The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
by Jonathan Haidt
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16:38
Author informs about childhood mental health crisis
381K
8K
May, 2024
Spoiler:
The author says that children born after about 1995 began to exhibit mental health issues, including self-harm and suicide, around 2010 for two reasons. One is the loss of the play-based childhood, in which children simply played with their friends outdoors after school with no supervision, learning how to resolve conflict in a natural way. The second is the arrival of the phone-based childhood. The adolescent brain is still in progress, rewiring itself into what will be the adult brain, and lacks the ability to accurately assess risk and make sound decisions such as limiting screen time.
9:14
CBS chats with author, shows footage and slides
111K
2K
Mar, 2024
Spoiler:
Jonathan Haidt asserts that while we have overprotected our children in the real world, depriving them of play-based childhoods, we have underprotected them online. While today’s parents were allowed to venture out on their own and to simply play with friends outside starting around age 6-8, they have kept their own kids under total supervision for years longer, creating incompetent, anxious children. Add to that a smartphone in the hands of someone whose brain is still forming, and the result is a childhood mental health crisis.
6:45
Morning Joe hosts author via video call + slides
35K
645
Mar, 2024
Spoiler:
The author says that although some problems, like schools shootings, are unique to the U.S., the only thing that can explain the synchronized, international collapse in the mental health of young people (especially girls) is the major reason he cites in his book: that childhood got “rewired” between 2010 and 2015 by the inundation of smartphones in the hands of young people. He proposes four norms: no smartphone until high school, no social media until age 16, phone-free schools, and much more independence, free play, and responsibility for children.
68:39
Moderated presentation plus slides and Q&A
25K
427
Apr, 2024
Spoiler:
While a free-market system offers many benefits, the author asserts that capitalism at its best gives opportunities to get rich by making other people’s lives better. However, companies like Meta are raking in money at the expense of the mental health of our young people. Haidt proposes no social media (which he calls “an experience blocker”) before age 16 and calls on schools, parents, and Big Tech to act collectively to make this happen. He says that children do not need digital tools for networking, while they do need free play.
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