Changing Gen Alpha’s relationship with smartphones (ft. Jonathan Haidt)

I sat down with social psychologist and NYU professor Jonathan Haidt to discuss his new book, “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness”. Haidt has been conducting leading research on the effects of Gen Z’s smartphone-based childhood and has proposed four norms to potentially shift future generations’ relationship with this technology.

While I generally agree with his four norms, I believe the age to make a social media account should be 14 alongside when he proposes teens get a smartphone. If age 16, I think it could cause weird social dynamics between upper and lower classmen in high school. Additionally, I believe the design of these platforms needs to change for kids and teens by enforcing no public metrics, disincentivizing push notifications, and so on. I would also love for him to include more about how parents should let their children be the ones to kickstart and control their digital footprint when they want to around that age or older. We didn’t have time to cover these topics this time around.

For more on this topic:    • These Digital Natives are taking on B...  

Chapters
0:00 - Haidt’s current mission
04:39 - Zuckerberg denying the link between social media and poor mental health
08:25 - How data is reported for mental health studies
11:29 - Our relationship with social media being complicated
13:24 - Media mind-warp vs Clinical mental illness
19:27 - Ages 10-13 being particularly vulnerable
23:02 - Haidt against deeming the digital world as part of the “real world”
27:53 - Young people becoming brand managers
29:35 - Can humans evolve to handle the digital world as a norm
36:20 - Haidt’s four reforms
40:57 - Parents overprotecting in the real world and under-protecting in the digital world
45:56 - The education system’s role
49:08 - Jules reflects on growing up online
50:59 - Haidt reiterates his mission
52:49 - Haidt questions Jules
54:45 - How to make being alone a positive thing
56:37 - Outro

You can find "Fishbowl with Jules Terpak" on
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You can find Jonathan on
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To read "The Anxious Generation": https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593655036?...

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Intro animation by Chad Lynn: https://www.chadlynn.com/

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