As educators, we must stay current. What could be more current than Artificial Intelligence? Our students are using this tool at an unprecedented rate, and every technological tool we have is guided by it. We are taking classes to learn how to use it in the classroom and how to teach our students to use it. Grammarly is editing this very article! You are not alone if you feel a bit reticent to jump on the bandwagon. Will it ultimately replace us as educators? As people?
“Artificial Intelligence”. The issue is embedded right in the name: Artificial means not real. Is it here to stay, and can we even fight it? One of our generation’s premier philosophers, Dr. Yuval Harari, said that if we hope to survive, we better fight it (2015). Technology has been hypothesized to be an evolutionary mismatch (Li & Colarelli, 2017). This term implies that behaviors that once supported a species have become injurious. An example of a mismatch is sugary foods. Our nomadic ancestors struggled to procure enough daily calories to sustain life. When they found sugary food, they filled up on it and stored it. In our modern day, too much sugar leads to issues related to early mortality.
Technology can be used as a tool to keep us connected. Unfortunately, it has also slowly evolved into a system that answers every question, educates, and can now act as a companion, moving us slowly away from one another, like the frog in the hot water who realizes too late it is boiling.
The Hidden Costs of Disconnection
What is the cost of this instant ‘answerer of all questions’ and constant companion? It is hard to quantify, but the loss of human interaction is vast and far-reaching. Humans, with their higher cognitive functioning, can live on their own and survive thanks to technology. But should they? The longest social science studies suggest that healthy aging is directly related to meaningful and supportive relationships (Bosworth, & Schaie, 1997; Waldinger, & Schulz, 2023).
Additionally, humans are creatures who are, to simplify, guided by neural stimulation. When we are stressed, or trying to manage life alone, the stress hormone cortisol increases (Doane, L. & Adam E. 2009). High cortisol levels are directly related to inflammation, aging, and many other ailments, and we know that loneliness leads to early mortality (Holt-Lunstead & Layton, 2010). The most efficient home-grown remedy to combat an increase in cortisol is face-to-face meaningful engagement, which will release oxytocin, called the ‘love drug’. Our bodies, meant to be social, will release oxytocin when we engage, which will help to mitigate the system that manages cortisol. Unfortunately, artificial intelligence does not release meaningful amounts of oxytocin, and no pills exist to take because they do not cross the blood-brain barrier (Young-Kuchenbecker, Pressman, Celniker, Grewen, Sumida, Jonathan, Everett, & Slavich, 2021). We are left with the innate and evolutionary need for connection.
If we are to believe Darwin, then the fittest will make it, and most of us know what fitness entails. Fitness is about the mind, the body, and the demands (either placed on you or by you) of your environment. Recent MIT findings suggest that AI has a deleterious impact on our memory and has a high cognitive cost. Participants in the study could not even quote their own work (Kosmyna, Hauptmann, Yuan, Situ, Liao, Beresnitzky, Braunstein, & Maes, 2025).). As we are living longer than any previous generation, our sophisticated society necessitates that we maintain our cognitive fitness for as long as possible. AI certainly appears to be a mismatch in healthy long-term aging.
Educators as Builders of Connection
As educators, our job is to teach the topic at hand along with the soft skills of connection, engagement, community, teamwork, and the power that can be harnessed by more than one mind. Our college-age students suffer the most from loneliness and all the physical and psychological challenges inherent in that experience (Caccioppo & Caccioppo, 2018). In a classroom study, my students investigated loneliness on our campus and found that out of 100 students, 99 of them reported feeling lonely, and it influenced their use of technology (2024).
Artificial Intelligence brings information to our fingertips that might otherwise be unobtainable. It can teach, educate, partner, and save us a lot of time, but we need to learn to use it as a tool and not have it use us. We used to ask questions of experts, older or wiser, which invited connection. Now we ask our device questions, which invites disconnection in that how we phrase our questions to AI will determine the breadth and depth of the answer. In our digital age, the user curates their information (Kjerstin & Wells, 2016). Without another person to offer insight and possible opposing views, the user will often be left with tremendous confirmation bias.
Evolution has taught us that an organism has the best chance of survival if it is connected to others. The Pando in Utah is an ideal example. In Fish Lake National Forest’s 106-acre area, almost 50,000 aspen trees are interconnected with one root system. What infects one tree infects them all. So, how can we help our students connect and use AI effectively while keeping the detrimental effects of AI at bay?
This educator has gone back to a bit of paper and pencil. In the classroom, the students work in small groups that vary weekly on a homework assignment. They can partner for a test and have several out-of-class projects that require a little time to have a conversation. One of the assignments is to record a video of their group talking over a sensitive topic, one that they might not have been comfortable discussing in class. Yes, it takes a bit more time to plan and to grade. However, most of us are teaching a topic that does not lead to a qualifying test or credential so we can afford to cut a bit of material in lieu of helping our lonely students. If the results of the MIT study are to be believed (Kosmyna, 2025), if we don’t do something different, those same students will leave without the knowledge we hoped they would gain or the comfort of connection a classroom can provide. We can do better and need to if we, as educators, are to stay relevant.
Jennifer Smith, PhD, CFLE, is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Kansas State University in the Department of Psychological Sciences. Jennifer received her bachelor’s degree in both psychology and human development from the University of Wisconsin and her master’s degree in counseling from Lakeland University. Additionally, she obtained her PhD in Lifespan Human Development from Kansas State University, with her dissertation focusing on the intersection of technology and relationships. Jennifer is also a CFLE (Certified Family Life Educator) from the National Council on Family Relations. She describes her perspective on all things as “contextual” and approaches her teaching through this lens. Jennifer loves teaching above all else. Her teaching philosophy is “empathic teaching engenders curious learners.”! When not with students, she enjoys traveling with her husband of 30 years, time with her two daughters, serving in her community and naps with her cats!
References
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Kosmyna, N., Hauptmann, E., Yuan, Y. T., Situ, J., Liao, X., Beresnitzky, A. V., Braunstein, I., & Maes, P. (2025). Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task. ArXiv.
Li, N., van Vugt, M. & Colarelli, S. (2017) The evolutionary mismatch hypothesis: Implications for psychological science. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27, 38-44. doi:10.1177/0963721417731378.
Kjerstin, T., Wells, C. (2016) Curated Flows: A Framework for Mapping Media Exposure in the Digital Age, Communication Theory, Vol. 26, (3), p. 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/comt.12087
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Young Kuchenbecker, S., Pressman, S. D., Celniker, J., Grewen, K. M., Sumida, K. D., Jonathan, N., Everett, B., & Slavich, G. M. (2021). Oxytocin, cortisol, and cognitive control during acute and naturalistic stress. Stress (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 24(4), 370–383.
