We are now living in an age of entirely new thinking. I recently read an article that said the majority of college students are using AI to write their papers, and as a result many are graduating without really learning to think for themselves. AI is here, and we can’t put the genie back in the bottle.
But there’s something even more concerning. We’re not raising our kids to be emotionally aware. In fact, the trend seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Think about how we communicate with AI: we say, give me, tell me, I want. And the machine responds politely with, Certainly or I’d be happy to help. It sounds empathetic, but we know it’s not. It isn’t kindness—it’s programming. There is no heart behind those words. Just ones and zeros.
And somewhere along the way, we’ve started copying that behavior. We’ve begun to unlearn civility. We’re losing the most basic people skills—how to look someone in the eyes, how to listen to them, how to show real care, how to be patient, how to be human.
Maybe the challenge in front of us isn’t to stop the rise of AI—we can’t. Maybe the challenge is to use AI to actually teach us how to be more human. To help our kids develop emotional awareness, connection, and compassion. And if we can do that, maybe—just maybe—our kids can teach it back to us.
Because the tools aren’t the problem. The problem is forgetting how to be people with each other.