Is Your Life in the Real World or on the Internet?

              Recently, our group of psychologists got together to interact with an AI therapist to assess the quality and also see if we could integrate these platforms into our practice to help our clients. In our discussions, we thought to the future and quipped that our future marketing edge will be: We are 100% human! After a chuckle, we started to think of how certain groups in our patient population actually may prefer to work with a robot, instead of a human. I reflected at the progression of online friendships that for some, have replaced true connection. Humans quickly learned that they could avoid the fear of rejection and anxiety related to social situations by having relationships through a computer. This was enough connection to, at least, partially fulfill this human need. Many of these same anxious patients will be able to avoid the anxiety of meeting a therapist and the vulnerability of exposing their personal matters to a human by seeking help from an AI bot.

              It is true that in the future, some may be able to be entirely self-sufficient while completely disconnected from humans. They could have an AI partner, work from home, get their groceries delivered, and avoid the outside world. Who am I to judge?

              Many of you reading this may have a gut reaction that this is overdoing the internet and believe this is mostly a negative concept (which I tend to agree with). However, each of us has to actively decide the degree to which we are going to incorporate the virtual world into our lives. Judge Judy has often charmingly remarked that she, “doesn’t use that computer thing”. Like it or not, virtual technology is part of our education system and our workforce. The COVID pandemic normalized video conferences in place of in-person meetings and forced the vast majority of the workforce to, at least in part, work from home. The generation of the internet-naïve will soon be gone.

              Your therapist will be interested in how many hours you spend on a device outside of work. Many are finding great benefit, in terms of their mental health, by limiting their screen time. What does this tell us? Your therapist is also curious whether you are spending your energy building a beautiful profile or making beautiful memories.

The rise of social media introduced a platform by which you can present yourself any way you choose. Most only share the beach pictures that show off their hard work in the gym, their most beautiful moments of travel that year, and the most exciting times with friends and family. Many play with filters to change their appearance for the better. We count followers and Facebook friends as if they are measures of our social success.

              Although the virtual world is ever-evolving and quickly being integrated into human life, your therapist should be putting a mirror up to the amount of time and energy you give to your online life as opposed to your real life.

Feel better, y’all!