Questões de Inglês - Vocabulary - Science and Technology

Social Issues and Problems That Trouble Today's Teens

Technology and social media can amplify the struggles teens face, but they aren't the only issues they encounter.

By Amy Morin, LCSW

[1] Teens today face unique social challenges due to rapid physical and brain development, compounded by technological 
advancements. Digital communication and social media have transformed peer and romantic interactions, potentially impairing 
interpersonal skills, such as recognizing social cues. The extensive use of electronic devices, averaging over eight hours daily, 
contributes to this issue. Nonetheless, not all teen social problems are technology-related. Teens also grapple with risks such as 
[5] drug overdose, unsafe sexual practices, and heightened academic pressures. These combined factors create a complex social 
landscape that differs significantly from that of previous generations. Some other social issues involved in this process affecting 
teens today include peer pressure and depression. 

Peer Pressure and wrong options: While peer pressure has affected teens for generations, social media brings it to a 
whole new level. Sexting, for example, is a major cause for concern. Many teens don't understand the lifelong consequences that 
[10] sharing explicit photos can have. But sending inappropriate photos isn't the only thing kids are coerced into doing. Teens face 
pressure to have sex, use drugs or alcohol, and even bully others. […] 

Depression:  According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), an estimated 5 million adolescents in the U.S. have 
had at least one major depressive episode. That means 20% of American teenagers may experience depression before reaching 
adulthood. […] 
[15] Spending too much time on electronic devices may be preventing young people from in-person activities with their peers, such 
as sports or other physical activities, that can help ward off depression. They're also experiencing new conditions like "fear of 
missing out", which further leads to feelings of loneliness and isolation.  

How to Talk to them 
Bringing up any difficult subjects with a teen can feel uncomfortable. A teen isn't likely to respond well to a lengthy lecture or too 
[20] many direct questions. However, having a conversation about these troubles isn't something to shy away from. Even when it 
seems like they're not listening, parents are the most influential people in a teen's life. It's important to lay a strong foundation 
before the window of opportunity closes. A good way to strike up a conversation about drugs, sex, vaping, or other uncomfortable 
situations is to ask a question like, "Do you think this is a big issue at your school?" It's necessary to listen to what the teen has 
to say. Not to be judgmental, but to make expectations and opinions clear. The teen must understand that certain behaviors are 
[25] not condoned and that there are consequences for breaking the rules. That said, it is also important to communicate that if they 
do make a poor choice, it is not the end of the world and that conversation is always the best option. 

Retrieved and adapted from https://www.parents.com/problems-for-teens-today-8575462. Access on September 19th, 2024

 The argument for the existence of life in different places in the universe can lead to endless and aimless (but fascinating) speculation. Why assume that aliens so far advanced technologically are still bound by the chains of aging bodies? As we see our own technology advancing, and our minds becoming ever more entangled with digital devices, we can envision a kind of transhuman future whereby our mind’s essence, what we (loosely) identify with our inner self and memories, becomes immaterial, soullike, tethered to reality through information alone. In his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke speculated that aliens would have broken away from carbon-based and robotic machine structures so “that the mind would eventually free itself from matter (…) and if there is anything beyond that, its name could only be God.”

 This is where astrotheology begins, as we envision aliens as the techno-version of godlike creatures, with the obvious subtext that one day we are going to get there too. So, not only is their technology magic to us, but their very existence becomes equivalent to a supernatural presence — omniscient, omnipresent, and undetectable by our feeble human senses and machines. Such aliens are indistinguishable from gods inhabiting the heavenly realm, being as elusive as countless deities have been throughout human history. They exist only in that intangible dimension of faith.

Marcelo Gleiser. The dawn of a mindful universe: a manifesto for humanity’s future. HarperOne, San Francisco (CA) (adapted).

Title: How AI Can Help People with Disabilities Top AI Tools for People With Disabilities

We’re happy to report there are too many AI tools for people with disabilities to show off at once. We like these options because they target several areas of need.

• ChatGPT: Uses AI to scan sources on the web and generate responses based on your request.

• Microsoft Seeing AI: Uses AI to describe people, text, and objects. This program can read printed text in real-time, identify currency, and recognize friends and their emotions. Use your phone to scan barcodes, read text, and more.

• Voiceitt: Designed for people with non standard speech. Voiceitt uses AI to learn and adapt to your speech patterns so you can communicate easily.

• WheelMap: Uses AI to map and share information about wheelchair-accessible spaces.

• Predictable: Uses AI to predict text and phrases, which helps people with conditions like ALS or cerebral palsy communicate.

Want to learn more about tools for adults with disabilities? You’ve come to the right place.

NeuroNav is your source for tips and insights that make a difference. Check out the rest of our disability resources for more information, or learn how we help California Self-Determination Program participants access different forms of support.

Disponível em: https://neuronav.org/. Acesso em: 26 mar. 2025.

        Artificial intelligence is set to transform mental health services

      Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal, Meera Narasimhan, Mary V. Seeman and Haitham Jahrami

¹ In the aftermath of the global COVID-19 crisis, the need for mental health services has risen sharply throughout the world. This surge has resulted in most jurisdictions having insufficient mental health resources to address the increased demand. Consequently, many mental illnesses go undiagnosed or receive inaccurate diagnoses. When untreated or undertreated, these dysfunctions worsen, causing increasing distress, raising treatment costs, reducing productivity, and, too often, resulting in loss of life.

² Thankfully, artificial intelligence (AI) has come to the rescue, using computational tools and algorithms to assist with individual diagnosis and refine psychiatric diagnostic categories. In the intricate art of pattern recognition, AI far surpasses humans, whose attempts in the field of mental health have often fallen short of expectations. AI has the potential to turn this situation around. Currently, telephone- and internet-based chatbots assist with access to needed information, support, and guidance, offering non-judgmental, unbiased, and personalized care using algorithms analogous to psychotherapeutic skills such as empathy, patience, humor, and positive feedback. By utilizing big data from anonymized patient medical records, social media posts, blogs, and surveys, AI can easily arrive at working diagnoses at early stages of a disorder, reducing treatment costs and improving prognosis.

³ Dynamic therapeutic resources such as virtual reality (VR) tools and natural language processing (NLP) strategies are AI specialties. These tools may, in the future, yield significant benefits for the delivery of psychiatric services. For example, they could enable individualized personal therapy and a variety of other psychiatric interventions tailored to the needs of individual patients. Additionally, as has already been shown in Alzheimer's disease, AI reading of brain scans will improve diagnostic accuracy. With diagnostic precision comes the effective management of currently unresponsive psychiatric conditions.

⁴ AI can enhance many aspects of mental health care. The list of possibilities is long. AI can contribute to the early detection of mental disorders, refine diagnostic categories, improve the accuracy of diagnosis, personalize treatment plans, recognize risks, and predict outcomes. It can also provide remote support and monitoring, expand treatment access and affordability, and facilitate data-driven interventions. AI may substantially improve mental healthcare delivery by analyzing patient health information (PHI) such as laboratory results, interpreting imaging data, and capturing electronic health record (EHR) information to detect real-time data (RTD) trends, patterns, and problems. Beyond capturing data, AI can classify it, track progress and retrogression, and recommend treatment changes. AI algorithms can forecast probable events and provide actionable recommendations for effective triage and the prevention of tragic outcomes.

⁵ AI may prove extremely useful in self-assessment and self-management by equipping patients with tools to automate daily routines and manage distressing features of chronic or recurrent disorders. While more evidence-based studies are awaited, AI is already expanding access to mental health care. However, challenges such as ethical quandaries, privacy threats, robotic care, potential bias, inability to adapt to patient context, increasing dependence on technology, and the possibility of error must be acknowledged. The lack of regulatory frameworks and the need for ongoing oversight are also significant concerns to ensure AI applications in mental health are safe, effective, and equitable.

⁶ An obvious problem of implementation is that few mental health personnel are trained in AI technology, making it vital that training be mandatory, and providers be incentivized to keep up with technological advances. Psychologists and psychiatrists must stay current in this fast-moving field to ensure individuals receive the best care possible, integrating modern technology into psychiatric training and continuing education. While it remains unclear whether AI will be adopted in mental healthcare delivery, its presence and expansion are unquestionable. Understanding the trends, gaps, opportunities, challenges, and weaknesses of AI is essential as rules, guidelines, standards, policies, and regulatory frameworks evolve and scale upwards, requiring mental health practitioners to be ready.

PANDI-PERUMAL, Seithikurippu R. et al. Artificial intelligence is set to transform mental health services. CNS spectrums, v. 29, n. 3, p. 155-157, 2024. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1092852923002456. Acesso em: 30 jul. 2024. Adaptado.

        Artificial intelligence is set to transform mental health services

      Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal, Meera Narasimhan, Mary V. Seeman and Haitham Jahrami

¹ In the aftermath of the global COVID-19 crisis, the need for mental health services has risen sharply throughout the world. This surge has resulted in most jurisdictions having insufficient mental health resources to address the increased demand. Consequently, many mental illnesses go undiagnosed or receive inaccurate diagnoses. When untreated or undertreated, these dysfunctions worsen, causing increasing distress, raising treatment costs, reducing productivity, and, too often, resulting in loss of life.

² Thankfully, artificial intelligence (AI) has come to the rescue, using computational tools and algorithms to assist with individual diagnosis and refine psychiatric diagnostic categories. In the intricate art of pattern recognition, AI far surpasses humans, whose attempts in the field of mental health have often fallen short of expectations. AI has the potential to turn this situation around. Currently, telephone- and internet-based chatbots assist with access to needed information, support, and guidance, offering non-judgmental, unbiased, and personalized care using algorithms analogous to psychotherapeutic skills such as empathy, patience, humor, and positive feedback. By utilizing big data from anonymized patient medical records, social media posts, blogs, and surveys, AI can easily arrive at working diagnoses at early stages of a disorder, reducing treatment costs and improving prognosis.

³ Dynamic therapeutic resources such as virtual reality (VR) tools and natural language processing (NLP) strategies are AI specialties. These tools may, in the future, yield significant benefits for the delivery of psychiatric services. For example, they could enable individualized personal therapy and a variety of other psychiatric interventions tailored to the needs of individual patients. Additionally, as has already been shown in Alzheimer's disease, AI reading of brain scans will improve diagnostic accuracy. With diagnostic precision comes the effective management of currently unresponsive psychiatric conditions.

⁴ AI can enhance many aspects of mental health care. The list of possibilities is long. AI can contribute to the early detection of mental disorders, refine diagnostic categories, improve the accuracy of diagnosis, personalize treatment plans, recognize risks, and predict outcomes. It can also provide remote support and monitoring, expand treatment access and affordability, and facilitate data-driven interventions. AI may substantially improve mental healthcare delivery by analyzing patient health information (PHI) such as laboratory results, interpreting imaging data, and capturing electronic health record (EHR) information to detect real-time data (RTD) trends, patterns, and problems. Beyond capturing data, AI can classify it, track progress and retrogression, and recommend treatment changes. AI algorithms can forecast probable events and provide actionable recommendations for effective triage and the prevention of tragic outcomes.

⁵ AI may prove extremely useful in self-assessment and self-management by equipping patients with tools to automate daily routines and manage distressing features of chronic or recurrent disorders. While more evidence-based studies are awaited, AI is already expanding access to mental health care. However, challenges such as ethical quandaries, privacy threats, robotic care, potential bias, inability to adapt to patient context, increasing dependence on technology, and the possibility of error must be acknowledged. The lack of regulatory frameworks and the need for ongoing oversight are also significant concerns to ensure AI applications in mental health are safe, effective, and equitable.

⁶ An obvious problem of implementation is that few mental health personnel are trained in AI technology, making it vital that training be mandatory, and providers be incentivized to keep up with technological advances. Psychologists and psychiatrists must stay current in this fast-moving field to ensure individuals receive the best care possible, integrating modern technology into psychiatric training and continuing education. While it remains unclear whether AI will be adopted in mental healthcare delivery, its presence and expansion are unquestionable. Understanding the trends, gaps, opportunities, challenges, and weaknesses of AI is essential as rules, guidelines, standards, policies, and regulatory frameworks evolve and scale upwards, requiring mental health practitioners to be ready.

PANDI-PERUMAL, Seithikurippu R. et al. Artificial intelligence is set to transform mental health services. CNS spectrums, v. 29, n. 3, p. 155-157, 2024. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1092852923002456. Acesso em: 30 jul. 2024. Adaptado.

        Artificial intelligence is set to transform mental health services

      Seithikurippu R. Pandi-Perumal, Meera Narasimhan, Mary V. Seeman and Haitham Jahrami

¹ In the aftermath of the global COVID-19 crisis, the need for mental health services has risen sharply throughout the world. This surge has resulted in most jurisdictions having insufficient mental health resources to address the increased demand. Consequently, many mental illnesses go undiagnosed or receive inaccurate diagnoses. When untreated or undertreated, these dysfunctions worsen, causing increasing distress, raising treatment costs, reducing productivity, and, too often, resulting in loss of life.

² Thankfully, artificial intelligence (AI) has come to the rescue, using computational tools and algorithms to assist with individual diagnosis and refine psychiatric diagnostic categories. In the intricate art of pattern recognition, AI far surpasses humans, whose attempts in the field of mental health have often fallen short of expectations. AI has the potential to turn this situation around. Currently, telephone- and internet-based chatbots assist with access to needed information, support, and guidance, offering non-judgmental, unbiased, and personalized care using algorithms analogous to psychotherapeutic skills such as empathy, patience, humor, and positive feedback. By utilizing big data from anonymized patient medical records, social media posts, blogs, and surveys, AI can easily arrive at working diagnoses at early stages of a disorder, reducing treatment costs and improving prognosis.

³ Dynamic therapeutic resources such as virtual reality (VR) tools and natural language processing (NLP) strategies are AI specialties. These tools may, in the future, yield significant benefits for the delivery of psychiatric services. For example, they could enable individualized personal therapy and a variety of other psychiatric interventions tailored to the needs of individual patients. Additionally, as has already been shown in Alzheimer's disease, AI reading of brain scans will improve diagnostic accuracy. With diagnostic precision comes the effective management of currently unresponsive psychiatric conditions.

⁴ AI can enhance many aspects of mental health care. The list of possibilities is long. AI can contribute to the early detection of mental disorders, refine diagnostic categories, improve the accuracy of diagnosis, personalize treatment plans, recognize risks, and predict outcomes. It can also provide remote support and monitoring, expand treatment access and affordability, and facilitate data-driven interventions. AI may substantially improve mental healthcare delivery by analyzing patient health information (PHI) such as laboratory results, interpreting imaging data, and capturing electronic health record (EHR) information to detect real-time data (RTD) trends, patterns, and problems. Beyond capturing data, AI can classify it, track progress and retrogression, and recommend treatment changes. AI algorithms can forecast probable events and provide actionable recommendations for effective triage and the prevention of tragic outcomes.

⁵ AI may prove extremely useful in self-assessment and self-management by equipping patients with tools to automate daily routines and manage distressing features of chronic or recurrent disorders. While more evidence-based studies are awaited, AI is already expanding access to mental health care. However, challenges such as ethical quandaries, privacy threats, robotic care, potential bias, inability to adapt to patient context, increasing dependence on technology, and the possibility of error must be acknowledged. The lack of regulatory frameworks and the need for ongoing oversight are also significant concerns to ensure AI applications in mental health are safe, effective, and equitable.

⁶ An obvious problem of implementation is that few mental health personnel are trained in AI technology, making it vital that training be mandatory, and providers be incentivized to keep up with technological advances. Psychologists and psychiatrists must stay current in this fast-moving field to ensure individuals receive the best care possible, integrating modern technology into psychiatric training and continuing education. While it remains unclear whether AI will be adopted in mental healthcare delivery, its presence and expansion are unquestionable. Understanding the trends, gaps, opportunities, challenges, and weaknesses of AI is essential as rules, guidelines, standards, policies, and regulatory frameworks evolve and scale upwards, requiring mental health practitioners to be ready.

PANDI-PERUMAL, Seithikurippu R. et al. Artificial intelligence is set to transform mental health services. CNS spectrums, v. 29, n. 3, p. 155-157, 2024. Disponível em: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1092852923002456. Acesso em: 30 jul. 2024. Adaptado.