Changes in our children’s lives do not come with a full-blast announcement. The seeds of a mental health crisis in the young can be traced to the early 2010s: the emergence of the virtual world on phones in the hands of children.
According to Jonathan Haidt, an internationally praised social psychologist, the result has substituted play for “a great rewiring,” with alarming consequences.
He writes:
The result was a new “phone-based childhood,” which altered the developmental pathways of children and adolescents, bringing them minimal benefits while reducing the time spent on beneficial real-world activities such as sleeping, playing with friends, talking with adults, reading books, focusing on one task at a time, or even just daydreaming.
He elaborates on this in his just-issued book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
Haidt calls special attention to social media’s particular harm to girls. More generally, mental illness has risen dramatically among adolescents. Depression, social withdrawal, anxiety, suicide, and self-harm are among the consequences.
To the good, Haidt is at the forefront of working to remedy many of the unfortunate results he describes. He proposes solutions to reduce the damage and improve our children’s chances of flourishing.
On The Anxious Generation website, Haidt provides extensive information about his findings and the steps to take going forward. Unlike too many volumes that are better at telling you what’s wrong than what to do, this one includes suggestions for collective action, parents and educators, and what government and tech companies can do.
Links to organizations already pursuing reduced phone dependency and more free play are listed.
I hope you will take the opportunity to learn more. This is a mission for parents, grandparents, teachers, and those who wonder how to free children to be the children and future adults we all hope for.
Pass it on.
This hits so many notes of recognition. Thank you, Dr. Stein. I’m familiar with Haidt, generally, but not this effort nor the book. On my list of ‘to be read’. 😉
I think you will take a lot from the book, Vicki, and have novel ideas of your own to add to the effort. You are probably the kind of reader Haidt and his colleagues have in mind!
Well, then – that sounds perfect. I’ll look forward to reading. 😉
Thanks very much for the review, Dr. Stein. It’s definitely on my “To Read” list. I’ve watched my nephew and his wife introduce their children to the Smartphone at a very young age. My comments about the danger to their children’s development did not go down well. I appreciate their challenge as parents, since it’s the current trend. I’m no fan of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, but welcome his latest bill in banning social media for children under 14.
Yes, grandparents are in a complicated position. I know this as the grandfather to two of them. I hadn’t heard of DeSantis and the social media ban. I wonder how it is enforced.
Much as I am hopeful of Jonathan Haidt’s efforts, I’d not be surprised at some push back for political reasons, not to mention from those who manufacture the phones. I imagine some parents allow phone use by their children as a kind of babysitter for the kids, too.
We shall see. Thanks, as always, for adding to the conversation.
I see it in my grandkids too. Everyone in the family is quite screen dependent.
Thanks, Tamara. The right moment to unchain the children.
Thanks so much for sharing this, Gerald. Your post couldn’t be more timely… as I just started substitute teaching in my city’s public high schools and notice that the young people from every walk of life seem addicted to and hypnotized by their smart phones… so much so that they appear quite stunted in many ways. It’s quite disheartening to witness. I do what I can to expand their views of reality when the occasional teaching opportunity presents itself, but I fear that I’m shoveling against the tide. That said, we teachers and parents must do better.
Thanks, Frank. If you were to stay in one school for a while, I imagine you’d get a following. That might give you the chance to show some of the kids another way. In any case, good luck, Frank.