Children and young adults are growing up surrounded by digital technology. Brenton Joo Mitchell is a licensed professional counselor and the owner of Being Counseling in State College. He talked with WPSU’s Alex Rabb about current research into the effects of technology on the mental health of the youngest generations and how older generations can better interact with them.
Alex Rabb:
What mental health trends are you noticing in children, who are growing up living and breathing technology?
Brenton Joo Mitchell:
As a counselor I was trained to look at the frequency, intensity and duration and I think, one of the biggest trends I see, is definitely influenced by the use and integration and embrace of digital technologies. The intensity of things like mood swings, the intensity of the impact of peer influence, the intensity of the process of figuring out who people want to be has really increased compared to my anecdotal experience.
Alex Rabb:
We often hear concerns about kids tying their self-esteem to social media – with “likes” or other interactions —In your experience, how does early exposure to social media and AI shape emotional development in children?
Brenton Joo Mitchell:
We see the research or the news reports about how ChatGPT is overtaking over Google for search engine inquiries or what would have traditionally gone to search engines. And so I think, for a generation, like Generation Alpha that a technology like generative AI has a tremendous amount of power in terms on the influence and the impact it can have on people’s emotional development and I think really speaks the importance of ensuring that the information being provided is valid, is reliable and is also embraced by professionals because it’s not going anywhere. Specifically to the social media aspect of emotional development, I wish I could remember the research study, was looking at our brain’s responses when scrolling social media. And the researchers found that our brain, when scrolling social media, responded the same way to when we were excluded, or felt excluded, in in person settings. So, In other words, our brain, when we’re looking at instagram and see what our friends and family are doing or not doing, our brain was responding the same way as if we were watching our friends, in person do something super cool or super exciting that we weren’t a part of. And to me that’s a really intense and interesting and scary finding. In terms of what that means for our relationship with emotion, the sensations in our bodies, and our feelings, like feelings of loneliness and isolation when we look at the amount of certain social media engagement in certain generations.
Alex Rabb:
What guidance do you offer to parents and caregivers who might feel overwhelmed to set healthy boundaries with AI and digital technology at home?
Brenton Joo Mitchell:
I think as a parent, one of the best things we can do is practice acknowledging ourselves more and the gargantuan undertaking of raising a child. I think embracing the research findings that the way we talk to our children, becomes the way our children talk to themselves, or their self-talk. I think there’s so much power and influence that we have as parents, to shape how our child and children view themselves and so I think that making sure that we are doing what we can to take care of ourselves so we can be the kind of parents we want to be. And I think one way we can do that is by reframing the way that we think about boundary setting. I was taught boundary setting as this request, like, “Hey, please turn off the television?” And Dr. Rebecca Kennedy, who wrote a book called “Good Inside,” she’s a child psychologist and is called the "Millennial parenting whisperer," talks about the boundary I just described like, “Hey, can you turn off the TV?” Well, no that’s not a boundary, that’s a request. She describes a boundary as “Boundaries are what we tell people what we will do, and it requires the other person to do nothing. I’m not making my boundary’s success dependent on someone else, as that is so disempowering. I’m communicating clearly what I will do if someone does something or nothing. I’m not going to let you continue to watch television, AND I see that you’re really upset and I get that, it makes sense that you’re upset and I’m not going to let you keep watching." Right? We can do both. We can validate our kid’s feelings, and we can also practice "sturdy leadership” as Dr. Kennedy talks about, we can hold the boundary that we need to.
Alex Rabb:
There’s also talk of AI having potential mental health benefits. Do you see a positive role for AI in supporting young people?
Brenton Joo Mitchell:
There’s so much opportunity to meet people where they are, to meet a generation where they are and be helpful. I think the development of the the AI therapist or chatbot, or therapist those would be two different things, the therapist or AI counselor, has to be driven by expertise, number one, that has to be the priority at all times because I think there are so many risks, for example, with safety, you know if someone expresses, something related to suicidal ideation, but the language model hasn’t been trained appropriately on how vague different forms of passive or active suicidal ideation can sound, there’s some real risk in that ‘Therapist,’ that AI driven therapist, could miss something that would be really important to keeping somebody, in particular, a younger person, safe.
Alex Rabb:
And finally, for educators, parents, or fellow counselors who are worried—what concrete steps or strategies do you recommend to protect and strengthen kids’ mental health in an AI-saturated world?
Brenton Joo Mitchell:
I think number one, continuing to take care of ourselves and prioritize our own well being. For those of us that are in the field, continue to do our own work, with providers ourselves. For parents, the same thing. And for educators…being an educator at every level now is fundamentally a different experience than it was a generation or two ago. And so taking care of ourselves is a priority so we can take care and educate others. I also think using organizational tools like from the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association. Both I believe, have tools out there to help people vet digital, mental health tools. And the final piece being, we have to embrace it. We have to understand it. We have to understand the gifts and the shadows that are there for all of us.
Alex Rabb:
Brenton Joo Mitchell, thanks for talking with us.