Eckhart TolleNYT Bestselling author of the Power of Now

The Hidden Cost of Screen Time

3 Sept 2026 · 1 min

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1:17

In this brief talk, Eckhart Tolle warns that excessive use of digital devices—and now artificial intelligence—drains vital personal energy, lowers emotional and mental vibrational frequencies, and can lead to depression, unhappiness, and loss of the true self. He notes that many turn to medical prescriptions, but the more effective remedy is to consciously put away devices, a task made difficult by addiction. Tolle frames the challenge of living with pervasive technology as a massive, collective issue for humanity that requires disciplined effort and awareness to avoid being lost in the digital "Matrix."

Chapters

These young people spend hours on their devices, thereby suffering a leakage of vital energy, and then obviously vibrational frequency is lowered, both emotional and mental, and they feel depressed. And then they go to a doctor and then they get some prescription. A more helpful thing would be to put away the device, but that was very difficult once you're addicted. One of the great challenges of our time is how to live with that technology. An enormous challenge. With the additional challenge of AI having come in, we have first these devices and now we have AI. Don't lose yourself in the digital world, in the Matrix. Don't lose yourself Because that will lead to depression, it will lead to unhappiness, it will lead to loss of self, the real self. So that requires a certain amount of discipline, and that's the collective challenge that humanity faces now.