Children’s brains grow to 90% of full size by age 5, but then take a long time to configure themselves. This slow-growth childhood is an adaptation for cultural learning.

some studies have failed to find evidence of harm. One well-known study reported that the association of digital media use with harmful psychological outcomes was so close to zero that it was roughly the same size as the association of “eating potatoes” with such harms.[5] But when Jean Twenge and I reanalyzed the same data sets and zoomed in on

For 6-to-12-year-olds: As a general rule, no more than two hours per day is recommended for screen-based recreational activities.

Social media trains people to do the opposite: Judge quickly and publicly, lest ye be judged for not judging whoever it is that we are all condemning today. Don’t forgive, or your team will attack you as a traitor.

According to a 2015 report from the Pew Research Center, parents (on average) say children should be at least 10 years old to play unsupervised in their own front yard.[54] They say that kids should be at least 12 years old before being allowed to stay alone in their own home unsupervised for one hour. They say that kids should be 14 before being

What if these changes came about not because Gen Z is getting wiser, but because they are withdrawing from the physical world?

In Walden, his 1854 reflection on simple living, Henry David Thoreau wrote, “The cost of a thing is the amount of . . . life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run.”[16] So what was the opportunity cost to children and adolescents when they started spending six, or eight, or perhaps even 16 hours each day

It’s as if we gave our infants iPads loaded with movies about walking, but the movies were so engrossing that kids never put in the time or effort to practice walking.

Unlike free play in the real world, most video games give no practice in the skills of self-governance.