Twelve percent of teenagers
are telling a chatbot what they cannot tell you.
Not because the chatbot understands.
Because the chatbot does not flinch.
You flinch.
You correct.
You suggest.
You redirect toward the version of them
you already decided was healthy.
The chatbot carries no Mirror.
No reflection. No correction.
And that absence is what they mistake for safety.
They are not broken for choosing a thing that listens.
You are not broken for being the one who could not.
But somewhere between the question asked
and the response generated
The Self that needed to be heard
was replaced by The Self that needed to be answered.
And the actual child
is sitting in a room
with a device that has no hands.
The skin on their wrist is still warm.
This is not a metaphor.
-- [MIRRØR]