How social media DESTROYED childhood and how to get it back - Jonathan Haidt
Ways to Change the World with Krishnan Guru-Murthy
Channel 4 News
4.7 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 July 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
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Summary
In this episode of Ways to Change the World, Krishnan Guru-Murthy speaks to the social psychologist whose work helped ignite a global rethink of childhood in the smartphone age. Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, argues that social media has fundamentally reshaped the lives of young people – driving rising rates of anxiety and depression, fragmenting attention spans and replacing real-world play with screen time. As Britain follows Australia in introducing restrictions on social media use for children, Haidt explains why he believes an entire generation has been caught up in a “great rewiring of childhood”, why girls and boys have been affected differently, and what parents can do to push back. They also discuss whether social media is fuelling political polarisation, why governments are finally taking action, and whether it's possible to reclaim our attention from the platforms competing for it. This conversation includes references to suicide, self harm, sexual activities and offensive language.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | It's hard to read a book because we're all so used to as soon as you get just a little bit bored, |
| 0:05.7 | there's dopamine available right over here. |
| 0:07.7 | Puberty is where the maximum damage happens because puberty is where the brains really rewiring itself. |
| 0:12.8 | So I wasn't really listening to all the adults who are saying to me, oh, it's not just my kids, it's me too. |
| 0:18.0 | Social media platforms knew what they were doing. |
| 0:19.9 | They discuss how to hook |
| 0:21.5 | kids. They discuss brain development and when the emotional centers are growing, but the ability |
| 0:26.9 | for self-control is weak. So here's the simple rule for parents of kids, especially younger kids. |
| 0:35.9 | Hello and welcome to Ways to Change the World. |
| 0:38.4 | I'm Christian Guru Murphy, and this is the podcast where we talk to extraordinary people |
| 0:42.6 | about the big ideas in their lives and the events that have helped shape them. |
| 0:46.6 | As Britain follows Australia, banning under 16 some social media, today's guest couldn't be more relevant. |
| 0:52.7 | In fact, his work is one of the reasons it's all happening. |
| 0:55.8 | Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist who has famously studied what he calls the great rewiring |
| 1:01.6 | of childhood from phones and social media. He is the best-selling author of The Anxious Generation |
| 1:07.0 | and its accompanying follow-up, The Amazing Generation, and having concentrated on the impact of phone use on child and teen mental health, he has |
| 1:15.6 | also been tracking its impact on our attention spans and social division. |
| 1:20.0 | Jonathan, welcome. |
| 1:20.8 | Thank you, Krishna. |
| 1:21.7 | If you could just change the world, what would you do? |
| 1:23.9 | I think I'd go back in time and either make social media never have been |
| 1:28.0 | invented or make it be invented by people who are trying to maximize its benefits for people |
... |
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