Jonathan Haidt on the Great Rewiring of Childhood
Next Question with Katie Couric
iHeartPodcasts
4.4 • 4.4K Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2024
⏱️ 58 minutes
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Summary
Social Psychologist and NYU Professor Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness lays it out emphatically: kids are being very negatively affected by ubiquitous phone use. The research on what phones and their attendant apps are doing to our kids is devastating, and these spikes in depression, anxiety, and even self-harm correlate pretty exactly with the rise of internet-connected smartphone use.
The good news is that the answer to possibly reversing this trend is simple, if not easy. In this urgent conversation, Haidt lays out exactly what parents need to know to help protect and prepare their kids as they navigate this complex technological era.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone. I'm Katie Couric and this is next question. |
| 0:07.0 | I got a smartphone when I was 12 years old. I was in fifth grade it was my mom's old phone so I think I was like nine or ten? I was 14 as far as like comparing |
| 0:26.4 | myself to other people I think I started doing that a lot more one day I had |
| 0:29.2 | a smartphone and like seeing people were posting. Unfortunately, it's kind of like a constant competition. |
| 0:36.0 | You make posts to show people what you're doing |
| 0:39.0 | and whether or not you want to admit it, |
| 0:41.0 | it's to show that you're doing something better than the other person. |
| 0:44.3 | I think a lot of it is toxic and then has contributed to like a lot of negativity. |
| 0:50.8 | I cannot wait to hopefully one day get better control over my life because right now |
| 0:57.3 | Instagram and Tik-Toc and Snapchat are controlling my life like puppeteers |
| 1:07.1 | Do you guys remember that song from Bye Bye Birdie, the one Paul Lynn sang back in 1963? Why can't they mean like we were perfect in every way? |
| 1:15.0 | What's the matter with kids today? |
| 1:19.0 | But gulp, 61 years later, people are wondering the same thing. |
| 1:23.7 | What's the matter with kids today? |
| 1:26.2 | I am so excited to have one of my favorite people, Jonathan Hight here, |
| 1:31.0 | to help us think through what exactly has gone wrong with young people, |
| 1:35.5 | iPhones and social media and what we can all do about it together. |
| 1:40.8 | As you'll hear, the solution might be simple, but it is not easy. |
| 1:45.0 | Jonathan has a new book out and it is doing gangbusters. |
| 1:50.0 | Clearly he's struck a nerve. |
| 1:52.0 | It's a deep dive into how and why and when smartphones |
| 1:55.7 | changed everything about childhood and why we might just be at a tipping point |
... |
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