NPR: Kids have too much screen time and not enough autonomy, says author Jonathan Haidt. His book 'The Anxious Generation' argues this has caused an epidemic of mental illness and suggests ways to fix it.

Kids have too much screen time and not enough autonomy, says author Jonathan Haidt. His book 'The Anxious Generation' argues this has caused an epidemic of mental illness and suggests ways to fix it.

How to give kids autonomy? 'Anxious Generation' author says a license to roam helpswww.npr.org Kids have too much screen time and not enough autonomy, says author Jonathan Haidt. His book The Anxious Generation argues this has caused an epidemic of mental illness and suggests ways to fix it.

I think I'll stick with the review from Nature: "[T]he book’s repeated suggestion that digital technologies are rewiring our children’s brains and causing an epidemic of mental illness is not supported by science." www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The great rewiring: is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?www.nature.com The evidence is equivocal on whether screen time is to blame for rising levels of teen depression and anxiety — and rising hysteria could distract us from tackling the real causes. The evidence is equ...

I'm pretty sure if I looked I could find similar articles talking about how radio is ruining a generation of kids, or TV is ruining a generation of kids, or rock n' roll, or video games, etc. Growing up is a difficult process for most of us, and that will never change.

Im late gen-x and free up watching too much tv and playing every video game I could. Based on what people said at the time, i and many of my gen-x and millennial friends should be completely ruined. We aren't, and we had to put up with the likes of Jack Thompson.

It's journalism malpractice to advance prejudices that are refuted by evidence & research.

Brain doc here. Everybody knows the epidemic of youth mental illness is actually caused by comic books... and epigenetic effects of the moving pictures. Ask the 50's. And the Hays Code!

I fear what will happen to our children if those moving pictures ever get sound. Everyone knows jazz music isn’t good for a developing brain!

America needs a Bureau of Investigations to keep her safe! "United States [authorities] were looking into communism in Hollywood as early as the 1920s. And the focus of their investigation at the time was my grandfather.. Investigators thought there was something funny about Charlie Chaplin."

BBC - Hollywood Exiles, 1. An American dreamwww.bbc.co.uk Charlie Chaplin is near-exiled following an FBI campaign to root out communism in the US

"This is J. Edgar Hoover. His first task for the federal government in 1919, long, long before the establishment of the FBI was to hunt communists. And this task started just two years after the release of Chaplin's The Immigrant..." www.cbc.ca/radio/podcas...

This is what damaged my brain:

Maybe the first arcade game I ever beat.

It's way more likely that is just down to people not feeling like poor mental health is as stigmatized these days, and being more open about it. Although I'd guess that the state of the world in general isn't helping.

And I'll second that with this from danah boyd:

It is deeply frustrating to watch Haidt cherrypick and twist research that I spent half my career in the thick of. I’m so grateful for Candice Odgers’ willingness to challenge him. He’s leading the public down the wrong path by playing into parents’ anxieties. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

This is an interesting read! Here is another important quote: "Two things can be independently true about social media. First, that there is no evidence that using these platforms is rewiring children’s brains or ...epidemic of mental illness.

Second, that considerable reforms to these platforms are required, given how much time young people spend on them." I think the author is bothered by the evidence Haight put forward, but does agree that the status quo isn't really doing young people many favors

Parents blaming phones for not talking with their kids.

Thank you for posting that.

Next, learn when data cannot be easily used to determine social interactions and outcomes. Which is where the art of medicine comes in. Is it more plausible than not? What are the harms of inaction? When is precaution the better choice? Equivocal findings deserve way more scrutiny, not dismissal.

But Haidt is doing *neither* of those things. He’s uncritically accepting a conclusion based on data that is, at best, equivocal. I’m not dismissing the connection, but neither am I writing a book about how the connection certainly exists.

You’re an MD, I’m a PhD, and I suspect we both know enough to know Nature isn’t making things up when they point out that Haidt’s central thesis isn’t backed up by science. It’s one of *the* gold standards for peer-reviewed scientific literature, even in their book reviews.

I'd wager his hypotheses have merit in over half of the data. That the data is equivocal does not mean you can dismiss his hypotheses. It very well may have science that backs it up, we just can't prove it. Either way. See the screenshot I added which details how we are misinterpreting lack of data.

If the dataset is large, competently collected and organized, and yet it fails to reject the null hypothesis, then that lends support for the interpretation that if any such hypothesized effect does exist then it is very small.

This might be the dumbest advice I have ever heard: Practice letting your kids out of your sight without them having a way to reach you. Also, kids are depressed because the world is on fire, not because they're on their tablets.

And their tablets sometimes show the world on fire

My kid's tablet shows Minecraft mods.

Haidt is an idiot but: kids might think the world is on fire because their parents are terrified to let them out of their sight because of stuff they saw on social media, and their worlds are so dependent on cars that they’re unable to explore themselves until they can get a driver’s license.

Kids might think the world is on fire because it is

Like my kids spend a good four months a year living in wildfire smoke now. So, literally.

It can be both. The world has been on fire for a lot of kids for decades now but social isolation and anxiety has reached damaging levels.

Also, there isn’t data to support that it causes mental health issues.

"Here, kid, here's some money. Go buy some garlic."

Why is that dumb? Kids do need to learn to be resourceful in the world

You do realize many, many generations of kids were able to go beyond their parents' sight without the world imploding?

Yes, kids also generally don't die of tuberculosis anymore. For the record, I don't have a problem with the out of sight part, but the being unable to reach you part, especially for the age he suggests.

Do you even know anyone Gen X? I’m not talking about the ancient past here. I understand it feels terrifying for a parent to let go even a little, but this is exactly part of the problem.

Lol, I grew up without being able to contact my parents at all times, but the world evolves and just because you experienced a childhood a certain way doesn't mean it is the correct way.

Why? That sounds completely harmless. I played outside all the time, "just be back by dinner." I'm not convinced by the argument he's making about mental health, but we've put a lot of pressure (and sometimes impossible expectations) on working moms to always be super vigilant for no good reason

Hm I'd let older kids wander away but they'd probably want the phone on them anyway

brb gonna find my thread

On a tangentially related topic but germane bsky.app/profile/edga...

I know that you know, fellow parent of schoolchildren, that our children understand exactly what the drills are for, and they have to internalize their own emotional response to that fact, and learn to survive and develop and thrive. Without the possibility of any one of the adults in the room… +

Blame the parents and parents before that for not paying enough attention to politics, letting far too much slide via inaction. We became far too complacent, electorally, and now everything is on fire, but thankfully, more people are noticing and getting involved to help fix it.

Good to take advice from Jonathan Haidt, a man with a philosophy degree and an axe to grind, on this thing completely outside his area of expertise.

Am I missing something? Why is a business prof being identified as an expert in children’s mental health?

Yesterday I was talking to the mother of my 8-year-old’s best friend about how long we should protect them from the full truth about the climate emergency. I guess this book will give me the answer???

An excellent question and one that a good journalist would ask of the author early in their interview.

I kept waiting for them to touch on that and yet…

It's infuriating. We're not meant to be stenographers for the rich, powerful and cynically media-savvy.

Nate Silver Matt Taibbi Noah Smith Dr. Phil Joe Rogan Andrew Huberman There is a long precedent.

It’s the Emily Oster-ization of expertise

It's the screens, not the climate collapse, the economy that only serves the wealthiest or the attacks on representative democracy that are bumming the kids out. It's them durn screens!!

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