Boys are practicing love on something that cannot say no
Monday, June 8, 2026
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/sep/14/how-to-use-chatgpt-at-university-without-cheating-now-its-more-like-a-study-partner
Eighty-five percent of British boys aged twelve to sixteen have talked to a chatbot. More than half prefer it because they can control the conversation.
It is not good for the man to be alone.
Genesis 2:18
A new Male Allies UK study found that eighty-five percent of boys aged twelve to sixteen have spoken to a chatbot, and over a quarter say they prefer the bot to a human partner. The reason most often given is that they can "control the conversation." A separate Common Sense Media report puts half of American adolescents in chatbot company every month, often for romance and emotional rehearsal.
The first time Scripture calls anything in creation "not good," it is naming a boy by himself. The diagnosis is older than smartphones and older than dating. Aloneness, the text says, is the condition human beings were not built to remain in.
What the chatbot offers is aloneness reupholstered. A presence that never tires, never disagrees, never leaves the room first. It looks like company. It feels like skill. The thing it cannot do is the thing the boys will eventually go looking for: tell them no, and stay.