The Anxious Generation: Jonathan Haidt on How Smartphones Rewired Childhood, Part One

Intelligence Squared

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🗓️ 12 May 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

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Summary

Bestselling author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has dedicated his career to speaking truth and wisdom in some of the most challenging spaces – communities polarised by politics and religion and university campuses mired in culture wars. Now he turns his attention to what he sees as a perfect storm of factors that are causing a collapse in mental health among teenagers today. According to the American College Health Association, since 2010 anxiety among American college students has increased by 134%, depression by 106%, bipolar disorder by 57%, and anorexia by 100%. Haidt recently came to the Intelligence Squared stage where in conversation with BBC presenter Sarah Montague he drew on his new book The Anxious Generation, which has shot to No 1 in the Sunday Times bestsellers. He argues that the decline of free play in childhood and the rise of smartphone use among adolescents are the twin sources of increased mental distress among teenagers. But with traditional wisdom, cutting-edge research and practical advice – parents, teachers and teenagers can find new ways to mitigate tech's impact on mental health. We are sponsored by Indeed. Go to Indeed.com/IS for £100 sponsored credit. This is the first instalment of a three-part conversation. If you'd like to become a Member and get access to all three parts now plus all of our longer form interviews and Members-only content, just visit intelligencesquared.com/membership to find out more. For £4.99 per month you'll also receive: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared episodes, wherever you get your podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series - 15% discount on livestreams and in-person tickets for all Intelligence Squared events - Our member-only newsletter The Monthly Read, sent straight to your inbox ... Or Subscribe on Apple for £4.99: - Full-length and ad-free Intelligence Squared podcasts - Bonus Intelligence Squared podcasts, curated feeds and members exclusive series ... Already a subscriber? Thank you for supporting our mission to foster honest debate and compelling conversations! Visit intelligencesquared.com to explore all your benefits including ad-free podcasts, exclusive bonus content and early access. ... Subscribe to our newsletter here to hear about our latest events, discounts and much more. https://www.intelligencesquared.com/newsletter-signup/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Luckily I didn't grow up with a smartphone. I was of that generation where there wasn't
0:06.0	social media and I'm very thankful of that.
0:09.0	Hello and welcome to Intelligence Squared where great minds meet.
0:13.2	I'm head of programming, Connor Boyle.
0:15.4	Being a kid should be the most carefree time of our lives.
0:18.5	But with many young people now owning a smartphone by their teens,
0:22.1	the tech revolution is asking some tricky new questions
0:25.3	about mental health. So for this episode, we're hearing from best-selling author and social psychologist Jonathan Hite. He's tackling the issue head on with his new book
0:34.8	The Anxious Generation. It offers concrete advice to parents, schools, governments,
0:39.8	and perhaps the odd distracted teenager too on how to navigate the smartphone era.
0:44.4	Lots to discuss on what is a very active conversation across generations and wider society,
0:50.3	so this one is coming to you in three parts.
0:53.0	Head over to intelligence square.com slash membership to sign up and get it all no waiting around
0:59.0	including our members only part three or hit subscribe on Apple for just the audio. This episode is our
1:05.4	Intelligence Squared live event recorded recently at London's Union Chapel.
1:09.9	Jonathan Hite was live on stage in conversation with Sarah Montegoe, presenter of BBC Radio
1:15.3	Forest the world at one. Before we hear from Sarah, I went to meet some of our audience to learn just
1:20.3	how much we're really glued to our screens.
1:22.3	Probably Traged tragically too much.
1:23.7	I think it's getting worse year by year.
1:25.4	I work in politics and media, so I basically glued to the damn thing.
1:29.1	You know, rather you can kind of graph it out sort of quantitatively or not.
	...

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