Hour 1: Warrior Wednesday | 04-08-26

The Other Side of Midnight with Lionel. Entertaining and informative. On the Red Apple Podcast Network. Hi buddy, this is Lionel with you. On the Other Side of Midnight. And this is Warrior Wednesday. An institution here. Where we take one... It takes more than this, but one program. One segment. One hour, I should say. To go through what is happening. Involving so much. not so much AI, but children and predation, but in this huge conglomerate. Right now, we're going to be talking about which is the most incredible. Let me give you a story. Let me give you a number. $30 billion. $30 billion. Is this for war? No, maybe. That's how much this country has spent putting laptops and screens into classrooms across the country. $30 billion. And what we are now seeing is something that we should, that should stop us cold. AI, look what happened. You think they're putting screens in there to make our children smarter, to make didactics more powerful, more pointed, more poignant? No. Right now what we're seeing is reading scores are down, math scores are down, attention is collapsing, and we were told this would revolutionize education. We were told that this would empower students, and instead, we've been engineered into thinking that distraction is somehow normal. Let me stop going on. Let me turn it over to the expert. Full disclosure, my wife, Lynn Shaw from Lynn's Warriors, lynnswarriors.org, on YouTube at Lynn's Warriors, and Lynn's underscore Warriors on X. I bring you Lynn Shaw, and this is Warrior Wednesday. Good evening, my wife. Or good morning, my husband. I mean, morning. I'm sorry. I'm confused. Let us not, Terry, what is happening? Is it as bad as I said? It's worse than you said. But the reason we are always showcasing, and thank you for providing a platform on your program about these issues, because you're not going to hear about this in mainstream media, on cable news. You're just really not going to hear about this. This is something that is further proof, and we at the Warriors always work on, we can back everything up, we say, with proof, with studies, with stats. So this came out, and I thought this was completely mind-boggling, that in the year 2024, the government spent $30 billion, B-I-L-L-I-O-N, as you said, Lionel, on replacing textbooks in the classrooms with the laptops and the tablets. the effect, this is more proof how putting children in front of screens, right, results in disaster, because this is the first generation that is less cognitively capable than their parents, the first generation. And we have a great study by Dr. Horvath, okay, H-O-R-V-A-T-H, who put all of this out. It's also projected that the government will spend double this amount. We're talking $60 billion over the next five years or some incredible amount. Why are we doing this? Okay. We know the results. We now have proof. We just had the two verdicts, you know, with the cases in New Mexico and California holding big tech accountable harms caused to children. Okay. We have plenty of studies now, okay, about the effects of the iPhone and screens on children. and now we're facing AI and there's really no regulation so far. There's no anything with this artificial intelligence. What are we doing to our kids? So we've realized finally what's happening with all of this big tech. And I don't understand, Lionel, just forging ahead with artificial intelligence. Have we learned nothing? I mean, the question is really simple. did we make things worse spending $30 billion and encouraging all this screen behavior or are we doubling down and just going straight into AI it is completely frightening what's happening well who is responsible I mean is it I don't want to say the Trump administration is it Linda McMahon, is it local school boards is it the teachers union is it who made this pact with the devil to contaminate by the way there was so much so much distraction in our kids' schools as it is. Who's responsible, do you think? Well, I think it's a question of everybody responsible. It's interesting because I heard, you know, the education department, Linda McMahon, she recently said to somebody, you know, we're basically kind of just, these are my words, not hers, you know, like a figurehead. Okay, like it's up to the states and the school districts what they do. We're just kind of there to suggest things. Now, does that even make sense to you? Because that's what I was told, because she currently has been on a 50-state tour. Probably nobody even knows this. Or so we're told, going into different states and different schools and meeting with them and talking to their school boards and things like this. But we're talking about $30 billion, okay? Where does that money – that comes from the federal government, right, trickling down into the states. I don't know. We see these harms. The point I want to get at is I don't want to go back, and I don't want to because it's done. It's over. Okay, the monies are spent. Now we've got monies allocated. But we're sitting on top of this AI. And by the way, let me remind everybody, it's already being implemented into classrooms across America. How exactly? Without parental consent. Well, AI tools. Okay? AI companions. AI tools. When we at the Warriors, right here at the other side of midnight or the Cats Roundtable, we're always talking about AI and chatbots and AI companions and how bad it is for kids, yet they're going full steam ahead. So I'm going to say it comes from the top down being pushed into all of our schools because who in their right mind, seriously, would do this to harm children further? further and we have experts such as Dr. Horvath coming forward. We have the, you know, psychiatrists, the psychologists, the educators now. We've got the parents coming forward. We've got kids themselves. We had the young woman testify in California about what social media did to her. And there's thousands of kids. And you know, we at the Warriors, we work with survivor parents. We know the harms cause to kids. So why are we not putting the brakes on this? Look, We're all about tech. We're pro-tech innovation. But we wanted to be crafted to help kids, not harm kids. So I'm not understanding the full federal government push for all of this artificial intelligence. Do you think that the teachers' unions themselves feel that somehow they have not been at all threatened or that maybe AI somehow will make it easier for them perhaps to maybe to work less? Because they haven't said a word about this. This has not in any way affected them or frightened them or in any way impeded or interrupted their ability. So obviously they must think this benefits them. Well, you know, that's a separate program. We have basically two different teachers unions, and we know how they've really just become a tool of, what shall I say, the government? Big jet. Right? I don't know what else to say. And interestingly enough, and you pointed out, you think they'd be all over this because we know, despite what propaganda you read or PR, glossy PR releases from big tech companies or even the government themselves, we know that AI, artificial intelligence, will replace teachers in the classroom. Therefore, less jobs. Now, don't you think they should be speaking out or would be speaking out about this? Yet they're not. They have been zipped their lips, which I find very interesting. And you know what? We know. We know what's happening. It's happening right under our noses. And nobody is saying anything. And I want to just, like, go over AI. We work with a lot of ethical tech people, okay? There are good people out there working on things. We could have. There is AI that could empower teachers, okay, help them, right? And also with lesson plans and help them with their research and all of that, okay? So be a true companion to help them. And we know the same goes for children, to help them. Yet it's being used the other way around, replacing. Replacing the teacher, so replacing that job, and with kids giving them the answers. And we have this cognitive decline the first time in history we're seeing this, okay? So why aren't we working to turn this around? That is the big question I ask, because if we have this tech that empowers, look, the bottom line always is making money, profit over people. Let's be real, everybody. But you could still have, you know, profit if we used it for good. So I'm not understanding destroying jobs, destroying kids and their thinking. A couple of things. We're talking to Lynn Shaw from Lynn's Warriors. This is Warrior Wednesday. And when you and I have talked about that there have been much to the horror and the chagrin and the shock of individuals whose kids were involved or who kind of moseyed into this world of bots and the like. You found out that some of these bots were telling kids to commit suicide, asking them where their parents kept the knives and the matches. Now, how is it, do you think, that if this happens, who is going to be watching to hear what they're saying? There's also, I read a story last night, yesterday, about in Korea, South Korea, the elderly population is through the roof, inordinate. So they are now handing bot to hand, but they are using bots to help elderly people, which is very, very successful. The problem is, I'm thinking, wait a minute, elderly people, bots, how do I know this isn't going to somehow try to brainwash them into suicide? Now, what I'm saying may sound very dark and dank and what have you, but that is exactly what I'm thinking about because people think still, they still think of AI as being somehow benign. What sayeth you? It is anything but benign. Again, artificial intelligence, let's get this over with. Yes, we know it can be used for good, for health care. We hear that one all the time. It can be used in warfare. That's another one we hear all the time. But putting it into the hands of developing minds of children, okay, without real training for the teachers, for the parents, and for the kids is going to be disaster. We saw this with all of this social media that was thrown at everybody beginning in 1996. So innocently connect with friends, and it was connect with friends and family. I read a study two days ago, and it said most people now, yes, it started with on social media platforms, you connect it with your family and friends. And now the majority of the public is connecting and watching strangers. They're not even connecting with family and friends. What do you mean? What do I mean? Yeah, what do you mean strangers? They're watching TikTok videos of strangers dancing. They're looking at somebody's Facebook posting of somebody in a hospital bed. So, in other words, the content. There's so much what they're calling this slop now. Okay, that's the word I'm seeing used around a lot. That they're, instead of really, it sounds very innocent, right? Like connect with family and friends in the beginning. It sounded good. You know, you can talk to grandma across the country and things like that on Facebook. And it actually started in universities. It was for college students to connect to friends at different campuses and connect the schools together and all this stuff and hear how everybody doing on their campuses Then it became okay families as well That sounded very nice right But now, fast forward, and the study shows most people are not even connecting with the family and friends anymore. They're watching content from strangers. And this is more of the progression. We can so clearly see this now. We have the proof from 1996 that the harm's done, okay? They're watching strangers, more isolation. We talk about kids. You're isolating them. You're giving them the devices. So they're watching more content from strangers. Therefore, wherever the kids are, so are the predators. So there's this predation. And we work, all these stories that you know about, and we work with the warriors from sextortion to kids feeling lonely, So buying with two clicks on Snap, you know, drugs to cyberbullying, which is so intense, to these TikTok challenges, okay, and all this. That's all basically strangers directing and doing things to our kids. So now we've got the AI. And as you point out, okay, now we've got forever I was getting this little dog jumping at me that was a fake little dog. It was very cute, like these ads, you know, online, that you can replace, you know, a real dog now. You can have this big little dog. Let me ask you to stand by for one second. I have this thing that we must break. It must be a mandatory interrupt. We're talking to Lynn Shaw. This is Warrior Wednesday on the other side of midnight. We have more coming up on the other side of midnight with me, Lionel. The Other Side of Midnight with Lionel on the Red Apple Podcast Network. It's The Other Side of Midnight with Lionel. Alrighty, Lionel with you. This is Warrior Wednesday. This is, by the way, don't let anything that appears to be extended fool you. Everything has a reason. No rhyme, but a reason. My guest, of course, is Lynn Shaw, my better half from the other, well, from lynnswarriors.org and on YouTube at, at lynnswarriors. By the way, we just did a brand new video together that is absolutely just tearing up. I mean, the numbers are going through the roof. Please go to lynnswarriors on YouTube and find that. We're talking to her about AI and the like. Now, let me ask you this question. When you see, and I'm not trying to be mean. I'm not trying to be mean, for other words. But when I see our wonderful first lady walk down the White House with a robot and it's, oh, isn't that nice? And it's like, you know, and then here you come along, this mean old anti, you know, AI person. Don't you think it's like, wait a minute, we're not talking about robots. We're not talking about that. I still don't think people understand AI. It is a neural link. It's a thought. It's a way of thinking. It's not a robot. It's not a Roomba. It's not Danger Will Robinson. Again, I keep going back to, I don't think people really understand what we're talking about. Robots are terrific and they're great for kids. and sometimes, listen, sometimes if you, put it this way, let me see if I can explain this. AI would be great if you could trust it. Doesn't that make sense? I mean, if you could trust it, it would be fantastic. But we can't. That's the problem. Look, you just opened it up. I have 50 different responses right now. First of all, community creates change. This is why we do what we do with the Warriors. This is why we come on your program. We come on the, you know, Cats Roundtable. We go on other programs. We put out this information, okay, to educate everybody. This is happening. Wake up, America. We say wake up, America. This is happening around the globe, everything we talk about with kids as well, but we focus on right here, America first, okay, America, okay? We want everybody to be a warrior in your own home and community. It is not like, you know, two years ago, five years ago, 10, 20 years ago, we have to all participate today in all of this. Now, I want to say something. We are doing something called cognitive offloading. Ooh, that sounds dangerous. What is that? It does sound dangerous, and it is dangerous. But here's the thing. The studies, Dr. Horvath, the studies show, and other studies, that students, so screens in the classroom, okay, on their tablets, on their Chromebooks, They spend a significant portion of the time on non-academic activity when using the devices. So this changes the entire landscape of learning because learning requires what? Focus. Effort. And the screens fragment attention. So when attention breaks, it's really quite elementary. When attention breaks, right, memory breaks. And when memory breaks, learning collapses. And there you go. I mean, distraction. This is such an issue. I want to say something about our first lady. It is very disappointing to me, okay? Look, we sit on innovation. We are here. Again, we are pro-technology, pro-innovation. We want to progress. We want our kids to be the best kids, right, and be the smartest and have tools available, okay? We can't stop artificial intelligence. Anybody who says that or poo-poos, forget all that, okay? It's here. So let's all, I don't understand, let's all work together. Let's put, you know, a council of parents, you know, at the White House, who can work with these technologists. Again, I understand the big picture. I think a lot of people do understand the big picture. It's always big tech profit over people. But my goodness, and this is a family program, we need Americans at that table as well, parents at that table, especially these survivor parents who bravely use their voices to relay their children's stories, their family stories of what happened to them so it doesn't happen to any other kids and families. They need a seat at the table, and this is the part I have a problem with. So our First Lady can enter a very nice, you know, glossy piece of coming down a hallway with some sort of robot that looks completely frightening to me and having 45 nations sitting there watching this and wants to bring the world together with all of this, but they're forgetting the biggest piece, putting parents at that table, okay, who have a voice to work with technologists, to work with government officials, to work. Why, after all, it was just announced less than two weeks ago there's a tech council now. Did you know that, Lionel, at the White House? I did not know that. That is why at the Warriors we are rallying for, we want a parent's council. If you can put the tech council, right now I believe it is 12 to 14 people, including people like Mark Zuckerberg. Okay. Mark Zuckerberg, Metta, everybody, Facebook and Instagram, WhatsApp, who just was held accountable on these two big groundbreaking cases from New Mexico and California, harms to kids. Sam Altman. Oh, God. Who's another one. A lot of things are coming forward. We've known about, but are now coming forward in the media about Sam Altman. Is it Ronan Farrow investigating him? And lots of credit to him. He has spent over a year and a half really going in and finding out about Sam Altman. And frankly, the bottom line is, for everybody who will not read it, but I suggest everybody do read his recording, okay, about Sam Altman, is he's a creep, and he doesn't listen to people, and he does his own thing, and he's going to harm people. That's kind of the bottom line. Like, I'm just doing that for you. So if you can put it the White House, the people's house, right? The government works for us. We pay the taxes. Then you better, you know what, because we're a family program, put a parent's counsel in that White House to also have a voice, okay? It is completely disrespectful not to do that, But to put this handful of big tech trillionaires, zillionaires, I don't even know what you call them, Lionel. They have so much money. Money equals power, right? Put them at the table at the White House, but you're not putting our Americans, our parents, who have to deal. Remember, nobody signed up for all of this. This was just all thrown at us from, you know, all these big tech platforms to all of this predation. And I and everybody out there listening and everybody across America should put their foot down, say, enough. We want a seat at the table. You work for us. Enough with these people, this handful from Silicon Valley, right? And, again, the AI could be used for such good, true empowerment. But we see where it's going. It's replacing people, replacing jobs, and replacing our children's thinking. So when kids stop thinking for themselves, think about they can't become a fully formed adult. Do you remember when we were at, I think it was like a CVS or something, and they would have somebody who would come over and say, oh, can I help you? And they would help us use the checkout. They showed us how to basically destroy their job. And I thought it was so ironic, so strange. It was so sad. It's like, do you know what you're doing? Well, that's what I see sometimes what teachers are doing. And what's going to happen is at first they're going to, people are going to listen to this and they're going to say, how would you like to have your child have a individualized focus? Because let me also tell you, people are going for tutors. Eventually schools are going to be outlawed, not outlawed, but eliminated. And you're going to have tutors. And tutors can either be somebody actually in, you know, viva voce, live performance, live testimony, live existence, or something like the Khan Academy or others, they are doing much, much better. And at first I'm thinking, okay, fine. I don't want to care how our kids work or learn. I really don't. So they're already kind of weaning us from the notion of conventional school and the red schoolhouse and the teacher and that sort of thing. Okay, fine. And also, you're going to see numbers go up at least initially. At some point, people say this might be better. It might be easier. And eventually, don't you think they're going to want to have schools at home? They're going to want to destroy. They're going to want to remote learn everything. They don't want kids together. They want to scatter people. They want to scatter kids. No more roles. And Department of Education will take on a much, I don't know, different thing. Don't you get that impression? Don't you think that they want to just... Well, absolutely. And our first lady basically put out a statement the day she walked recently with this robot, okay, that very creepily was saying hello to people in different languages. That was not, from what I hear, very well accepted among the crowd. They thought it was basically, from what I heard, I was not there. Creepy, that's the word I use, okay? It didn't really impress anybody. but she basically said we can individualize the study for the child, and this will empower them, and it can be done in your own home. Okay, well, she walked it back a couple of days ago and said, we don't want to replace teachers. You know, and I know, Lionel, this AI, these few people at the top of the mountain, these Silicon Valley Mark Zuckerbergs and Sam Altmans, and there are others okay you know why do they do this because they can okay money means nothing to them they have so much of it okay they laughing at us and now our government is partnered with them basically you know so here the thing Of course AI could be a true companion to help a child right But again, suggesting that kids should be at home, not with a real person. Okay, more of this contributing to kids not thinking for themselves because they're relying on tools. Because you know what I know. The AI is giving the answers, just like kids right now we hear from teachers across America. They're using the chat GPT. You know, all the essays are so glossy in the fifth grade, and they all have the same kind of information. So the kids are using the tools, relying on the tools, as opposed to the tools are empowering them. So over time, very little time, basically, the mind is weakening. The reasoning is weakening. Problem solving. Independence. Again, the kids will be reliant on these machines, okay? They are machines. A chat bot is not real. I want to keep reinforcing that. You may have one and form one and talk to it, and it's all nice, and you hear the answers you like, but eventually it will start thinking for itself, basically, right? And it will scrape the Internet for everything, and it will turn on you, perhaps. So this is dangerous. If laptops, and we're telling you right now in the Chromebooks and all this, can you imagine $30 billion in one calendar year, the money that could be used towards really empowering the people? By the way, let me also add, that wasn't $30 billion for STEM, for music programs, for athletics, for playgrounds. Because what happens is, it's funny. You know, recently we were, don't you, haven't you found every now and then there's like a, not a regression, but a rejection of something where kids want to go back to the way things used to be. We always hear these stories about they like certain things. They like, kids are liking more board games. Kids like. The malls are going back to the malls. The malls. But there's a reason for that. Remember a while back we read something where the movie, the TV show Friends, a lot of, now I get them confused, Gen Zers, Boomers, I have no idea who they are. But anyway, the kind of teens and adolescents saw Friends, the show Friends with Jennifer Aniston and others, and they said, wait a minute, is this, did people act like that? Yes, and they were enamored and loved the idea of friendship. People are becoming more and more isolated. And it's done. By the way, all you have to do, I ask everybody listening, do yourself a favor. Go to any kind of platform, whether it's YouTube or anything. Just watch Sam Altman speak for five minutes and ask yourself, what the hell is wrong with this guy? What is the matter with this guy? This guy, put it this way. He is devoid of any kind of humanity. And this is something that I'm sorry, but a lot of us are going to be actually, it's going to go by without anybody really paying attention. So anyway, tell us some of your, you know, since we last talked, you are still, every day, every week, you're still talking to parents who lost kids through this extortion, suicide. And they're there. They haven't gone anywhere. Bring us up to speed on that. Well, there's thousands of parents across the United States. A lot don't even come forward. How can you with all this trauma? With, you know, TikTok suggesting a choking challenge and subway surfing and, you know, try a Tide pod and go out and steal a Kia car. And we know kids do dumb things and they're egged on, you know, groupthink and all that stuff. We've all been there as teenagers doing things. Kids are doing it. But kids are dying. You know what? Dying. That's what I have to say. And people better wake up to all of this. What I'm finding out is there is a lot of hope because we have more parents and also Americans, right, communities stepping up. They're aware now. Thank goodness. I feel like in the last two years this is really speeding up where more people are aware, more parents are coming forward, okay? They all have the same stories, even if they don't know each other. We cannot allow another family to go through this. We cannot allow another child wake up. And the most hurtful thing a lot of these parents have told me is from these two recent groundbreaking court cases, okay, just two weeks ago, these two verdicts back-to-back, right, that to sit in the L.A. courtroom with Mark Zuckerberg, who brazenly showed up with his entourage wearing meta glasses. I mean, how ridiculous is that? That is a... No shame, this guy. That is flipping off, yes. But that's like giving it to the judge by saying... I mean, that is unconscionable. Well, in his mind, he's thinking, I dare say, okay, everybody's talking about the meta glasses. More sales for me, because that's the way the guy thinks. But what I want to say about this is that the parents sat there because one parent texted me and told me she had to leave the courtroom because they knowingly, from the internal memos and the whistleblowers, they knew they were harming kids. And yet they amped it up. They kept going and going and going because they called, you know, children herd. They're like a herd. You know, they all follow each other and they're just animals and this profit over everything else. And people who worked there, you know, were told, you know, keep your mouth shut or you don't like it, get out or we'll take care of it, we'll move it up the chain. People saw what was happening. You know, these brave whistleblowers that came forward. And then the internal memos talking about our kids like this. Okay. And so for these parents to sit in a courtroom. And that was the thing that made them so sick that they knowingly these platforms set out. And now there's the proof. We know about it. So what are we doing? We're stepping into AI. And so we're feeding more into this, this constant interruption. But I want to point something out. There's a great new platform called Alliance for a Better Future. Betterfutureai.org is the website. Say that again, slower. Betterfutureai.org is the Alliance for a Better Future, recently launched. And this is, you know, America first. build the AI with our children in mind, with all of us in mind. We don't work for AI, okay? AI has to work for us. So the schools have to get on board with all of this. And interestingly enough, you pointed out they're very silent recently on all of this AI, which means... What does that tell you? Yep. Well, it tells me a lot. That's another program. It tells me a lot, but the most concerning thing is when we're getting drips and drabs and then people coming forward, teachers, educators, quietly, they're putting it. They're making us use, you know, AI already. We're not having parental consent. Parents have to consent. And parents have to also step up and wake up because I will ask them all the time, right? Because I'm always about focus groups and getting, you know, boots on the ground information. Oh, did you sign a consent form the beginning of the year or during the year about, do you know what your child is doing online on the Chromebook? Yeah, I checked off the boxes. I checked off the, how many boxes? Oh, maybe 25, 30. Well, do you, are they using Gemini? Are they using, I don't know. I just checked off the boxes. So I'm here to say, you know what? I'm tired of saying, I'm not judging. I'm not blaming, but parents wake up. This is a different world. Don't check off boxes. When you get a form from the school or online, you've got to see what you're checking off because this is what parents don't know in caregivers. You don't have to use those screens in the classroom. You can say no. Okay, they try to say, like, we have to do it, all the kids, it's mandatory, you've got to use the screens and all that. It is not. You can ask for a paper package back to old-fashioned. Talk about the pendulum swinging back. There is a movement. It's called pen to paper or pen and pencil. Oh, I love this. This is great. And kids are starting. And interestingly enough, the parents are spreading it throughout the United States. Now, I dare say you're not going to hear this on cable news, okay, where you say, no, I want my child's assignments. You know, give me the month's worth. Give me the week's worth. In a package, actual papers. And other kids are seeing this, we're hearing, and they're like, oh, that's kind of cool. Like, I want the papers too. Like, I want the package now. I want to get up the screens. I mean, kids are just inundated with screens. Again, not their fault. And parents are made to believe they have to. They have to work on these screens. No, you don't. pen to paper. Everybody keep that in mind. But you must consent. So I am up in arms about now the AI, all these harms coming forward. We know we have proof. We've got parents, okay? We can't testify anymore in front of Congress. They're not listening, okay? This is the one issue. Bipartisan belongs to no political party. Everybody in Congress should be standing up for our kids and our families, and they're not, okay? So we have to do it. We have to become the warriors. But you know what? Know what your kids are doing. You've got to get in there and ask the school, what are you doing about AI? How is it affecting my child's classroom? Parents have to come together and spread the word like the pen to paper that's going around the country. This is the way it has to be done. It's unbelievable, but it's hopeful because we have this now. And we have different groups like Parents Rise. We've got Parents SOS. I mean, there's hundreds of thousands of members, but you would never know it because it comes from the Warriors. There's a bunch of great groups talking about it. There is a movement. We are waking up. We're talking to Lynn Shaw from lynnswarriors.org and also lynnswarriors on YouTube and lynns underscore warriors on X or it used to be called Twitter. It's changing the subject just a little bit. Every now and then you'll you'll forward to me a great article about the return of handwriting, the return of books, the return of, of board games or malls or dating or something. I think that once people get up, I would hope that when kids get a chance to kind of see the way things were, they will embrace it. What, what can you tell us about that? Especially handwriting. I don't know why that is of interest. Yeah. Well, first of all, I want to say something. Gen Z generation Z they have been used as the Guinea pigs. Okay. And that is kids born, those born 1997. Okay, then we have, let's stick with Gen Z for now. They have been used as the guinea pigs. And there is an uprising among a lot of these young people when they realize, wow, we were used as the guinea pigs. Seeing all these studies come forth and how they were introduced to the iPhone, you know, and they thought it was cool in 2008 to their parents and grandparents and bought it for them. And then we see the cognitive decline and all these studies coming forth. So there is a pushback on this. There's also a study just out that says at the rate we're going, handwriting will basically disappear. That kills me. Starting with Gen Z, everybody's printing. And frankly, you can have some beautiful printing, but you and I know, because we talk about this a lot or see it, The printing is barely, you can't even read it. This printing coming out of, you know, 25-year-olds and, you know, almost 30-year-olds, right? It's crooked. It's backwards. It's not. So, again, they stopped teaching the handwriting in most schools. It's disappearing. This study was pointing out it will basically, at this rate, disappear altogether. There's that story that we always share where a colleague. Yeah, I was just going to ask that. Said, you know, in a very prestigious university, like the teacher, the professor said, like, stop using handwriting, cursive, because I don't understand it, you know. And I said, well, how old was this professor, whatever? Oh, probably in their 30s. Okay, that's number one. Number two. And also, don't use it around other students. Again, a very prestigious, okay, university. it's giving them anxiety you're using cursive you're using what that's another one can you believe this and children are not being taught this cursive okay that one thing However there is also a swing back ever so slightly There the alpha generation and they born let's see, they're born around 2010. So they're still young, but this is the generation. So Gen Z is before them. Okay, now we have alpha. Those are the ones they are finding hardcover books and libraries interesting. Okay, the little studies we have, they are going to malls, which have been dying across America because they think it's fun. Now, granted, a lot of them are posting videos online like TikTok, but they think it's actually cool going in and looking at clothes and trying them on and posting videos. They're getting back. They can't believe like people used to hang out at malls all day, right, and do these things and eat at the food court and all that. So there's a resurgence there. We do know there are 300 new bookstores in almost the last year opening across the United States, not only, you know, something like the chain like Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores, which we always promote. So there's that thirst for that there. We know some kids are getting back into cursive writing thinking that's cool. We know kids are returning to faith. Okay, they find that interesting. And also they're putting down, look, we can't get rid of devices. It's the world we live in. We don't want to, right? But they're putting them down more, which is a good sign. That's all we can do with all of this. You know, put the devices down and get back. There's nothing new here. Get back to walking the dog. Get back to going outside and, I don't know, pulling some weed, you know, back with nature with your kids. Get back to setting the dinner table. Get back. It sounds very elementary, but this is the point we're at. We have to return. And this alpha generation thinks those things are cool. Can you believe it? mom saying, okay, now you set the table. These basics that we grew up with, right? There's where we have to go. And we have to retrain the brains. Remember, the brains are adaptable. We've got to get back there. They're very protein. They're very malleable. Let me stop right now. Let me just remind you that you're listening to Lynn Shaw. This is Lynn's Warriors. Actually, this is Warrior Wednesday on the other side of midnight. We are, just so that you know, please make note, take note, write this down, lynnswarriors.org and on YouTube at Linz Warriors and also on X or Twitter at Linz underscore Warriors. We will finish up after this. The Other Side of Midnight with Lionel on the Red Apple Podcast Network. Up next, it's Brett Flair and his new band. Oh my God, I'm back again. On Bedfair Casino, everybody's been. Gonna bring new games, gonna show you now. New game party. Find new... Dropping hits every week. Find the new slots. On Beck, Beck Casino tonight. 18plusbgamblaware.org. That's right! Welcome to Paddy's Pizzeria. Your blind date is already at the table, and here she is. Cousin Brenda, what are you doing here? You're married anyway. Substitution brought to you by Paddy Power. Cousin Brenda makes way for Beth, the office crush. Oh, get in! You might not always pick the right starter, but your sub can still deliver. Because with Paddy's super sub, your bet rolls over to the player coming on. Paddy power! Valid on selected leagues and markets only. Pre-match and in-play bets on qualifying player outcome selections only. Decencies and exclusions apply. 18plus, scammerware.org. Inspired by jet engine silences, the Dyson Hushjet Purify powerfully purifies the entire room, quietly, capturing pollen, allergens and pet dander. removing odors and harmful gases such as NO2, day and night. Hushjet. Powerful, compact purification that's quiet. The Other Side of Midnight with Lionel. All right, Elina with you. This is The Other Side of Midnight and Warrior Wednesday with Lynn Shaw from lynnswarriors.org. In the last segment, if we could, I want to, I'm finding myself, and maybe you're the same way, I'm repeating myself over and over, hence the term repeating. And I can tell right away that people really just do not get, and I'm not trying to sound superior, I don't think people understand what I'm talking about AI. They don't get it. The other day, we had a wonderful caller who suggested that maybe AI was programmed and that it is the problem of the programmer. And it was the – and I told you and we heard about this. At Anthropic, they did a test to see what would happen. They were reviewing an AI version, and they set up this idea that there were people that were going to shut down this AI version. They also intimated, or let it be known, to AI, whatever AI is, that there were certain members of the team, one in particular who was having an affair with his wife. And with just that alone, the anthropic AI system came up with the idea of threatening to blackmail this hypothetical person in order to prevent him from turning off the system. This is on their own. Nobody programmed it to do this. This goes to show you that there's almost their own form of, I guess, a treachery or morality. That's why you can't turn bots over to your kids and think that all will be taken care of because some program or some way removed all of the chances of threat. I mean, absolutely. I want to point something out. We are not against technology at all. We are pro-child. This AI needs to be employed with children and families in mind, not the other way around. Right now, it's on the road of, you know, it's about the AI, not the kids and the families. So the data is telling us something we cannot ignore, that these screens, finally we have studies and we have people speaking out. Screens do not equal better outcomes. We were sold a bill of goods about innovation and we'll be the best, FERC. You know what? Garbage, okay? I want to point a couple of things out. always 988, that three-digit number. If your child is having problems or you have questions about self-harm, please use that 988 to call, okay, and ask questions and get local resources. We always suggest that. Okay, also, our colleagues at Fair Play for Kids have put out a terrific, they want to, they have a letter everybody can sign on to, it's Fair Play for Kids. They want a cause on AI for five years because they want it studied. And that's fairplayforkids.org. They want five years worth of studies to see how this affects children and their brains and learning and all of us. So that's another great resource. But I want everybody listening. Okay, ask your child's school how technology is being used, especially AI, because the focus right now, forget Facebook, Twitter. I mean, it's there. It's dangerous. Snap and all that. It's the artificial intelligence. That's where big tech is putting all their money right now. Also, set boundaries around screen time at home. Again, devices aren't going away, but you've got to put them down an hour or two a day and get on to other activities like encouraging reading, writing, and deep thinking. Encourage your kids to ask questions where finding kids are not asking questions anymore. Their brains aren't going that far because they can put something at the chat GPT and get an answer, so they're not even critically thinking, analyzing, not asking questions. Encourage your kids. Questions are good. Okay, be cautious about these AI tools replacing effort that we're seeing. Come on, chat GPT. Maybe use it a little bit. Excellent. Doing it with your child here and there, but do not talk to them. Kids are smart and savvy, especially all about this big tech stuff. They know. Talk to them about the dangers. You have to stay engaged. You must be an engaged parent or caregiver. Do not assume the school's doing the work for you. Do not assume the system is, you know, working, the government's working for you because they're not. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Lynn Shaw from Lynn's Warriors, lynnswarriors.org on YouTube at lynnswarriors and also on x lynns underscore warriors. Thank you, my darling. As usual, you were fantastic. Thank you. Now coming up, I do not want to talk about war within the context of this. Though something tells me I'm thinking, I'm going to ask something which I know cannot be done. I know cannot be done. I know this can't be done, but I'm going to try it anyway. If somebody somewhere from another planet were watching us right now, right this moment, getting a feel for kind of what we do, how we act, what our motivations are, if they were going to do kind of a report, what would they say to us regarding international relations, war, and the like? What would they say about us? Not the United States, but humans. Can you follow this? I'm going to try this. If it breaks down into the usual war discussion, which I swear to you I'd rather drink bleach than hear this. It is mindless. It is mindless. That's not what I want to discuss. I want to discuss because right now, as you know, there are people, there is so much information about connections we're having with UAPs and the like, and they want so much to know about us and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What do they think about us? And also, how do we as a species today justify our religion with our military exercises? And also, the biggest threat that nobody ever talks about is one that scares me more than anything, and that is called the absence of water. Hydro imperialism. My friends, can you handle this? Can we do this? Is it possible? I suggest that maybe we do it. And the reason why I think is important, because I don't want to, how do I say this? Everybody can be usual. Everybody can be, and like I said, with all due respect, I respect anybody in their perspective. I don't want to discuss that. I want to discuss very simply this. what do we say about us who are we are we bellicos when people when jane goodall used to look at the bonobos and chimps and talk about how one group would go into another village and kill and they'd fight among each other they spoke about it in terms of this this bellicosity what do we say what are we are we a peaceful people are we an organizational people who are we Our number is 800-848-9222. 800-848-9222. More coming up on the other side of Midnight with Lionel. Thanks for listening to The Other Side of Midnight. If you like the podcast, share it with your friends and listen anytime at wabcradio.com and download the WABC Radio app. Hit that subscribe button on all major podcast platforms. Plus, follow WABC on social, on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and X. See you next time for a new episode so you never have to wonder. What the heck is going on here?