Jonathan Haidt’s Newest Thoughts on Technology, Anxiety, and the War for Our Attention

The Russell Moore Show

Christianity Today, Russell Moore

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 914 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It’s odd that one of our listeners’ favorite frequent guests is an atheist: Jonathan Haidt. And yet, it’s not really that unusual because Haidt, though not a believer, is perhaps the world’s foremost thinker on issues Christians face every day: the digital war on our attention spans, how technology is making us anxious, how removing obstacles and pain-points from our children hurts them, and why we all seem to hate each other so much. This week, Dr. Moore welcomes back social psychologist Jonathan Haidt to ask him how things have changed in recent months in the rapidly evolving landscape of technology and its impact on faith communities. Haidt—author of The Anxious Generation, The Coddling of the American Mind, and The Righteous Mind—shares his latest observations and updated insights since we last spoke. This is a fresh new conversation, building off of the previous ones. As the digital world shifts at breakneck speed, Haidt offers new analysis on what he's witnessing on the front lines: how smartphones and social media are reshaping our capacity for prayer and Bible reading, the escalating influence of TikTok and short-form video, and emerging concerns about AI in church settings. From practical questions about phone-free churches to broader concerns about protecting children in digital environments, this conversation bridges scientific insight with pastoral care. You'll hear Haidt's surprising predictions about AI's future, discover which social media platform he considers most harmful, and learn his single most important piece of advice for church leaders seeking to preserve human connection in our high-tech age. This is an essential dialogue for anyone concerned about reclaiming our ability to pay attention, think deeply, pray meaningfully, and build authentic community in an era of endless digital distraction. See more from Jon Haidt: Anxious Generation website: AnxiousGeneration.com Jon’s Substack: AfterBabel.com New book: The Amazing Generation, (pre-order now, releasing December 30th) Resources mentioned in this episode or recommended by the guest include: The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion The Coddling of the American Mind (with Greg Lukianoff) Politico Article: There’s Only One True Bipartisan Issue Left Derek Thompson’s Atlantic article: The Anti-Social Century Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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0:58.6	Where is there communities of trust? It's the biggest repository is Christian churches.
1:04.2	You have to guard against the acid of this technological dissolution.
1:11.7	Hello, this is Russell Moore, and this is The Russell Moore Show, brought to you by Christianity
1:16.4	today.
1:17.3	Here, we look for signposts in a strange time by standing fast to what really matters.
1:24.0	Kingdom over culture wars, truth over tribalism, pilgrimage over partisanship,
1:28.3	sanity over cynicism, witness over winning, and Christ over everything.
1:33.3	Today we have a conversation to do just that.
1:41.3	Earlier this week or last week, I sent our next guest to comment that I had seen from a teacher talking about the fact that if she takes up the phones away from the kids for a limited amount of time while they're working on a project or they're working on a test, parents start
2:01.2	calling the office frantic by saying Johnny isn't responding to his text, has something gone wrong,
2:08.2	because it's exactly the sort of phenomena that we have talked about here. This is a guest that
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