Jonathan Haidt’s Post

Join us via Zoom on Tuesday August 13th at 1-2pm ET for the TED Conferences book club — you can submit a question in the sign-up form (in top comment)

New post on our free Substack, on the decline of physical communities, especially in the US, and the related rise in loneliness and anxiety. By Seth Kaplan, link in comments.

#KOSA and #COPPA — two bills protecting children from social media companies, together named #KOSPA — passed the Senate today. A historic win, long in the works, with tireless efforts by legislators and countless parents who've lost children due to the lack of responsibility & regulation of social media companies. The bills require social media companies to provide better protections for users under 17. They allow guardians to monitor minors' use of a platform and prevent features such as autoplay, which often gravitate towards more extreme content (eating disorders, self-harm, violence, etc.) Thank you, Senator Blumenthal, Senator Blackburn, Senator Schumer, and the many parents who've worked for years on getting this bill passed. On to the House in September! Please call your representatives and ask them to vote in favor of the bills — i.e., in favor of protecting children over the interests of social media companies. #socialmedia #socialmediacompanies #Meta #Snap #teenagers #genZ #genalpha #teenagersandsocialmedia #jonathanhaidt #senatorblumenthal #senatorblackburn #senatorschumer

Most of us Gen X and older were let out to play starting at age 6-8. Gen Z and Gen Alpha were/are being let out to play at age 10-12. This is not optimal developmentally, and it’s a consequence of overblown abduction fears and a general misperception of crime, when in fact crime is significantly down from the 80s, when Gen X was being let out. From a talk at The Tikvah Fund, thanks for having me. More in #TheAnxiousGeneration and in Let Grow’s work.

The Anxious Generation is back at the #1 spot on the NYT bestseller list — since the book came out 3 months ago, it’s been in the top 3 spots. Clearly parents are fed up, educators are fed up. We are trapped in a system everyone hates. Let’s change it, let’s band together to end the #phonebasedchildhood. Smartphones and social media are useful tools, at the right age, in the right amounts. Right now kids and teens are getting too much, out of fear of being left out. We have resources for parents & educators at anxiousgeneration.com. We have sample text, email, and petitions you can send to other parents & educators. More and more schools are going phone-free (phones locked away for the duration of the school day). Hoping to see this trend continue — let’s give students K-12 six to seven hours of uninterrupted “real life” time, away from internet drama. #anxiousgeneration #freetheanxiousgeneration #JonathanHaidt #phonefreeschools

Greg Lukianoff gives a powerful and personal explanation of why the "speech is violence" argument must die. (And it is not "violence" to say it that way.) I keep learning new and admirable things about Greg. https://lnkd.in/eZP-B_fV

All 1,600 NYC schools are likely going phone-free. I applaud Chancellor David Banks for his work on this initiative, which would make the nation’s largest school district phone-free (the second-largest, in LA, is going phone-free already). One of the best things we can do for children’s mental health is to allow kids K-12 to have six or seven hours of uninterrupted time to focus on their studies and each other. Schools that have gone phone-free report greater participation during class and increased engagement with other students during breaks. U.S. teenagers now spend 5 hours of social media a day, and that’s on average. Let’s help them live in real life, away from internet drama, at least during the school day. https://lnkd.in/e7fwJ945

Spoke to Praxis Circle about the main ideas behind my books, including the newest, "The Anxious Generation" https://lnkd.in/eujpv4SA