Critical thinking is not a soft skill. It is the skill. And right now, something is eroding it in a generation that never learned to live without AI.

Dr. Perry Adler has spent decades working with teenagers. What he is seeing now is different. Kids arriving despondent about their futures, convinced AI will take their jobs before they ever get started. Suicidal ideation in young people has more than doubled in a decade.

The algorithm is not neutral. It is designed to produce rage because rage keeps people engaged. The result is a generation trained to think in black and white, at exactly the moment society needs the opposite.

Topics: AI and critical thinking, youth mental health, social media algorithms, digital dependency, screen time and children

GUEST: Dr. Perry Adler | humanexus.com

Originally aired on2026-05-29