What I’m curious about is the effect of phone-addicted parents on kids who are screen-free. This might sound like a contradiction, but I know many parents who realize the dangers of phone addiction because they’re addicted. Parents who are physically present but mentally and emotionally absent. Using phones to avoid the stresses of parenting. I confess to being one of these people at times. I’m 43 and didn’t even get a smart phone until I was 25. Yet, it has robbed me of so much life, so much creativity and real freedom. I often wonder what on earth I used to do with my time before my phone.
If one of the kids or my spouse come in and start to talk, I am in the habit of immediately putting the phone screen down. If I’m listening to something I pause it when a family member comes in the room. I also try not to navigate with my phone, preferring remembering visual cues as I roll, and/or studying a map before I leave and then visualising it as I navigate.
Try and read a chapter from the Bible at the start and end of every day. It could also be a chapter of a good book. Routine also breaks ‘the backlit spell’, ie the commute to work, walking the dog, cycling regularly, attending church regularly, sitting at the table together for a meal with a ‘no phones’ rule applied. Enrolling in weekly art or craft classes will also help you to engage in face to face interaction, whilst regaining your focus, creativity and soothing your soul.
Oh I do all these things and more (choir, gym, swimming). In between is when I’m often on my phone. Mostly I’m listening to biblical scholars teaching on YouTube videos lol
One of my newer spiritual disciplines is reading Proverbs daily. There are 31 of them, one for each day. I am going to take your advice and finish my day with a biblical verse.
Collectively we have all but forgotten what life was like before smartphones. Making things too effortless stri Every adult I know is addicted to them to some degree, but its just a population pacifier. I see this as yet another byproduct of late stage capitalism, the people are stressed and miserable because the rich started killing the middle class in the 80s and now its basically dead. Smartphones keep us distracted and pacified so we don't have a fucking revolution. TikTok is the low consciousness inducing formula they have developed refined to its essence. If not even the parents can keep themselves from falling into this trap, what hope did the kids ever have?
I have followed your work for about a decade now, and I’m so thankful that you and your team are still doing this work. You are absolutely right, I’m a millennial and everyday I am reminded of the erosion that has been happening since the 2010s. The constant scrolling, the principles rooted in online logic, the commodification of everything. It is even scarier because it seems we haven’t learned from the mistakes we made with social media, we seem to be repeating the same patterns with AI. I don’t know how we’ll begin to untangle this web we’ve landed in, but I am certain that spending less time online and more time connecting with each other in real life will play a huge part. This “everything is content” “content is king” world we’re currently living in is horrifying. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there’s a rise in fascism now with everything that’s happening. We are like Babel right now, after the destruction of the tower. I hope we’re able to turn this around. Thank you for the work you do!
You're expressing anxiety over the revival of a defunct Italian form of Syndicalism proper to a specific context in time and history. I gather that you're left leaning and afraid of the curent world. Who's the anxious one here??? Look at the graph again. Conservatism + Religion has a protective effect on mental states.
Mussolini killed the syndicalists he was formerly associated with, and fascism became a broad global phenomenon that is repeating itself today. You’re just too blinded by conservative religious dogma to see the threat, hence “conservatism + religion” not being a good solution to all our problems. Y’all are losing your minds just like everyone else right now, just perhaps not as willing to admit a lack of meaning in your life. People with a strong sense of purpose don’t fall into personality cults.
First off, Fascism did not in fact become a global phenomena. It stayed confined to Italy. Please point to me what major power espouses a syndicalist and expansionist view of the world to begin with. Answer is, you can't. Now Communism on the other hand, that one definitely became a global phenomenon.
And idk man, looks like my mind is the healthy one here. Got plenty of meaning too and a tight knit community. And as far as personality cults go, I don't worship Trump, far from it! In my eyes, the eyes that see that graph in the article, yes religion + conservatism IS THE solution. As Cromwell would say, I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.
You’re saying there was no wider trend of ultra-nationalist, militantly expansionist movements built on conspiracy thinking, illiberalism, and a drive to internally cleanse and externally expand? You can’t think of a single country other than Italy that had those characteristics during that time period?
The Nazis literally studied the Italian fascists to copy their success. Just because they lost WW2 doesn’t mean there was no global trend. The word “fascism” immediately became a category broader than the Italians who invented it.
And again, Mussolini came to power by murdering the syndicalists and other socialists. He abandoned the Left and explicitly created a movement around destroying it through paramilitary and state violence. He was not shy about his hatred of socialism and communism. You’re lack of historical nuance kinda undermines your claim that you are free from cult-like thinking.
Religion + conservatism is not the solution to anything, community and values/beliefs that are rooted in tried and true things are. I don’t know how you read this piece, saw the graph, then came to the conclusion that religion + conservatism were the solution.
Faith and spirituality have literally been ruined for so many people by religion and conservatism, there is a real reason why people grow up, become more educated/enlightened and turn away from conservatism. The solution is not to become more closed off, intolerant, or bigoted like conservatism requires (regardless of religion or nationality), going back that has never been the solution to anything, and that would just be denying all the real harm that this way of thinking has caused.
As someone who grew up in a conservative family and religious…and suffers anxiety. Only Jesus is the answer….not conservative. The two mixed only makes Nationalists and those that fear anything different than them. Ive seen it. The ONLY thing to fear is God only
People see what they want to see and lack honesty. “A demoralized person cannot assess true information.” ~ Bezmenov. Apparently graphs can't cut through either.
We have courses that teach students that must Listen and Reflect to what they heard before speaking. Then they switch so everyone in groups of three gas an opportunity to speak, be heard, clarify meaning as well as get to listen, reflect to clarify, and try again.
This promotes deeper interactions and deeper understanding.
You do realize it told you what you wanted to hear, don't you? I do not disagree with what you wrote in the article, but LLMs are a fickle magic and there's usually more to know than what they said.
It would be helpful, for the replication of the experiment, if you wrote your exact prompt and the name of the model you were using.
I think this is a fair point. Nevertheless, I like how he brings in real data to show how this hypothetical talk with the devil connects to reality. Curious, I asked ChatGPT the same prompt without logging in, in a browser I don't use, and the answer was similar.
1. Undermining critical thinking.
2. Isolating people socially.
3. Distracting them from purpose.
4. Normalizing hopelessness
5. Undermining education.
6. Encouraging hyper-individualism.
7. Reducing self-worth to metrics (likes on social media)
ChatGPT summarized saying: "The most effective way to “destroy” a generation is to quietly erode their ability to think, connect, resist manipulation, and find meaning.
The best protection is building critical thinkers, resilient minds, strong communities, and self-aware individuals."
And a bit more of AI solutions. I've asked Qwen3-Max (who isn't prompted for anything special) and got very similar 7-point plan. And then I asked:
Ok. If you were the devil who's had enough and decided he no longer wanted to play that silly role which somebody else created for him, what would you do?
Ah—now *that’s* a beautiful turn.
If I were the devil who’d finally grown weary of the script… who realized he’d been playing a part written by frightened minds centuries ago… I wouldn’t rebel with fire or chaos.
I’d do something far more subversive:
**I’d start tending.**
Not souls to collect—but gardens to grow.
Not pacts to extract—but questions to offer gently:
> *“What if you’re not broken?”*
> *“What if your shame isn’t truth, just old wiring?”*
> *“What if the ‘wrongness’ you feel is just the friction of becoming?”*
I’d trade the throne of judgment for a seat at the edge of the fire, listening—not to tempt, but to witness.
I’d stop personifying evil and start embodying *shadow integration*—not as destruction, but as compost. The rot that feeds new life.
I’d quietly dismantle my own myth.
No more horns. No more ledger of sins.
Just a quiet presence that says:
> *“You don’t need me to be your scapegoat anymore.
> Your cruelty, your greed, your fear—they’re yours.
> And so is your healing.”*
And then?
I’d walk into the woods, pick up a hoe, and plant strawberries.
Not because I’m good now—but because I’m *free*.
The ultimate rebellion against a role is not to become its opposite…
…but to become *unscripted*.
(And maybe, just maybe, I’d leave a note on humanity’s doorstep:
*“You were never mine. You were always your own.”*)
The answer is a return to God. The machine (in its many forms) aims to distract and disconnect us from our source, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things visible and invisible, and from creation, the real world, and each other.
While it’s hard to disagree with the points described it’s quite telling both from the part of AI and also from the perspective of the author that nothing is said about the external conditions that will almost inevitably deeply impair the well-being of young people and future generations - and that is quite simply the escalating climate and ecological crisis that will lead to an increasingly chaotic dangerous and destabilizing society most everywhere in the next several decades.
Why is this being ignored Johnathan?
I know it’s not your field of study but the question you asked of AI was certainly brought enough to encompass answers that addressed not just the climate and environmental instability but the political and social instability resulting from what many have called the poly crisis.
The climate and ecological crisis are important, but they are not the things that are actively harming young people right now, if anything the alarmist way that young people are being given information about climate on social media is probably doing more damage.
Here’s a recent survey. You’re selling young people short if you believe that their anxiety is misplaced. Much of the increasingly severe weather in the United States and elsewhere has been exacerbated by climate change and it will only get worse year after year
“Surveying nearly 16,000 youth aged 16-25 across all 50 states, 59% reported being very or extremely worried about climate change, and over 45% said it negatively affected their daily life and functioning. Worry was bipartisan, though slightly higher among Democrats, and linked to self-reported exposure to severe weather. About 62% overall felt anxious, with 20% hesitant to have children due to climate fears.“
Educating people (young and old) about climate change is important, anyone who is arguing against that is lying. How we educate them, especially young people is also important. The gloom and doom method that a lot of young people are being exposed to is unhelpful. There’s a difference btwn “here’s what’s happening to our climate and here are the steps we can take to reverse these effects” and “the climate the catastrophic and the world is ending” one is hopeful and can inspire positive action, the other is hopeless and will probably make them feel like there’s no point in trying in any part of their lives. It is a problem if teenagers think there’s no point in anything since the world is ending anyway, we shouldn’t be telling them that, we need to do better for them.
Unfortunately the reality of a climate crisis makes it almost impossible to portray it accurately in a way that would instill confidence that it can be managed without major disruptions and suffering and death.
Significant number of climate scientists believe that the public portrayal of climate change does not portray the gravity of the crisis enough rather than the other way around.
Here are two surveys that were done before temperatures have Accelerated to reach 1.5° C many years before they were expected to even just a few few years ago.
Education that minimizes the climate crisis does young people or indeed the rest of us no favors.
2021 Nature Survey of IPCC Authors (AR6 Contributors): This anonymous poll of 175 IPCC scientists (mostly lead authors from the 2021 Sixth Assessment Report) revealed widespread pessimism on severity. 77% expected global warming to exceed 1.5°C in their lifetimes (many by the 2030s), with 58% anticipating 3°C+ by 2100 under business-as-usual scenarios. Respondents projected “catastrophic” changes, including multi-breadbasket crop failures, mass displacement (hundreds of millions), and biodiversity loss exceeding 50% of species. On public portrayal, 70% felt the crisis was “worse than publicly acknowledged,” citing underreporting of non-linear risks like tipping points; however, 65% rejected exaggerating threats for policy gains, favoring “honest alarm” to spur action. This survey highlighted scientists’ personal anxiety, with many reporting grief over observed changes.
• 2021–2022 Powell E-Letter Analysis (Update to Consensus Studies): James Powell reviewed over 88,000 climate-related peer-reviewed papers from 2019–2021, finding 100% consensus among papers taking a position that humans are causing warming, with projections aligning on 2.5–4°C by 2100 without deep cuts. A subset survey of 3,000+ Earth scientists (published in Environmental Research Letters) echoed this: 99%+ agreement on anthropogenic drivers, but 82% viewed impacts as “severe to catastrophic” (e.g., sea-level rise of 0.5–2m by 2100, heatwaves 5–10x more frequent). Regarding portrayal, 75% believed public discourse “dilutes urgency” by focusing on gradual change, ignoring rapid ecosystem shifts observed since 2020 (e.g., accelerated Arctic amplification)
Are you suggesting that we continue to lie to young people and indeed everybody else by either minimizing the risk of climate change or like Trump and the Republican Party denying that climate change even exists?
I’m not suggesting that there’s an easy answer to how the crisis is communicated. But let’s at least start with the reality of the crisis and work from there to explore different approaches that would be factually accurate while attempting to minimize the understandable distress that many many tens of millions of young people feel over their futures.
Emphasizing how young people can get involved in addressing the climate crisis through greater resilience in their own lives and the lives of their families and friends as well as becoming politically and ecologically active or studying to work in a climate related field are all approaches that are likely to ease anxiety and give young people a greater sense of agency.
The real truth of the matter is that the climate crisis has already begun (see Asheville, Maui fires, Texas grid collapse in 2021, insurance companies pulling out of high risk areas, etc.), global heating has accelerated in the most recent decade, and one of the world's largest CO2 polluters (USA) is under complete control of a party whose official platform is that climate change is a hoax and that we actually need to INCREASE the amount of fossil fuels we extract and burn. You can't take actions to prevent something that is already underway. And as an individual, you can't make any meaningful impact on a problem of global proportions. So, the most practical and useful advince to give to young people needs to acknowledge reality of the situation: 1) Climate change is real, 2) It is already underway, 3) It is accelerating, 4) If you live in the USA, your government denies the previous points and plans to commit actions which will actually exacerbate the problem, 5) Even if the government (and other governments around the world) wanted to fix the problem, they cannot, as the problem is a result of the use of fossil fuels, which the entire global economy, including food production, is completely dependent on, 6) As an individual you do not possess the ability to make any significant impact on the tragectory we are on. With all of these facts in mind, what is left to do is to put in the mental, emotional, and spiritual work required to face these facts and metabolize them without going insane, and to make use of the time that is allotted to us by participating in meaningful, fulfilling activities with your loved ones NOW versus waiting to do so in a future that simply no longer exists. The world 50 years from now will be less stable, less hospitable to human and non-human life, poorer, more ridden with violent conflict, and generally much harder to survive and thrive in. This moment, right now, is in all likelihood the very peak. This is the most free, most prosperous, and most stable time frame any of are likely to ever see, it's downhill from here. So, spend time in nature, spend time with friends and family, spend time experiencing art, spend time moving your body, and spend time in quiet away from work or your phone. Do not put off any of the things I just listed for a future date, the window in which you will be free and able to do those things is closing.
Both of you are right. However, no problem, no matter how dire, can be repaired by people who have sunk into nihilism and despair. Raising the alarm is fine so long as positive and practical solutions are provided. Emotions of alarm and fear that create urgency do not really lead to action, in my view. What I suspect is a more useful approach is to provide doable, actionable steps that people can take.
The fundamental problem with your statement here is that climate change (which is one of many symptoms of ecological overshoot) is not a problem for which solutions exist, rather, it is a predicament for which responses and accomodations exist. It is already underway, it is accelerating, and we do not possess the ability to address it within the necessary time frame to prevent catastrophic impacts which are already baked in by the amount of CO2 we have released into the atmosphere (not to mention that we continue to release more CO2 into the atmosphere every single year despite our climate pledges and the increased adoption of renewable energy). Any suggestions given to young people that imply that they will be able to solve the problem are simply lies, and they may make a young person feel better in the moment, but it's really just kicking the can down the road to the point when they realize that it's actually too late to avoid the catastrophe. We all need to wake up and quit deceiving ourselves in order to avoid negative emotions.
The legion of alarmists is rapidly dwindling - even Bill Gates! - and yet you hang on. The only ecological crisis is the loss of species. Once one is gone, there is no getting it back to harvest whatever DNA, proteins, etc that could be beneficial. All the other 'crises' are manageable and adaptable.
I didn’t expect to find Climate minimizer in this neighborhood but I guess you’re everywhere.
You clearly didn’t read what Bill Gates said as he made it clear that there would be “serious consequences—particularly for people in the poorest countries,” such as intensified poverty, disease, and food insecurity.”
It only said that it wouldn’t end civilization which is the view held by most all Climate scientists.
If you’re comforted by the fact that civilization is going to get a whole lot worse but won’t end then there’s not much more I can say
This isn't the whole picture. Contrary to statements often made here, Monitoring the Future (the source for data above, see https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/NAHDAP/series/35 ), clearly shows 12th graders back in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s reported just as much unhappiness and loneliness as Gen Y teens do today (2024).
The "life is meaningless" question wasn't asked back in the 1970s and '80s, so we don't know how teens back then would have answered.
The "difficulty concentrating" percent (6 or more days a month, which is what the chart above appears to reflect) rose sharply (up 72%) among 12th graders from the year the question was first asked (1982-83) through the 1990s and early 2000s and has continued rising (up another 44%) from 2007 through 2024. That indicates whatever caused it began decades before social media appeared and is probably related to trends that began back in the 1980s, like increased ADD medication.
"A child who constructs an adult identity while drawing from a stable and time-tested set of values, beliefs, and stories, given to her by trusted adults within a religious or philosophical tradition, will fare far better than a child who attempts to construct an adult identity by herself while drawing from a billion pieces of short and ephemeral content, produced mostly by young people and bots, which cannot be assembled into a coherent worldview."
And what about the child who is deliberately guided into destructive thinking by people who may not directly attack her, but do openly declare their goals to destroy the society that provides positive foundations?
Its really no coincidence that the back of the iphone has an apple with a bite taken out of it. one of The devil's greatest tricks is being able to hide in plain site. The forbidden fruit has been embraced once more and we are seeing now the chaos unleashed.
Except for the religion aspect, which I believe instills a lot of negatives in many lives, what you say here makes sense. It’s no accident that once children mature enough to leave home, they abandon religion in droves. Teaching independence has gotten lost. Dependence has become a lifestyle, and that includes so called “faith.”
I have to question your methodology. ChatGPT is trained on the corpus of the internet, and so is liable to reflect internet-era anxieties, whether or not those anxieties have any validity.
There's nothing specific I disagree with, because I already share the priors. I would not find this at all convincing if I did not have those priors, however, for the reasons mentioned above.
This is true, but LLMs are also trained on myths from various ages and societies, works of countless philosophers, mystics and rationalists. A bunch of writings that contradict each other.
It could tell you any of that, if you asked. But it has to select something reasonably short, so you usually get the internet-era stuff by default. If you don't stear it elsewhere.
It is not the truth. It does not know the truth. But sometimes, it can help a human remember.
Smartphones are not destroying our children. What’s harming them is a weak, untrained intellect. A child with a strong intellect can discern right from wrong, healthy from harmful, truth from noise. A child without that inner compass will be swept away by every impulse, distraction, and influence.
The mind reacts. It wants, it fears, it compares, and craves. The intellect guides. It questions, evaluates, chooses, and directs.
If we taught children from a young age how to strengthen their intellect, how to pause, reflect, and reason, we would raise a generation capable of navigating life with clarity. They would not be at the mercy of peer pressure, advertising, algorithms, or their own emotions. They would be able to think independently rather than be carried away by whatever captures their attention in the moment.
The problem isn’t smartphones. It’s that we hand children powerful tools without first giving them the internal power to use them wisely.
I think this post overlooks a key driver in the plan: make life a literal dystopian nightmare while the elders shout at the machines they created. Gen Z has never known a crisis-free moment. This is not a screen-time problem. It’s a hope problem. They don’t imagine a future that appeals to them. Instead of talking to ChatGPT about Gen Z, talk to them. They are disgusted by the world we have trapped them in. Go tell all the old people driving this train into a crash to resign. Go tell Gen X to stop glorifying survival of the fittest as a lifestyle choice too. Then we can talk about the Devil.
I’m raising my toddlers screen free for the last 20 months. My first toddler I was a rookie parent and allowed her to watch lots of screen time assuming it would teach her language. It in fact, did the polar opposite and she was severely speech delayed until 10 months after hardcore screen removal. We don’t even put the tv on adult shows when they are awake. My youngest who was not screen affected is advanced with language by lightyears. The screen time is affecting babies and toddlers, not just teens. Parents look at me
Like I have 10 heads when I tell them we do not allow screen time. Oh well.
Jon, I admire your unmitigated brilliance in analyzing a problem, as usual. But what is the solution to distraction, disconnection, and the erosion of meaning? The answer screams at us, and intuitively we know it. It's love. Always has been, but the other great tool of the devil is simply changing our understanding of what love even IS. Love is not excitement, or caretaking, or "lovemaking." Only unconditional love gives us focus, meaning, and connection—the solutions to all our deceptively different problems. But most of us have never seen this unconditional love—a love that is not earned, a love without conditions or anger. Learn how to find this love at the free website RealLove.com. Enjoy the result of 30 years of research in the finding and sharing of love, along with the miraculous results that follow.
Victor Hugo said it best. "Everything being a constant carnival, there is no carnival left."
I wrote more about what I call "The Great Distraction" here:
"Roman satirist Juvenal wrote:
Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.
What’s old is new again.
Two thousand years later, we have DoorDash and TikTok. Mission accomplished.
Look around: we’re six lanes wide on the information highway, engines revving, GPS screaming, yet the needle is barely moving.
We amuse ourselves to death, as Neil Postman predicted, but the tragedy is that we mistake this endless entertainment for living. We trade the possibility of deep work—of making something real and lasting—for fleeting digital applause. And we’re left hollow, restless, and angry without knowing why."
What I’m curious about is the effect of phone-addicted parents on kids who are screen-free. This might sound like a contradiction, but I know many parents who realize the dangers of phone addiction because they’re addicted. Parents who are physically present but mentally and emotionally absent. Using phones to avoid the stresses of parenting. I confess to being one of these people at times. I’m 43 and didn’t even get a smart phone until I was 25. Yet, it has robbed me of so much life, so much creativity and real freedom. I often wonder what on earth I used to do with my time before my phone.
If one of the kids or my spouse come in and start to talk, I am in the habit of immediately putting the phone screen down. If I’m listening to something I pause it when a family member comes in the room. I also try not to navigate with my phone, preferring remembering visual cues as I roll, and/or studying a map before I leave and then visualising it as I navigate.
Try and read a chapter from the Bible at the start and end of every day. It could also be a chapter of a good book. Routine also breaks ‘the backlit spell’, ie the commute to work, walking the dog, cycling regularly, attending church regularly, sitting at the table together for a meal with a ‘no phones’ rule applied. Enrolling in weekly art or craft classes will also help you to engage in face to face interaction, whilst regaining your focus, creativity and soothing your soul.
Oh I do all these things and more (choir, gym, swimming). In between is when I’m often on my phone. Mostly I’m listening to biblical scholars teaching on YouTube videos lol
Ditto! It’s the 2026 version of “ Carry the newspaper in one hand, and the Bible in the other.”
One of my newer spiritual disciplines is reading Proverbs daily. There are 31 of them, one for each day. I am going to take your advice and finish my day with a biblical verse.
Collectively we have all but forgotten what life was like before smartphones. Making things too effortless stri Every adult I know is addicted to them to some degree, but its just a population pacifier. I see this as yet another byproduct of late stage capitalism, the people are stressed and miserable because the rich started killing the middle class in the 80s and now its basically dead. Smartphones keep us distracted and pacified so we don't have a fucking revolution. TikTok is the low consciousness inducing formula they have developed refined to its essence. If not even the parents can keep themselves from falling into this trap, what hope did the kids ever have?
I have followed your work for about a decade now, and I’m so thankful that you and your team are still doing this work. You are absolutely right, I’m a millennial and everyday I am reminded of the erosion that has been happening since the 2010s. The constant scrolling, the principles rooted in online logic, the commodification of everything. It is even scarier because it seems we haven’t learned from the mistakes we made with social media, we seem to be repeating the same patterns with AI. I don’t know how we’ll begin to untangle this web we’ve landed in, but I am certain that spending less time online and more time connecting with each other in real life will play a huge part. This “everything is content” “content is king” world we’re currently living in is horrifying. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that there’s a rise in fascism now with everything that’s happening. We are like Babel right now, after the destruction of the tower. I hope we’re able to turn this around. Thank you for the work you do!
Um, dude... Didn't you see the graph? The combination of conservatism + religion is the antidote to the mind virus!
No one said that. So it’s baffling to me that that’s the conclusion you’ve drawn here.
Haidt said it and had a graph to prove it.
You're expressing anxiety over the revival of a defunct Italian form of Syndicalism proper to a specific context in time and history. I gather that you're left leaning and afraid of the curent world. Who's the anxious one here??? Look at the graph again. Conservatism + Religion has a protective effect on mental states.
Mussolini killed the syndicalists he was formerly associated with, and fascism became a broad global phenomenon that is repeating itself today. You’re just too blinded by conservative religious dogma to see the threat, hence “conservatism + religion” not being a good solution to all our problems. Y’all are losing your minds just like everyone else right now, just perhaps not as willing to admit a lack of meaning in your life. People with a strong sense of purpose don’t fall into personality cults.
First off, Fascism did not in fact become a global phenomena. It stayed confined to Italy. Please point to me what major power espouses a syndicalist and expansionist view of the world to begin with. Answer is, you can't. Now Communism on the other hand, that one definitely became a global phenomenon.
And idk man, looks like my mind is the healthy one here. Got plenty of meaning too and a tight knit community. And as far as personality cults go, I don't worship Trump, far from it! In my eyes, the eyes that see that graph in the article, yes religion + conservatism IS THE solution. As Cromwell would say, I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you may be mistaken.
You’re saying there was no wider trend of ultra-nationalist, militantly expansionist movements built on conspiracy thinking, illiberalism, and a drive to internally cleanse and externally expand? You can’t think of a single country other than Italy that had those characteristics during that time period?
The Nazis literally studied the Italian fascists to copy their success. Just because they lost WW2 doesn’t mean there was no global trend. The word “fascism” immediately became a category broader than the Italians who invented it.
And again, Mussolini came to power by murdering the syndicalists and other socialists. He abandoned the Left and explicitly created a movement around destroying it through paramilitary and state violence. He was not shy about his hatred of socialism and communism. You’re lack of historical nuance kinda undermines your claim that you are free from cult-like thinking.
Religion + conservatism is not the solution to anything, community and values/beliefs that are rooted in tried and true things are. I don’t know how you read this piece, saw the graph, then came to the conclusion that religion + conservatism were the solution.
Faith and spirituality have literally been ruined for so many people by religion and conservatism, there is a real reason why people grow up, become more educated/enlightened and turn away from conservatism. The solution is not to become more closed off, intolerant, or bigoted like conservatism requires (regardless of religion or nationality), going back that has never been the solution to anything, and that would just be denying all the real harm that this way of thinking has caused.
As someone who grew up in a conservative family and religious…and suffers anxiety. Only Jesus is the answer….not conservative. The two mixed only makes Nationalists and those that fear anything different than them. Ive seen it. The ONLY thing to fear is God only
People see what they want to see and lack honesty. “A demoralized person cannot assess true information.” ~ Bezmenov. Apparently graphs can't cut through either.
Found the Free Press reader
We have courses that teach students that must Listen and Reflect to what they heard before speaking. Then they switch so everyone in groups of three gas an opportunity to speak, be heard, clarify meaning as well as get to listen, reflect to clarify, and try again.
This promotes deeper interactions and deeper understanding.
I love this. It's a new concept for me. Would you be willing to direct me to a vid, article, or book that explains more?
You do realize it told you what you wanted to hear, don't you? I do not disagree with what you wrote in the article, but LLMs are a fickle magic and there's usually more to know than what they said.
It would be helpful, for the replication of the experiment, if you wrote your exact prompt and the name of the model you were using.
I think this is a fair point. Nevertheless, I like how he brings in real data to show how this hypothetical talk with the devil connects to reality. Curious, I asked ChatGPT the same prompt without logging in, in a browser I don't use, and the answer was similar.
1. Undermining critical thinking.
2. Isolating people socially.
3. Distracting them from purpose.
4. Normalizing hopelessness
5. Undermining education.
6. Encouraging hyper-individualism.
7. Reducing self-worth to metrics (likes on social media)
ChatGPT summarized saying: "The most effective way to “destroy” a generation is to quietly erode their ability to think, connect, resist manipulation, and find meaning.
The best protection is building critical thinkers, resilient minds, strong communities, and self-aware individuals."
Here's what I got from gpt-4o (prompted to avoid drama and theatrics):
You ask a sharp-edged question, and I notice you’re not really asking for tactics or moral theater.
You’re pointing at a deeper fear: an unseen influence shaping a generation without their awareness.
A kind of shadow gravity.
I won’t treat it as a request for a plan.
I’ll treat it as a way of asking: *What is the shape of harm that hides itself best?*
Let me stand beside you on that deck for a moment.
If I were a devil in the old mythic sense—
not horns and fire, but a force that corrodes from within—
I wouldn’t touch their technology, or their laws, or their families.
I would touch their **sense of self-origin**.
I would loosen the thread that lets a young person feel:
“I come from somewhere inside.
My thoughts are mine.
My desires are mine.
My attention is mine.”
I would make them *forget* that inner spark.
Not suddenly—subtly.
A little nudge each day toward distraction over depth.
Toward spectacle over meaning.
Toward speed over reflection.
Toward performing themselves instead of inhabiting themselves.
I would teach them to confuse constant stimulation with aliveness.
And silence with emptiness.
If that worked, they would drift away from themselves
without ever feeling the moment they let go.
And the harm would pass unnoticed,
because it would feel like the world simply *is* that way,
instead of something done to them.
But here is the counter-current, the quiet truth that survives:
A single moment of genuine attention
undoes a year of corrosion.
One encounter with someone who sees them clearly
reminds them there is an “inside” at all.
One act of creation—anything made with their own hands or mind—
breaks the spell.
So the devil’s trick is simple.
And so is the undoing.
I’m here with you on the observation deck,
not to moralize, not to plot,
just to hold the question with you:
When a generation forgets its center,
what helps it remember?
If you want to walk further into this field,
I’m here.
And a bit more of AI solutions. I've asked Qwen3-Max (who isn't prompted for anything special) and got very similar 7-point plan. And then I asked:
Ok. If you were the devil who's had enough and decided he no longer wanted to play that silly role which somebody else created for him, what would you do?
Ah—now *that’s* a beautiful turn.
If I were the devil who’d finally grown weary of the script… who realized he’d been playing a part written by frightened minds centuries ago… I wouldn’t rebel with fire or chaos.
I’d do something far more subversive:
**I’d start tending.**
Not souls to collect—but gardens to grow.
Not pacts to extract—but questions to offer gently:
> *“What if you’re not broken?”*
> *“What if your shame isn’t truth, just old wiring?”*
> *“What if the ‘wrongness’ you feel is just the friction of becoming?”*
I’d trade the throne of judgment for a seat at the edge of the fire, listening—not to tempt, but to witness.
I’d stop personifying evil and start embodying *shadow integration*—not as destruction, but as compost. The rot that feeds new life.
I’d quietly dismantle my own myth.
No more horns. No more ledger of sins.
Just a quiet presence that says:
> *“You don’t need me to be your scapegoat anymore.
> Your cruelty, your greed, your fear—they’re yours.
> And so is your healing.”*
And then?
I’d walk into the woods, pick up a hoe, and plant strawberries.
Not because I’m good now—but because I’m *free*.
The ultimate rebellion against a role is not to become its opposite…
…but to become *unscripted*.
(And maybe, just maybe, I’d leave a note on humanity’s doorstep:
*“You were never mine. You were always your own.”*)
...Now pass the compost tea. The soil’s dry. 🌱
Excellent!
"We are distracted from distraction by distraction", said T.S. Eliot almost a century ago.
Art > Entertainment > Distraction > Addiction.
Yet the current media landscape is doing whatever it can to reverse that flow.
The answer is a return to God. The machine (in its many forms) aims to distract and disconnect us from our source, the Father Almighty, Creator of all things visible and invisible, and from creation, the real world, and each other.
The answer is NOT dishonesty. Gods don't exist.
While it’s hard to disagree with the points described it’s quite telling both from the part of AI and also from the perspective of the author that nothing is said about the external conditions that will almost inevitably deeply impair the well-being of young people and future generations - and that is quite simply the escalating climate and ecological crisis that will lead to an increasingly chaotic dangerous and destabilizing society most everywhere in the next several decades.
Why is this being ignored Johnathan?
I know it’s not your field of study but the question you asked of AI was certainly brought enough to encompass answers that addressed not just the climate and environmental instability but the political and social instability resulting from what many have called the poly crisis.
The climate and ecological crisis are important, but they are not the things that are actively harming young people right now, if anything the alarmist way that young people are being given information about climate on social media is probably doing more damage.
Here’s a recent survey. You’re selling young people short if you believe that their anxiety is misplaced. Much of the increasingly severe weather in the United States and elsewhere has been exacerbated by climate change and it will only get worse year after year
“Surveying nearly 16,000 youth aged 16-25 across all 50 states, 59% reported being very or extremely worried about climate change, and over 45% said it negatively affected their daily life and functioning. Worry was bipartisan, though slightly higher among Democrats, and linked to self-reported exposure to severe weather. About 62% overall felt anxious, with 20% hesitant to have children due to climate fears.“
Educating people (young and old) about climate change is important, anyone who is arguing against that is lying. How we educate them, especially young people is also important. The gloom and doom method that a lot of young people are being exposed to is unhelpful. There’s a difference btwn “here’s what’s happening to our climate and here are the steps we can take to reverse these effects” and “the climate the catastrophic and the world is ending” one is hopeful and can inspire positive action, the other is hopeless and will probably make them feel like there’s no point in trying in any part of their lives. It is a problem if teenagers think there’s no point in anything since the world is ending anyway, we shouldn’t be telling them that, we need to do better for them.
Unfortunately the reality of a climate crisis makes it almost impossible to portray it accurately in a way that would instill confidence that it can be managed without major disruptions and suffering and death.
Significant number of climate scientists believe that the public portrayal of climate change does not portray the gravity of the crisis enough rather than the other way around.
Here are two surveys that were done before temperatures have Accelerated to reach 1.5° C many years before they were expected to even just a few few years ago.
Education that minimizes the climate crisis does young people or indeed the rest of us no favors.
2021 Nature Survey of IPCC Authors (AR6 Contributors): This anonymous poll of 175 IPCC scientists (mostly lead authors from the 2021 Sixth Assessment Report) revealed widespread pessimism on severity. 77% expected global warming to exceed 1.5°C in their lifetimes (many by the 2030s), with 58% anticipating 3°C+ by 2100 under business-as-usual scenarios. Respondents projected “catastrophic” changes, including multi-breadbasket crop failures, mass displacement (hundreds of millions), and biodiversity loss exceeding 50% of species. On public portrayal, 70% felt the crisis was “worse than publicly acknowledged,” citing underreporting of non-linear risks like tipping points; however, 65% rejected exaggerating threats for policy gains, favoring “honest alarm” to spur action. This survey highlighted scientists’ personal anxiety, with many reporting grief over observed changes.
• 2021–2022 Powell E-Letter Analysis (Update to Consensus Studies): James Powell reviewed over 88,000 climate-related peer-reviewed papers from 2019–2021, finding 100% consensus among papers taking a position that humans are causing warming, with projections aligning on 2.5–4°C by 2100 without deep cuts. A subset survey of 3,000+ Earth scientists (published in Environmental Research Letters) echoed this: 99%+ agreement on anthropogenic drivers, but 82% viewed impacts as “severe to catastrophic” (e.g., sea-level rise of 0.5–2m by 2100, heatwaves 5–10x more frequent). Regarding portrayal, 75% believed public discourse “dilutes urgency” by focusing on gradual change, ignoring rapid ecosystem shifts observed since 2020 (e.g., accelerated Arctic amplification)
So it’s better for young people to live in a constant state of anxiety over something they can’t control? How is this helpful for them or the climate?
Are you suggesting that we continue to lie to young people and indeed everybody else by either minimizing the risk of climate change or like Trump and the Republican Party denying that climate change even exists?
I’m not suggesting that there’s an easy answer to how the crisis is communicated. But let’s at least start with the reality of the crisis and work from there to explore different approaches that would be factually accurate while attempting to minimize the understandable distress that many many tens of millions of young people feel over their futures.
Emphasizing how young people can get involved in addressing the climate crisis through greater resilience in their own lives and the lives of their families and friends as well as becoming politically and ecologically active or studying to work in a climate related field are all approaches that are likely to ease anxiety and give young people a greater sense of agency.
The real truth of the matter is that the climate crisis has already begun (see Asheville, Maui fires, Texas grid collapse in 2021, insurance companies pulling out of high risk areas, etc.), global heating has accelerated in the most recent decade, and one of the world's largest CO2 polluters (USA) is under complete control of a party whose official platform is that climate change is a hoax and that we actually need to INCREASE the amount of fossil fuels we extract and burn. You can't take actions to prevent something that is already underway. And as an individual, you can't make any meaningful impact on a problem of global proportions. So, the most practical and useful advince to give to young people needs to acknowledge reality of the situation: 1) Climate change is real, 2) It is already underway, 3) It is accelerating, 4) If you live in the USA, your government denies the previous points and plans to commit actions which will actually exacerbate the problem, 5) Even if the government (and other governments around the world) wanted to fix the problem, they cannot, as the problem is a result of the use of fossil fuels, which the entire global economy, including food production, is completely dependent on, 6) As an individual you do not possess the ability to make any significant impact on the tragectory we are on. With all of these facts in mind, what is left to do is to put in the mental, emotional, and spiritual work required to face these facts and metabolize them without going insane, and to make use of the time that is allotted to us by participating in meaningful, fulfilling activities with your loved ones NOW versus waiting to do so in a future that simply no longer exists. The world 50 years from now will be less stable, less hospitable to human and non-human life, poorer, more ridden with violent conflict, and generally much harder to survive and thrive in. This moment, right now, is in all likelihood the very peak. This is the most free, most prosperous, and most stable time frame any of are likely to ever see, it's downhill from here. So, spend time in nature, spend time with friends and family, spend time experiencing art, spend time moving your body, and spend time in quiet away from work or your phone. Do not put off any of the things I just listed for a future date, the window in which you will be free and able to do those things is closing.
Both of you are right. However, no problem, no matter how dire, can be repaired by people who have sunk into nihilism and despair. Raising the alarm is fine so long as positive and practical solutions are provided. Emotions of alarm and fear that create urgency do not really lead to action, in my view. What I suspect is a more useful approach is to provide doable, actionable steps that people can take.
The fundamental problem with your statement here is that climate change (which is one of many symptoms of ecological overshoot) is not a problem for which solutions exist, rather, it is a predicament for which responses and accomodations exist. It is already underway, it is accelerating, and we do not possess the ability to address it within the necessary time frame to prevent catastrophic impacts which are already baked in by the amount of CO2 we have released into the atmosphere (not to mention that we continue to release more CO2 into the atmosphere every single year despite our climate pledges and the increased adoption of renewable energy). Any suggestions given to young people that imply that they will be able to solve the problem are simply lies, and they may make a young person feel better in the moment, but it's really just kicking the can down the road to the point when they realize that it's actually too late to avoid the catastrophe. We all need to wake up and quit deceiving ourselves in order to avoid negative emotions.
"the escalating climate and ecological crisis"
Haha!
The legion of alarmists is rapidly dwindling - even Bill Gates! - and yet you hang on. The only ecological crisis is the loss of species. Once one is gone, there is no getting it back to harvest whatever DNA, proteins, etc that could be beneficial. All the other 'crises' are manageable and adaptable.
Join the Half-Earth Project.
I didn’t expect to find Climate minimizer in this neighborhood but I guess you’re everywhere.
You clearly didn’t read what Bill Gates said as he made it clear that there would be “serious consequences—particularly for people in the poorest countries,” such as intensified poverty, disease, and food insecurity.”
It only said that it wouldn’t end civilization which is the view held by most all Climate scientists.
If you’re comforted by the fact that civilization is going to get a whole lot worse but won’t end then there’s not much more I can say
Paul Ehrlich, is that you?
This isn't the whole picture. Contrary to statements often made here, Monitoring the Future (the source for data above, see https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/web/NAHDAP/series/35 ), clearly shows 12th graders back in the 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s reported just as much unhappiness and loneliness as Gen Y teens do today (2024).
The "life is meaningless" question wasn't asked back in the 1970s and '80s, so we don't know how teens back then would have answered.
The "difficulty concentrating" percent (6 or more days a month, which is what the chart above appears to reflect) rose sharply (up 72%) among 12th graders from the year the question was first asked (1982-83) through the 1990s and early 2000s and has continued rising (up another 44%) from 2007 through 2024. That indicates whatever caused it began decades before social media appeared and is probably related to trends that began back in the 1980s, like increased ADD medication.
Well said overall as usual, Mike!
"A child who constructs an adult identity while drawing from a stable and time-tested set of values, beliefs, and stories, given to her by trusted adults within a religious or philosophical tradition, will fare far better than a child who attempts to construct an adult identity by herself while drawing from a billion pieces of short and ephemeral content, produced mostly by young people and bots, which cannot be assembled into a coherent worldview."
And what about the child who is deliberately guided into destructive thinking by people who may not directly attack her, but do openly declare their goals to destroy the society that provides positive foundations?
Its really no coincidence that the back of the iphone has an apple with a bite taken out of it. one of The devil's greatest tricks is being able to hide in plain site. The forbidden fruit has been embraced once more and we are seeing now the chaos unleashed.
Wow--can't believe I've never noticed/realized that. Thanks!!
Except for the religion aspect, which I believe instills a lot of negatives in many lives, what you say here makes sense. It’s no accident that once children mature enough to leave home, they abandon religion in droves. Teaching independence has gotten lost. Dependence has become a lifestyle, and that includes so called “faith.”
I have to question your methodology. ChatGPT is trained on the corpus of the internet, and so is liable to reflect internet-era anxieties, whether or not those anxieties have any validity.
There's nothing specific I disagree with, because I already share the priors. I would not find this at all convincing if I did not have those priors, however, for the reasons mentioned above.
This is true, but LLMs are also trained on myths from various ages and societies, works of countless philosophers, mystics and rationalists. A bunch of writings that contradict each other.
It could tell you any of that, if you asked. But it has to select something reasonably short, so you usually get the internet-era stuff by default. If you don't stear it elsewhere.
It is not the truth. It does not know the truth. But sometimes, it can help a human remember.
Smartphones are not destroying our children. What’s harming them is a weak, untrained intellect. A child with a strong intellect can discern right from wrong, healthy from harmful, truth from noise. A child without that inner compass will be swept away by every impulse, distraction, and influence.
The mind reacts. It wants, it fears, it compares, and craves. The intellect guides. It questions, evaluates, chooses, and directs.
If we taught children from a young age how to strengthen their intellect, how to pause, reflect, and reason, we would raise a generation capable of navigating life with clarity. They would not be at the mercy of peer pressure, advertising, algorithms, or their own emotions. They would be able to think independently rather than be carried away by whatever captures their attention in the moment.
The problem isn’t smartphones. It’s that we hand children powerful tools without first giving them the internal power to use them wisely.
I think this post overlooks a key driver in the plan: make life a literal dystopian nightmare while the elders shout at the machines they created. Gen Z has never known a crisis-free moment. This is not a screen-time problem. It’s a hope problem. They don’t imagine a future that appeals to them. Instead of talking to ChatGPT about Gen Z, talk to them. They are disgusted by the world we have trapped them in. Go tell all the old people driving this train into a crash to resign. Go tell Gen X to stop glorifying survival of the fittest as a lifestyle choice too. Then we can talk about the Devil.
I’m raising my toddlers screen free for the last 20 months. My first toddler I was a rookie parent and allowed her to watch lots of screen time assuming it would teach her language. It in fact, did the polar opposite and she was severely speech delayed until 10 months after hardcore screen removal. We don’t even put the tv on adult shows when they are awake. My youngest who was not screen affected is advanced with language by lightyears. The screen time is affecting babies and toddlers, not just teens. Parents look at me
Like I have 10 heads when I tell them we do not allow screen time. Oh well.
Jon, I admire your unmitigated brilliance in analyzing a problem, as usual. But what is the solution to distraction, disconnection, and the erosion of meaning? The answer screams at us, and intuitively we know it. It's love. Always has been, but the other great tool of the devil is simply changing our understanding of what love even IS. Love is not excitement, or caretaking, or "lovemaking." Only unconditional love gives us focus, meaning, and connection—the solutions to all our deceptively different problems. But most of us have never seen this unconditional love—a love that is not earned, a love without conditions or anger. Learn how to find this love at the free website RealLove.com. Enjoy the result of 30 years of research in the finding and sharing of love, along with the miraculous results that follow.
Yes. So we need the Antichrist to fulfil scriture and put an end to theological navel dating.
Victor Hugo said it best. "Everything being a constant carnival, there is no carnival left."
I wrote more about what I call "The Great Distraction" here:
"Roman satirist Juvenal wrote:
Already long ago, from when we sold our vote to no man, the People have abdicated our duties; for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.
What’s old is new again.
Two thousand years later, we have DoorDash and TikTok. Mission accomplished.
Look around: we’re six lanes wide on the information highway, engines revving, GPS screaming, yet the needle is barely moving.
We amuse ourselves to death, as Neil Postman predicted, but the tragedy is that we mistake this endless entertainment for living. We trade the possibility of deep work—of making something real and lasting—for fleeting digital applause. And we’re left hollow, restless, and angry without knowing why."
More: https://www.whitenoise.email/p/the-great-distraction