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The Anxious Generation

11 replies

MrsSchrute · 03/04/2024 13:09

Has anyone read 'The Anxious Generation' by Jonathan Haidt?

I've ordered it but it hasn't arrived yet.

Here is a review which gives a bit of a flavour: www.theguardian.com/books/2024/mar/21/the-anxious-generation-by-jonathan-haidt-a-pocket-full-of-poison

I think he is into something here for sure, the evidence is overwhelming. It is really making me rethink my approach to phones and social media.

OP posts:
HelloMiss · 03/04/2024 13:25

I think as a society we are too far gone!

Though I work in a place where phones are forbidden. And it's so much nicer to speak to people,interact and have full conversations where we are not interrupted by beeping phones

It's wonderful! I am on shift for 11-12 hours and no phone. It's very 'freeing'

MrsSchrute · 03/04/2024 13:38

So what do we do? Neither of my kids have social media, and I'm planning to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Surely we have to do something?

OP posts:
Bluevelvetsofa · 03/04/2024 14:46

You can’t put the genie back in the bottle and it will get worse as technology advances more and more. I glanced through the window of a coffee shop on my way somewhere else this morning. It was quite busy and the only people talking to their companions were older folk. Everyone else was glued to a screen.

My children were in their early teens before phones and tablets became the norm, so had the experience of going out to play, going to a restaurant and talking to others, playing board games and amusing themselves. I know that still happens, but to a lesser degree.

The advent of very portable technology, followed by a pandemic that isolated people from one another has created a perfect storm. Look at what happens when schools try to ban phones during school hours. It’s apparently unacceptable for children and young people to not be contactable during the school day, yet it’s not centuries ago that children went to school, went out on their bikes, went to play with their friends, without a phone, or at least, only a public phone box.

What we have now is toxic and will become ever more so.

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Clutterbucks · 03/04/2024 14:58

You can’t put the genie back in the bottle

I hate this sort of counsel of despair. We've changed all sorts of things because of children's welfare, from regulating alcohol sales to making car seats obligatory. Smartphones are ubiquitous but they've been around for about 5 minutes and almost everyone is agreed that they have a negative influence on children (especially with unrestricted use)- according to JH in an interview I heard today even teens when surveyed say they wish that things like Insta and TikTok didn't exist.

The will to change things is there in spades. What we need is a properly thought through approach from government to cover everything from proper legal restrictions on SM (not just "tick a box") with big fines for SM companies who don't limit use effectively, to education for both children and parents. Make giving your child a smartphone as socially acceptable as giving them a packet of cigs and foment a social switch away from lazy "everyone else is doing it" parenting. It's on its way. I think when our children are adults they will look back in absolute horror at how slack we all have been on this, both individually and societally.

Clutterbucks · 03/04/2024 15:06

MrsSchrute · 03/04/2024 13:38

So what do we do? Neither of my kids have social media, and I'm planning to keep it that way for as long as possible.

Surely we have to do something?

https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk/

You can sign up here, OP. A lot of local groups exist now for parents to pledge together not to allow their children smartphones/SM before a particular age.

Smartphone Free Childhood

Smartphone Free Childhood is a grassroots movement on a mission to keep childhood smartphone free. We want to connect parents in their local communities so that together they can make a pact not to give their children smartphones until at least 14, or...

https://smartphonefreechildhood.co.uk

BigPandaTinyDragon · 03/04/2024 15:11

I got chatting to a young female assistant in a beauty store, she was showing me some skincare that apparently protects your face from blue light and it led to her saying she hates SM and wishes she knew what a world without it would be like.

I’m old enough to remember that world and I wouldn’t want to go completely back to it but I saw her point. I wonder how many others of that generation think like she does.

HelloMiss · 03/04/2024 15:13

Free WiFi means it's literally 24/7

Back when we had to eek out our minutes was a better situation

UndecidedAboutEverything · 03/04/2024 15:19

My dd is 13 and avoids TikTok, WhatsApp and the like. She struggles because her friends are constantly on their phones - at parties, whilst watching films, etc. They went shopping and sat in the shopping centre on their phones, they didn’t shop! I wouldn’t describe any of them as anxious - just obsessed.

MrsSchrute · 03/04/2024 17:35

Make giving your child a smartphone as socially acceptable as giving them a packet of cigs and foment a social switch away from lazy "everyone else is doing it" parenting

Totally agree with this.

Why is it so acceptable to give a child something that is so harmful???

OP posts:
HelloMiss · 04/04/2024 19:10

Everyone blames smartphones but ignores the kid in the corner say on an iPad!!

iPads are just as bad

duc748 · 07/04/2024 19:05

Just searched MN for this. I haven't read the book either, but was interested by this longish review from the NS, where the writer has a few thoughts of his own to add.

https://archive.ph/q31CE

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