Bible News Prophecy, October 4, 2026

Bible News Prophecy with Dr Bob Thiel Continuing Church of God 65 Superglue Screens, Digital Casinos, and the Armor of God Dr Bob Thiel and co-host Steve Dupuis examine an NPR report on four design features that keep people glued to phones and apps, comparing them with video slot machines. Thiel links the trend to Bible warnings about Satan's natural-seeming ways and closes with Ephesians 6 counsel. Phones, Apps, and an NPR Headline Steve Dupuis opens the Bible News Prophecy program with a common observation: people in restaurants, on nature walks, and at sporting events have their noses in their cell phones. Dr. Bob Thiel agrees that mobile phones have benefits but says many people are at least semi-addicted to them. He reads from an NPR headline that describes four features that superglue kids and adults to screens. Thiel notes that two landmark cases found social media companies liable for harming children, and that Meta and Google want to appeal, disputing that their products are addictive. He then turns to the research of cultural anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll of New York University, who pioneered work in this field. Thiel says the article's central comparison involves the casino industry, which sets up the next part of the conversation. Digital Casinos and Video Slot Machines Dupuis suggests that Meta and Google should simply admit that heavy use was the goal of their development departments, then asks how the apps connect to digital gambling. Thiel explains that the NPR article ties the design to video slot machines, which the casino industry gradually and purposely created in the 1980s and 1990s as what many scientists consider the most addictive form of gambling. He quotes the article's description of machines that can play for twenty-four or even forty-eight hours straight, with some players reportedly wearing adult diapers so they never have to stop gambling to use the restroom. Dupuis responds that this is sad and worse than drugs, and asks what the addiction actually consists of. Thiel answers that Schüll's research identified four key features that, combined, hold people on gambling devices and produce a trancelike state the article calls the machine zone or dark flow, in which people lose track of time and place. Four Ingredients That Hold People Thiel works through the article's four ingredients, which together form what it calls a superglue on apps. The first is solitude. Schüll says that when the relationship is just between a person and the machine, the social cues for stopping disappear. The second is bottomlessness, with videos on TikTok and YouTube and comments and photos on Instagram appearing automatically in seemingly endless supply. Schüll says there is no natural stopping point, so people never feel finished or satisfied. The third is speed, which Schüll connects to the gambling industry's research and to social media and video streaming, where faster scrolling makes it harder to pull away. The fourth is teasing, which neuroscientist Jonathan D. Morrow of the University of Michigan calls perhaps the most important. He explains that apps use AI to learn what a user hopes to find, then withhold the exact reward and offer something close, and a few clicks later something even closer. Isaiah 55 and a Surgeon General Warning Dupuis remarks that every search on his computer or phone brings up things he is almost looking for, and Thiel agrees the teasing feature shows up often in apps. Thiel says the same teasing principle drives gambling and pornography, which people spend large amounts of money on. He cites Isaiah 55:2, which asks why people spend their wages on what does not satisfy. Thiel adds that pornography was basically the major initial funding for the commercial internet, and that excessive social media use brings other problems as well. He then recalls a 2023 report from the US Surgeon General on teens and social media, which the office put out as a public statement calling for attention to an urgent public health issue. Thiel summarizes its finding that concerns about the effect of social media on youth's mental health are growing, while noting that the report did not look at everything and that its recommendations include things adults can do. Algorithms, Bubbles, and Satan's Natural Ways Dupuis asks whether the court rulings and the Surgeon General's call have finally addressed the risk. Thiel answers that despite the rulings, the concern remains, pointing to a second article headlined Social Media Algorithms Are Becoming Increasingly Dangerous. He reads its warning that algorithms are shaping how people communicate and behave, then quotes a first-person account of anxiety when an unanswered phone buzzes. Thiel mentions a Columbia University study finding that engagement-based algorithms amplify emotionally charged and opposing content, and quotes Jose Marichal of California Lutheran University on scrolling as a reward that frees people from boredom. Dupuis then