Saved by sari and
Do the Kids Think They’re Alright?
Does the phone-based life generally pull us upward or downward on this vertical dimension? If it is downward, then there is a cost even for those who are not anxious or depressed. If it is downward, then there is spiritual harm, for adults as well as for adolescents, even for those who think that their mental health is fine. There would also be har
... See moreJonathan Haidt • The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
Smartphones and widespread social media use have meant Gen Z conducts more of their social interaction online and less in the “meatworld” of in-person interaction.
Jean M. Twenge • Generations
Once a few students get smartphones and social media accounts, the other students put pressure on their parents, putting them into a trap as well. It’s painful for parents to hear their children say, “Everyone else has a smartphone. If you don’t get me one, I’ll be excluded from everything.” (Of course, “everyone” may just mean “some other kids.”)
... See moreJonathan Haidt • The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
The recent generations raised on games and otherwise glued to video screens, one neuroscientist told me, amount to an unprecedented experiment: “a massive difference in how their brains are plastically engaged in life” compared with previous generations. The long-term question is what such games will do to their neural wiring, and so to the social
... See moreDaniel Goleman • Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence
"In the new book “The Anxious Generation,” the sociologist and pundit Jonathan Haidt links smartphone technology to escalating teen depression and other ill effects. “The members of Gen Z are . . . test subjects for a radical new way of growing up, far from the real-world interactions of small communities in which humans evolved,” he
... See moreIt’s all very paradoxical: that the ability to constantly communicate has made us bad communicators, that instant access to all forms of entertainment would leave us with so few touchstones, that surveilling kids doesn’t necessarily make them safer, that the absence of limitations also often means the absence of creativity — and that the particular... See more