This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.

Talk about the right book at the right time. Two years ago, a book called The Anxious Generation came out, and it was an

instant bestseller. Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist teaching at New York University,

laid out a very stark thesis, that Generation Z, the kids born with smartphones in their hands,

have been harmed profoundly by those phones and the social media programs on them,

harmed emotionally and intellectually by the addiction mechanisms programmed into the technology.

Now, some readers scoffed initially, calling it the latest panic over new technology, and some

academics have said that Haid doesn't quite prove the negative effects

he attributes to social media. But for a huge number of people, the anxious generation

nailed it. The book has now spent nearly 100 weeks on the bestseller list, and more

important, it's helped to galvanize a movement. It inspired the world's

first national law to verify the age of social media users. It also encouraged school districts

to restrict the use of phones, and you see that happening all over the country. There have also

been lawsuits in California that are aiming to pin liability for harms on the social media

platforms themselves. I spoke with Jonathan Haidt when the anxious generation first came out two years

ago, and he joined me again the other day.

Jonathan, I really wanted to have you back. We had a wonderful conversation a couple of years

ago, and you've

done a lot of work since then. And I've done a lot of thinking about it, too. I must admit,

and I think I'm not alone. Your book has been cited as part of the inspiration for some new laws

that are trying to shield children from social media. And a trial has just started in the state of California against social media companies.

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