By Jonathan Haidt
This didn’t introduce a lot of ideas that I didn’t already have. It really just added some data to justify the damage caused by social media and inescapable screens. The focus was on adolescents, but it’s a reminder for me to unplug as much as I can. I’m glad to be in possibly the most interesting generation that has existed. Millennials have an interesting mix of the before tech times while still being young enough to be on board. My childhood was not as free an uncontrolled as the prior generations, but it was not yet locked down to the same degree that it would become for the Zs. I fondly remember playing tackle football during recess, chicken fighting on the monkey bars, falling out of trees, building ramps for bikes and such fun real-world play. It wasn’t all endorsed or permitted by the adults around us, but they weren’t aggressive about stopping it. I still do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu since I never lost my appreciation for roughhousing. I’m fully onboard with Haidt’s message that we need to send the kids back outside, without smartphones, and without adults micromanaging their experience.