. The technology genie’s been released from the bottle and all the governmental prodding imaginable can’t legislate that the “old days” return to restore life to its core essence.
Perhaps the answer lies in encouraging better values among the people and those who are wise enough to place limitations on themselves and their children in order to make their lives better. We can take a page out of President Trump’s book and speak out when transgender absurdity is present. Find the gumption to encourage young people to get married and have children.
Honor America’s heroes and history and, do as Trump has done, do more than pay lip service to those who take an active role in waging the culture war on behalf of the “good” side. Don’t remain silent when confronted with anti-common-sense situations. Reward hard work and excellence. Promote freedom and basic, God-given rights. Champion law enforcement and America’s military.
Tell the truth about China’s communist system. Put America first. Buy American when possible. Back Israel and its mission to guarantee its safety.
Read the Founding documents and discuss them. Talk about these issues with children. Don’t sweep difficult topics under the rug because they’re “uncomfortable”.
Save the kids one at a time. There isn’t a way to treat the societal disease until we recognize where the symptoms are coming from. Support leaders who speak up and speak out. Make it easier for concerned parents to choose their children’s education. Take power away from the teacher’s unions and education establishment bureaucrats. Tell the truth about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence.
Don’t take it sitting down. America needs leaders. The enemy is everywhere, and sometimes it’s us. Take action. There’s no better time than right now.
Jeff Rendall is editor and publisher of GolfintheUSA.com and has written about golf and politics for over a quarter of a century. A non-practicing attorney from California, he moved to the east coast three decades ago to pursue and combine his interests in all things American history and culture. Jeff has worked as an intern on Capitol Hill and in various capacities in grassroots organizing and conservative organizations and publications, including a nearly two-decade stint at ConservativeHQ.com. Column republishing or other inquiries: Rendall@msn.com .