End the Phone-Based Childhood Now
Article

End the Phone-Based Childhood Now

The environment in which kids grow up today is hostile to human development.

Jonathan Haidt
The Atlantic, 2024
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For decades, psychologists have studied the effects of new technologies on the human mind. Now, as the first generation of “digital natives” reaches adulthood, research shows that carrying the internet around in your pocket does come at a cost — and the price is highest for young people. In an unsettling essay, social psychologist and ethicist Jonathan Haidt makes a devastating case for limiting young people’s access to smartphones and social media. His suggestions to break out of the phone-based traps sound feasible, yet going up against a billion-dollar industry might not be so simple after all.

Summary

Gen Z is different from earlier generations: more anxious, more depressed, and lonelier.

Generation Z — people born in and after 1996 — suffers higher levels of anxiety, depression, and related disorders than any previous generation. Adolescents’ mental health took a nosedive in the 2010s when rates of depression and anxiety in the United States rose by more than 50%. Friendlessness and feelings of loneliness increased, and suicide rates grew dramatically, especially for girls aged 10-14.

Similar patterns emerged in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries; academic performance also declined globally. As gen Z people enter adulthood, they date less, have less interest in having children, and struggle more with employment and moving into independence. Research shows that gen Z is more risk-averse and less ambitious than previous generations, possibly explaining the current scarcity of young entrepreneurs.

Research suggests that smartphones cause severe harm to young people’s mental health, resilience, and psychosocial development.

Since the 1980s, children have lost much of earlier generations’ freedom to play, ...

About the Author

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist known for his research on moral psychology. He teaches ethical leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business and is the author of The Righteous Mind and The Coddling of the American Mind.

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