What phone fasting can do for you.

Via Kottke.org (photo removed version of article here)

A group of students at a New Mexico college (mostly) gave up their phones & computers for a week. What did they learn? “Most students said they had gotten to know themselves better without their phones butting in all day long.”

There’s no doubt “phone fasting” has its benefits, even though it’s really impossible today with many services being digitized with no alternative, such as student laundry machines that run on an app.

I noticed the same thing when I used to do prison dawah. Inmates were not on drugs or alcohol, and the mental clarity is what allowed them to think and let their fitra lead them to the straight path.

It’s crazy that we spend so much of our time looking down at our devices, when Allah subhana wata'aalah constantly reminds us to look up at the sky to witness His signs:

Have they not then looked at the sky above them: how We built it and adorned it ˹with stars˺, leaving it flawless?

Surah Qaf (50:6)

Grok makes nearly nude photos of women without their permission - future implications.

The Guardian (pdf file of article):

Grok has come under fire from lawmakers and regulators worldwide after it emerged it had been used to virtually undress images of women and children, and show them in compromising sexualised positions. The widespread sexual abuse consists of X users asking Grok to manipulate pictures of fully clothed women to put them in bikinis, on their knees, and cover them in what looks like semen.

“I felt horrified, I felt violated, especially seeing my toddler’s backpack in the back of it,” St Clair said of an image in which she has been put into a bikini, turned around and bent over.

“It’s another tool of harassment. Consent is the whole issue. People are saying, well, it’s just a bikini, it’s not explicit. But it is a sexual offence to non-consensually undress a child.”

I wonder if this is the first time 1st generation Muslim parents in the West are aware of this issue? Unfortunately, this is nothing compared to some of the more vulgar apps and websites out there. The worst part? The more this type of behavior becomes normalized, the more likely it is for women (yes, even Muslim women) to say, “well if people are going to nudify me, I might as well get paid for it.”

Haramblur.

Cool extension a family member referred me to. Works for a majority of browsers and Android devices. Blurs Islamically inappropriate content.

Love the innovation in the Muslim AI space. Check it out.

The drug cascade that is becoming the norm in children.

From The Wall Street Journal (paywalled link; Apple News+link):

“The best scientific evidence suggests that it is very rare for two or more medications in kids to be helpful and there are concerns about safety, because there can be additive adverse effects of different types of medications,” said Dr. Javeed Sukhera, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and chair of psychiatry at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut.

A child on several medications at once often hasn’t had a comprehensive evaluation by a child psychiatrist, Sukhera said. Stimulants can cause side effects that can be mistaken for an additional disorder. “When a young person shows up with anxiety after starting a stimulant, that doesn’t mean that they have an anxiety disorder,” he said.

Many adults say that ADHD medications vastly improved their lives, and some scientific studies show that medicating reduces risk of other potential problems such as juvenile delinquency and subsequent mental-health disorders.

Still, side effects of the ADHD medications on young children can be severe and unpredictable, sometimes pushing parents to accept additional pills to address them.

All too often, under pressure from preschools and elementary schools, many parents seek help from pediatricians or psychiatric nurse practitioners—who frequently lack in-depth training in pediatric mental health—rather than wait months or even years for appointments with behavioral specialists or child psychiatrists.

Alexandra Perez, a clinical psychologist at Emory University School of Medicine who works with young children on Medicaid and private insurance, said she has seen children as young as 4 on multiple psychiatric medications. Many have experienced adversity or trauma and have behavioral problems as a result that get labeled as ADHD, said Perez, who practices Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), a method that has been proven to reduce behavioral difficulties associated with ADHD.

“Children are quickly diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medication,” she said. “That doesn’t tackle the root causes. We are putting the Band-Aid of medication on, a temporary fix.”

So much more to unpack here, but the best form of therapy really is more time spent with parents who take an active role in being present with their children. This is especially true for mothers who have been tricked into thinking that parenting and being a stay-at-home mom isn’t worth anything, when Islamically and even from other religious perspectives, it is the most important and honorable act a woman can do - raising future generations of humanity.

One of my favorite brothers also uses an iPhone Air.

He’s not politically correct, but who is these days? Anyway Gabriel Al Romaani talks female narcissism in this specific video, and when he addresses the female selfie craze, he busts out an iPhone Air, which was refreshing to see, Allahumma baarik.

Great minds think alike.