Cell Phone Couples Counselling

May 14, 2026 · 0 Comments

by BROCK WEIR

I didn’t see the point of it at first, but, for reasons I couldn’t quite rationalize, I certainly wanted to be a part of it. Maybe it was the exclusivity of it all.

There are few things more intriguing than what’s behind a closed door when you can see shadows behind it milling about through some frosted glass.

When that door opens, you’re inevitably going to have that rush of “FINALLY!” or that gut-sinking feeling of, “That’s it? That’s what all the fuss was about?”

It seems like a distant memory now, but, once upon a time, such was the level of intrigue over the new online platform known as Facebook.

When the platform itself first hit my radar as a university student, it was almost exclusively for that particular demographic. But it wasn’t open to just any university student – much like the early days of the also-now-ubiquitous Gmail, one had to be invited to join by an existing user before you could see what was going on behind the proverbial curtain.

It took a while to get that highly-anticipated invitation to see what all the fuss was about, and I’m afraid I was in the “That’s it?” crowd.

As it was a mostly student-driven platform at the time, most of the people I’d even consider connecting with were those I invariably saw in person at some point every week. The impact of almost pre-historic status updates like “Joe Q. Public is…” and picking something like “hungry” as the blank-filler from a drop-down menu was minimal at best when you were sitting across the cafeteria table form Joe himself.

My interest waned pretty quickly.

It took a couple of years for my interest to become piqued again when the platform was opened up wider and one could then stay in much closer touch with further-flung friends and family, find others with shared interest, and see communities of these interests spring up – and many of these communities gradually became what their name suggests.

But, for every positive, there has been a negative, and this has proven true not just with Facebook, but in just about every platform that was emerged in the last couple of decades.

As connected as we have become virtually, it seems some are becoming more and more disconnected from our common reality.

In recent months, I have watched with no small degree of alarm as an acquaintance borne out of those online communities introduced their significant other to the group – only for it to become clearer and clearer in time that this “significant other” was the other side of their preferred AI chatbot.

While I’m happy that this person has found a way to stave off loneliness, if that is what they were indeed feeling, it has become concerning that the clear line between reality, fantasy, and wherever something like this falls, has become ever more blurred.

Maybe I was right in my first instinct to become a committed social media luddite, but I don’t discount the value these tools and platforms bring to our society if they are used right and with full knowledge of how they can impact our lives.

I’m sure teachers, administrators and others in our education system might be nostalgic for the days when such platforms and outlets were invite-only and their impact could be rather contained – particularly when jurisdictions here at home and abroad consider wider-ranging social media and AI bans in the classroom.

Late last month, the Province of Manitoba announced it would take their cell phone ban in classrooms, first put in place in 2024, to the next level in banning youth from using social media and AI chatbots, citing the “harmful” effects these platforms and programs have on those who use them.

In a CBC report on Manitoba’s progression on the file, they cite Premier Wab Kinew’s concern with the “addiction to the infinite scroll” and its impact on anxiety, depression, and other mental health indicators, as a reason to move forward.

Manitoba’s move comes as the Federal Government considers following Australia’s lead in a country-wide ban on the same for users aged 16 and under. This development follows two non-binding motions passed at the Liberal Party of Canada’s convention this past spring, which has caught the attention of party members in power – and amongst the opposition.

While some important questions have been raised over enforcement of keeping youth from finding ways around a ban, they have stressed the importance of making sure legislation is comprehensive and done right.

“The government’s response to companies behind AI chatbots – tools that simulate human conversation – is being closely monitored in the wake of the Tumbler Ridge, B.C. mass shooting,” the CBC reported last month. “Open AI decided against flagging concerning messages the shooter had exchanged with ChatGBT months earlier.

“[Minister of Canadian Culture and Identity Marc] Miller says a moratorium on social media and AI chatbots ‘could be an important layer’ as government looks to resurrect part of its online harms legislation, ‘but has to be seen as that and not as an answer to everything.’

“‘The politics…of it are convenient, but the policy has to be right,’ said Miller.”

But is an outright ban the right policy?

The devil will be in the details.

Early results from Australia seem promising, and Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra said such measures are being explored in this Province as well – building upon their ban on cell phones in the classrooms issued in 2024.

“I think the evidence is becoming more and more clear that cellphone use in our schools – elementary and secondary schools – anywhere on site has become a problem,” said Calandra via the CBC.

It certainly has become a problem, there’s no arguing that. And, in the case of these AI chatbots, it’s become far more than just a “problem,” but is a ban really the next logical step?

To my mind, a blanket ban represents an opportunity that is in danger of being missed.

Is cellphone use in schools, in and of itself, the problem? Or, is the problem cellphone use that is unfettered and unguided?

While I am not an educator myself, it appears to me that a major issue at the heart of it all is lack of instruction and education on how to use these ubiquitous devices, and all the bells and whistles they and app-makers offer, to their best and safest advantage.

If used correctly, these devices have tremendous power to enhance the learning experience, point users in – and I can’t stress this enough – the right direction to learn more and enhance their lessons, and explore new horizons.

But it takes a collective effort – of teachers, parents, caregivers, and guardians alike – to equip youth with all-important critical thinking skills to suss out good resources from bad, and be able to separate the wheat from the chaff – or, in the parlance of Artificial Intelligence, the real from the “slop.”

A ban would certainly have its benefits, but, before it’s put into place, all the good must be weighed with the bad – and an outright ban, to my mind, seems like a reactionary step that avoids the heavy lifting that could reap benefits.