The Hidden Psychological Cost of Our Tech Obsession — A Cyberpsychologist Explains | Dr Elaine Kasket

Technology is doing something to us. Not just to our productivity or our sleep — but to our relationships, our identity, our capacity for genuine human connection. And most of us are only just beginning to understand the scale of it.

In this episode of The Health Review I sit down with Dr Elaine Kasket — chartered counselling psychologist, cyberpsychologist, author of Reset: Rethinking Your Digital World for a Happier Life and one of the world's leading experts on how technology reshapes our inner lives. Elaine has spent two decades at the intersection of psychology and technology and brings something genuinely rare to this conversation — the clinical depth to understand what is happening to us psychologically and the intellectual honesty to say it clearly.

This is one of those conversations that makes you want to put your phone down the moment it's over.

We cover:

How technology is deliberately designed to manipulate our behaviour and push us toward specific usage patterns — and why knowing that isn't enough to change it

Why we have developed a genuine psychological dependency on our devices

The concept of attentional infidelity — being physically present with someone while mentally elsewhere — and what it costs our closest relationships

Why a genuine relationship with AI is not possible — the absence of reciprocity and what that means for the millions of people forming emotional bonds with AI companions

The fundamental human needs that technology exploits — to be seen, to feel important, to know that our thoughts and feelings matter to someone

What research shows happens to infants when a parent's attention is captured by a phone — and why it matters more than we realise

Why serving others remains one of the most powerful sources of meaning and happiness — and how technology quietly erodes our capacity for that

This episode is for you if:

You've ever felt uneasy about your relationship with your phone but haven't been able to articulate why. You're curious about what AI relationships actually mean for human connection. Or you simply want to understand what technology is really doing to the people you love.

About Dr Elaine Kasket:

Dr Elaine Kasket is a chartered counselling psychologist, cyberpsychologist and author of Reset: Rethinking Your Digital World for a Happier Life and All the Ghosts in the Machine. She is a visiting professor at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath and has spent two decades exploring how technology reshapes wellbeing, relationships, work and identity. She appears regularly on the BBC, CNN, ITV and beyond.

This episode is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your own clinician before making changes to your health.

Topics: cyberpsychology | technology and relationships | AI relationships | attentional infidelity | screen time | digital dependency | phone addiction | human connection | AI companions | technology and mental health | digital wellbeing | Elaine Kasket | Reset book | technology psychology | social media psychology | phone and relationships | AI and loneliness | digital identity | technology manipulation | human needs | meaning and purpose

Dr Kasket's website: https://www.elainekasket.com/ Follow The Health Review: https://www.instagram.com/the.health.review/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.