I’ve seen a few articles in the past few weeks that discussed an interesting use of ChatGPT and other AI tools: teens were using them as conversation partners. They shared their innermost thoughts with an AI tool that would respond in various ways. Some of those ways were helpful; others were not.
Many people who were measuring this behavior struggled to understand why they would do this, and a popular response was that the AI tool was the only thing in their lives that would listen and respond to them when talking about their emotional struggles.
Now consider this:
As a youth mental health crisis persists in the US, a new report highlights a significant gap between the level of support that teenagers feel and the amount that parents think their children have.
You should read more details at the link below.
I can’t help but wonder how many of those teens who feel like they have no one to talk to about their emotions have parents who don’t think their teen has emotional struggles because, surely, they would talk to their “supportive” parents.
Don’t assume your kids are fine because they haven’t talked to you about struggling. They may be in that gap.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/16/health/teens-mental-health-support-parent-gap-wellness/index.html