The American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt (strictly: social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business) has a new book out: “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
That’s where you’d need to control for at least one of the variables - perhaps outside time, which you would think is possible. But maybe when kids have phones they spend less time outside because they’re on their phones..
Wow, if there was ever an example of the idea "The technology you grow up with normal; the technology after you're adult is the downfall of society", it's this: "Well, watching television, though our parents complained about it, when you look back on it, my recollection was that it was usually social.". Does he have any idea of how much television was decried as "The Plug-In Drug"? That it corrupted the youth, was destroying their thinking ability, oh woe, it would be the downfall of civilization. But he remembers it differently. The doomsayers then were wrong. However, the doomsayers now are right - the real corruption of youth, destroying their thinking ability, etc, etc. is the newfangled stuff. Decades from now, his successor is going to be saying something like "Yes, back then the smartphone was The Threat. Yet my recollection was that it was usually social - you were connected to the entire world-wide-web. Those fears were wrong. But now we're right, the real threat is the horrible damage wrought by the neural-link, which obliterates the boundary between the self and the crowd. It can literally destroy the delicate developing mind of a child, it's that bad."
I suppose nobody reads comic books nowadays, so they can't be blamed.
From the coverage I've seen, a big question that seems to be missing from the public discourse is about phone use, as in, not how long are they using their phones for, but what are they using their phones for.
A kid using their phone to have fun with friends, co-work doing homework, feel secure knowing they can call their parents if they need to when out is going to be in a very different space to a kid who's suffering bullying via social media or private messaging, or whose being harassed by men on social media, or who's delving into the darker corners of the web to prop up a damaging interest or self-identity.
I also think that there are too many confounding factors to put the blame for a worsening of childhood mental health at the feet of one cause. Off the top of my head, there's loss of independent outdoors time (which I think is a direct result of the stupid 'stranger danger' campaigns we grew up with), loss of third places for kids/teens to go, increased poverty, increased awareness of global catastrophe, etc etc. It seems foolish, with all that going on as well, to put everything on to the phone.
That’s where you’d need to control for at least one of the variables - perhaps outside time, which you would think is possible. But maybe when kids have phones they spend less time outside because they’re on their phones..
Wow, if there was ever an example of the idea "The technology you grow up with normal; the technology after you're adult is the downfall of society", it's this: "Well, watching television, though our parents complained about it, when you look back on it, my recollection was that it was usually social.". Does he have any idea of how much television was decried as "The Plug-In Drug"? That it corrupted the youth, was destroying their thinking ability, oh woe, it would be the downfall of civilization. But he remembers it differently. The doomsayers then were wrong. However, the doomsayers now are right - the real corruption of youth, destroying their thinking ability, etc, etc. is the newfangled stuff. Decades from now, his successor is going to be saying something like "Yes, back then the smartphone was The Threat. Yet my recollection was that it was usually social - you were connected to the entire world-wide-web. Those fears were wrong. But now we're right, the real threat is the horrible damage wrought by the neural-link, which obliterates the boundary between the self and the crowd. It can literally destroy the delicate developing mind of a child, it's that bad."
I suppose nobody reads comic books nowadays, so they can't be blamed.
Certainly something in that.
From the coverage I've seen, a big question that seems to be missing from the public discourse is about phone use, as in, not how long are they using their phones for, but what are they using their phones for.
A kid using their phone to have fun with friends, co-work doing homework, feel secure knowing they can call their parents if they need to when out is going to be in a very different space to a kid who's suffering bullying via social media or private messaging, or whose being harassed by men on social media, or who's delving into the darker corners of the web to prop up a damaging interest or self-identity.
I also think that there are too many confounding factors to put the blame for a worsening of childhood mental health at the feet of one cause. Off the top of my head, there's loss of independent outdoors time (which I think is a direct result of the stupid 'stranger danger' campaigns we grew up with), loss of third places for kids/teens to go, increased poverty, increased awareness of global catastrophe, etc etc. It seems foolish, with all that going on as well, to put everything on to the phone.