Technology & media
Social media, artificial intelligence, privacy and human connection.
Should Schools Ban Cellphones? Weighing Focus Against Digital Skills
An argument for restricting personal cellphone use during lessons while preserving instructional, practical, and emergency access—and for judging policy by its effects rather than assuming a ban solves every problem.
Why an AI Chatbot's Confident Answer May Still Need Checking
A fluent answer can sound authoritative without showing how its claims are supported. This essay explains how to distinguish presentation from evidence, using U.S. examples in teen chatbot use, child privacy, and vehicle safety.
Does More AI Use Mean More Trust in AI?
An explanatory essay distinguishes how often people use AI from how much they trust it, using Pew Research Center’s survey of U.S. teens and NHTSA’s descriptions of driver-assistance systems to show what adoption can—and cannot—tell us.
Why AI Literacy Should Include Knowing When Not to Use AI
AI literacy is not simply the ability to operate a tool. It includes judging whether a task suits AI, weighing the consequences of errors, and verifying outputs—or choosing not to use AI when people, privacy, or safety require a different approach.
Technology, Efficiency, and Leisure Time: GRE Issue Essay
An argumentative essay weighing when efficiency can create usable leisure against other benefits and costs of technological progress, using historical examples and a clearly identified hypothetical case.
Should Social Media Challenges Be Banned? Balancing Safety and Choice
An argument for restricting challenge posts that promote credible risks while preserving harmless participation and combining clear rules with education.
Artificial Intelligence in Everyday American Life: Benefits and Risks
An explanatory essay distinguishing AI’s useful assistance from reliable judgment, using U.S. teen chatbot adoption, NIST’s voluntary risk-management framework, and NHTSA’s driver-assistance examples to examine benefits, risks, and limits.
Digital Connection and Real-World Belonging Can Support Each Other
An evidence-based explanation of how online contact can strengthen relationships while remaining an incomplete substitute for meaningful social connection.
Who Should Be Responsible for AI Mistakes?
An evidence-based argument that responsibility for AI mistakes should be shared but assigned according to each party’s control, knowledge, and ability to reduce risk.
How Should Families Discuss Teenagers' Use of AI Chatbots?
An explanatory essay arguing that families should make practical agreements about chatbot verification, privacy, schoolwork and well-being, while distinguishing reported adoption from evidence about individual experiences.
How Should Organizations Evaluate an AI Tool Before Using It?
A developed explanatory essay argues that organizations should evaluate AI tools against defined purposes and affected users, test them in realistic conditions, and manage risk throughout deployment rather than treating a successful demonstration as proof of safety.
Does Technology Reduce or Improve Human Connection?
An argumentative essay takes the position that technology can both weaken and strengthen human connection, depending on whether people use it to replace attention and in-person engagement or to support meaningful communication and action.