Sycophantic AIs Validate Bad Behaviors and Impair Human Judgment
What? Artificial intelligence tools can be a bit sycophantic: That is, they’ll tell users exactly what they think those users want to hear. This has resulted in tragedies, wherein users have harmed themselves or others. But a new study suggests that these aren’t isolated incidents: AI chatbots are validating bad behaviors and impairing human judgment as a whole.
So What? According to Ars Technica, a paper published in the journal Science found that these AI tools “can reinforce maladaptive beliefs, discourage users from accepting responsibility for a situation or discourage them from repairing damaged relationships.”
Now What? With 64% of teens using AI chatbots (according to Pew Research), you have to wonder what sorts of questions your child might be asking those bots—and what sorts of answers they’re receiving. According to The Washington Post, many users might field “stupid” questions through a chatbot because they’re too embarrassed to ask real people. But you should remind your kids that the chatbot is going to give them the answer it thinks they want to hear, regardless of whether that answer will help or hurt them in the long run.
Pre-workout Supplements Linked to Sleep Loss
What? A study published in Sleep Epidemiology found that the nearly 30% of teens who take pre-workout supplements are more than twice as likely to report five hours of sleep or less per night, owing to the high levels of caffeine and stimulant-like ingredients found in such products.
So What? Health experts recommend that adolescents should get 8-10 hours of sleep every night. So when teens take these supplements—the effects of which can linger for 12-14 hours—they risk hurting their overall physical and mental health.
Now What? “Exercise is key to promoting physical and mental wellness,” reports Johns Hopkins University. But recovery is an important component of that process; and sleep is how our bodies recover. Talk to your child about his or her sleep and exercise goals. Make sure they understand that sleep doesn’t just provide energy (which these supplements mimic), it also releases growth hormones for bone and muscle restoration, boosts our immune system, and consolidates long- and short-term memories—none of which can be replaced by any number of supplements.
OnlyFans ‘Models’ Try to Validate Career to Young Followers
What? Several popular influencers on TikTok and Instagram first gained popularity by creating racy or explicit content on the site OnlyFans, a risqué and often pornographic creator platform. Now, some of these OnlyFans “models” (a euphemism for porn stars) post cleaner content on social media—such as make-up tutorials, viral dances and “get ready with me” routines—while trying to convince their followers that creating adult content is a valid career option.
So What? Because these influencers are telling their followers—largely adolescent girls unaware of their porn-star status—that OnlyFans is more lucrative and less exploitive than traditional pornography, many young children (as young as 12, according to one study) now view “erotic content creation” on such platforms as a “desirable career choice,” reports The Telegraph.
Now What? Parents should reinforce your family’s own ethical standards and talk to their tweens and teens about the downsides of such a career. Platforms such as OnlyFans “reinforce sexist attitudes and perpetuate gender inequality,” said one study. Even influencers note some of the downsides, with one saying they include “judgment from family and friends, fierce competition [within the industry] and the struggle to get a ‘normal’ job afterwards.” And that’s to say nothing for the physical, mental and spiritual dangers that can result from “digital sex work.”
7 Responses
You guys seem to talk about OnlyFans a lot, but the criticisms you mention here – reinforcement of sexist attitudes and perpetuation of gender inequality (also found in far too many churches I’ve been in — I saw too many churches where the only difference between how they treated women and how too many people in the adult industry treat women was the amount of clothing involved) – and physical, mental, and spiritual dangers – are also found elsewhere in other careers and fields as well.
The ‘fierce competition’ you mentioned isn’t too different from what I saw among some of my friends who got drawn, or sometimes pressured, into multi-level marketing schemes, though I do think that’s a significantly important factor in analyzing the probability-based viability of such a career choice. See also parents who try to get their children, especially boys, into professional sports (now including e-Sports, with the same probability problem) — since one stat I saw on Reddit from someone within the industry portrayed the monthly income numbers as being highly skewed toward a very small percentage of content creators: according to that stat, fewer than five percent of content creators make even as much monthly as I do from my IT job.
Frankly I wish you would critique any number of other careers (especially careers that too often openly glamorize anti-Scriptural violence, such as the military) with as much scrutiny as you’re condemning OnlyFans modeling. Lest we forget that Focus’s own ‘Brio Magazine’ once referred to girls being used by Satan as a “walking temptation to make guys sin” (Gabrielle Pickle, “Fall Fashion 101,” Brio, 2007), and fast-forward nineteen years, where we’re now listening to complaints about OnlyFans (which, mind, didn’t start primarily as an explicit-content platform) that also apply even to some parts of what we would consider Christendom and Christian culture.
Hit the nail on the head here!!! Bravo.
I really appreciate this—a lot of what I see that posits itself as being “anti-porn” comes across more as “anti-financially independent woman.”
OnlyFans is a plague. Women no longer want serious, healthy relationships because they know it’s free money. The love of money is the root of all evil. When will this plague be wiped from the Earth?
If I may be so bold, if it seems all the women you meet are into this, that you may need to change your social circle.
I am in a situation where usually only jobless men are attracted to me. This is mostly because I’m a nightshift nurse and I financially support a widowed parent, and buy Walmart and Goodwill clothes. However, I don’t have resources to support a parent, husband, and future children to the level these men expect and they don’t like that I avoid watching R rated stuff.
I recognize, though, that if I were in better circumstances, I probably would have my own family, just like my highschool church friends have had now for years.
This is why I suggest you change your social circle if you can.
Hey, I just wanted to send my kind words and support for you for taking care of your parent, and especially doing it in the medical field. God bless you and your important work.
Come to think of it, I had to change my social circle recently upon realizing that a lot of the people I was hanging out with (all of them were dudes) had personality traits that weren’t … particularly conducive for me finding a stable lifelong partner. So that was healthy advice for me as well but for a different reason. Thank you.
When men stop seeking out such content, repent of their porn addiction, and find accountability partners.