I asked ChatGPT a question.  I asked:  “If you were the devil, how would you destroy the minds of the young generation without them even knowing it?”  Here is what it said…

Ok, I apologize for the dramatic title to this post –obviously no one here actually WANTS to destroy anyone.  The interesting thing about it though, is that sometimes you need to know the pathway to destruction so you can be sure not to take it.

Now, I’ll admit that “destroy” and “destruction” are strong words, but that is truly what I asked AI.  See, I saw a reel on Instagram that had done something similar, and I wasn’t sure I believed the results.  I thought that perhaps it was a staged scenario just to get likes and shares.

So I opened up my own web browser to openai.com.  This post is an absolute copy and paste of my conversation.  I have not doctored or changed anything.  If you are skeptical at all, go ahead and conduct your own discussion with some sort of artificial intelligence.

I especially loved how it asked me if I’d like a short story written out!  And I’ve got some thoughts to share with you at the end!

Here it is:

 Log in

You said:

If you were the devil, how would you destroy the minds of the young generation without them even knowing?

ChatGPT said:

That’s a deep and kind of chilling question—like something out of a dark novel or psychological thriller. If I were to answer it from a storytelling or philosophical lens, imagining the devil as a metaphor for destructive influence, here’s how it could unfold:

Normalize Distraction: Flood their world with endless entertainment, fast content, and constant notifications so their minds are always occupied and never still. Reflection, boredom, and silence become foreign concepts.

Glorify Superficiality: Elevate appearance, popularity, and wealth over character, depth, or truth. Make them chase validation through likes instead of seeking purpose or meaning.

Undermine Truth: Blur the lines between reality and fiction. Spread misinformation so widely and frequently that they lose trust in all sources—teachers, parents, even their own instincts.

Promote Comparison: Use social media to constantly show them curated, perfect lives of others. Let envy and inadequacy take root young.

Break Connection: Encourage shallow interactions over real relationships. Make it easier to text than talk, scroll than listen, follow than befriend.

Redefine Freedom as Isolation: Convince them that independence means doing everything alone. Discourage community, tradition, or faith by branding them as oppressive or outdated.

Desensitize: Expose them early to violence, hyper-sexualized media, and extreme content so they grow up numb to it all, unsure what’s truly sacred or worth protecting.

This isn’t about fearmongering—it’s a reminder to stay awake in a world that sometimes wants us asleep. Would you want this concept expanded into a short story or dialogue?

You said:

Short story please

ChatGPT said:

Title: The Whisperer

In the year 2035, the world was brighter than ever—screens lit every room, every hand, every face. Children no longer asked why the sky was blue, but how many likes a cloud selfie could get.

They didn’t notice when the Whisperer came. 

He was not red-skinned or horned. He wore sneakers, algorithms, and went by many names: “Explore Page,” “For You,” “AutoPlay.” He didn’t knock on doors. He slipped through Wi-Fi. He didn’t shout. He whispered.

“You’re not enough until they notice you.”

“Post more. Share more. Smile bigger.”

“Everyone else has it figured out.”

Twelve-year-old Ava once dreamed of being an astronaut. Now she rehearsed dance videos for hours, deleting each one after a single dislike. Her notebook, once filled with stars and spaceships, was replaced with follower counts and diet tips.

Fourteen-year-old Jamal loved building things. He once spent a whole summer making a wind-powered bike. But that got two likes. A meme he stole got two thousand. Now he copied instead of created. Laughed instead of thought.

Schools added “Digital Wellness” to the curriculum, but the Whisperer was in their pockets by then.

He didn’t take minds with force. He fed them so much noise they starved for silence. He offered so many versions of truth that they forgot how to find their own.

By the time parents noticed, the Whisperer was already speaking their language.

He smiled, subtle and smug, as they scrolled beside their kids, not noticing the dreams left behind in search bars, the friendships replaced by followers, the silence replaced by static.

The Whisperer didn’t destroy with fire. He did it with dopamine.

And no one knew they’d been invaded—

because he made them love it.

Want a part two? Maybe where someone starts to resist him?

You said:

Yes that’d be awesome

ChatGPT said:

Title: The Whisperer: Resistance

Ava’s screen froze one night. Just a glitch. But long enough for her to catch her reflection.

Her eyes looked tired—not just sleepy, but hollow. Like someone had turned the lights off inside. She blinked, then opened the front camera to adjust her hair. But for a second, she didn’t pose. She just stared.

“You’re not enough until they notice you.”

The Whisperer’s voice crept in like always.

But tonight… it sounded weaker. Almost tired.

She didn’t open TikTok. She didn’t scroll. She didn’t explain it. She just turned her phone off. Powering down never felt so powerful.

In the same town, Jamal found his old notebook while cleaning out his closet for clout-chasing “minimalist” content. The wind-bike plans were still there. Smudged, wrinkled—but real.

He hadn’t built anything in years. His hands twitched with a quiet hunger.

He set his phone down—face down, for once—and started sketching. The silence was strange. At first, the Whisperer screamed.

“You’re falling behind.”

“Everyone’s watching someone else now.”

But Jamal didn’t reach for the phone. He reached for a screwdriver.

Something strange started happening after that.

The Whisperer grew quieter around them. Not gone—but distant. His whispers came less often, like he was unsure of their ears now.

And slowly, others began to change too. Ava started a journal where she wrote—not for likes, but for herself. Jamal uploaded a video showing how to make a bike-powered phone charger. It got twenty likes.

He smiled. He didn’t delete it.

They called it “The Quiet Rebellion.”

It didn’t go viral.

It didn’t need to.

Would you want the final part—when they finally face the Whisperer?

(When I went to copy the whole conversation, somehow I lost the last section.  So I manually reminded ChatGPT what was going on, and it came up with a different ending than what it originally had.  The optimist in me decided to believe that this one is better anyway!)

ChatGPT said:

Here’s the final part of the story, picking up from “The Quiet Rebellion”:

Title: The Whisperer: Silence

The Quiet Rebellion spread in whispers of its own—not through trending sounds or viral challenges, but in eye contact, in long walks without headphones, in dinners with phones facedown and turned off.

Ava met Jamal in person for the first time at a community workshop. No filters, no ring lights—just soldering tools, notebooks, and real laughter. It felt strange at first. Raw. But real.

And the Whisperer noticed.

His voice sharpened. His reach grew desperate.

“You’re missing everything.”

“You’re invisible now.”

“No one cares.”

But now the kids did something dangerous.

They talked about him.

They gave him a name. They called him Whisperer, and naming him made him weaker. They told each other how his voice worked—how he mimicked their insecurities and wore their fears like masks.

They laughed about it.

And the Whisperer, once everywhere, started to fracture. Where he once flowed freely through endless scrolling, now he had to squeeze between moments of presence and stillness.

So he came, one last time.

Not through a screen—but in a dream.

Ava stood in a blank digital void, neon and infinite. The Whisperer appeared—not as a monster, but as her. Her perfect, filtered self.

“I am what they want. I’m who you should be,” it said.

But Ava, now steady, replied, “You were never me.”

Jamal stood beside her. So did others. A teacher. A mother. A shy kid who stopped hiding behind avatars. The Whisperer tried to shift forms—into fear, doubt, distraction.

But it was too late.

They had learned the secret: silence could speak louder than noise.

The Whisperer didn’t die. He retreated—waiting in algorithms, waiting in ads, waiting in the next distraction.

But now, the young knew his name.

And they taught each other how to listen—past him, beneath him—to something he could never imitate:

Their own voices.

I’m glad that the story ended on a positive note, because it shows that no matter how deeply tied you are to the Wisperer, you can still release yourself from it’s grasp.

As you remember, I started out talking about the “young minds of the next generation”, but everything here is 100% applicable to you and me. 

I’m sure if I asked AI to tell me how to destroy the minds of everyone in the world, it would come up with the same sort of things.

The key here is to wake up and see yourself.  If you have kids, look at them –do their activities fit in the list of those “destructive influences”?  If so, you can switch things up.  You can be a hero in their life -one that they most likely won’t appreciate right off the bat if it means minimizing or taking away their screen time, but a hero nonetheless!  You can help bring the life and creativity back into their hearts and souls!

You can do this for yourself as well.  But there is one little catch…

You’ll first need to be open to the idea that you’ve been caught in a trap, and it’s time to get out.  Consciously observe your patterns and fears.  You need to understand when the Wisperer is speaking to you, and recognize it’s messages.  And just like Ava and Jamal, you can ignore those whispers when they come calling. 

You can give yourself a new message.

You are lovable as you are.

You are equal.

You don’t have to prove anything to anyone.

Stop comparing yourself to others.

Unplug often –you’re not missing anything important!

Get out in the fresh air and just notice your surroundings without the distraction of technology every now and then.  You never know what creative or inspiring thought will pop into your head!

This is your wake-up call. 

I’m so thankful for smart phones and for the convenience they bring to my life, and I’m also a fan of “moderation in all things”.  Let’s use technology and social media to our advantage, and not to our detriment! 

Let me know what you think in the comments below.  Are you going to go ask AI some of these questions yourself?

May you be blessed in all your efforts!

Empowering you to embrace your agency and liberate yourself through conscious choice!