The Economic Costs of a Phone-Based Childhood, with Jonathan Haidt

Capitalisn't

University of Chicago Podcast Network

Stigler Center, Chicago Booth, Socialism, Antitrust, University Of Chicago Podcast Network, Growth, 087667, Policy, Monopoly, Professors, Distortion, Research, Competition, Capitalisnt, Inequality, Promarket, Politics, Policymaking, Special Interest, Economics, Efficiency, Regulations, Chicago, Business, Markets, University Of Chicago, Kate Waldock, Capitalism, Friction, Bethany Mclean, Government, Macroeconomics, News, Education, Waldock, Georgetown, Microeconomics, Luigi Zingales, Zingales, Finance, Ucpn

4.5 • 584 Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2024

⏱️ 49 minutes

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Summary

In one of this year's bestselling books, "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing An Epidemic of Mental Illness," New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that today's childhoods spent under the influence of smartphones and overprotective parenting has led to the reported explosion in cases of teenage anxiety and depression. He calls this process a "three-act play": the diminishment of trust in our communities, the loss of a play-based childhood, and the arrival of a hyper-connected world. Haidt also believes the problem is solvable. On this episode of Capitalisn't, he joins Bethany and Luigi to discuss parenting, learning, adolescence, and in an age where Congress won't act on regulation, his four proposed solutions to break social media's "collective action trap" on children. But are his solutions feasible? How do we weigh their costs, benefits, limitations, risks, and the roadblocks to their implementation? What are the consequences of an anxious generation for our economy — and what can we really do about it? Read more about Haidt's work here: https://www.anxiousgeneration.com And follow his Substack here: https://www.afterbabel.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	TikTok is arguably the worst consumer product in human history. TikTok is sucking up more human
0:06.4	attention than any other company ever has, and what does it return? A negative experience on
0:13.0	average. The people who use it don't even like it. I'm Bethany McLean. Did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed's a good idea?
0:25.8	And I'm Luigi Zengalis.
0:27.2	We have socialism for the very rich, rugged individualism for the poor.
0:32.7	And this is Capital Isn't, a podcast about what is working in capitalism.
0:36.7	First of all, tell me, is there some society you know that doesn't run on greed?
0:41.1	And most importantly, what isn't?
0:43.1	We ought to do better by the people that get left behind.
0:46.0	I don't think we shouldn't kill the capital system in the process.
0:49.7	There is a book that has taken the world by storm.
0:52.4	You've probably heard all about it already.
0:54.8	Jonathan hates the anxious generation. Hate has made media appearances everywhere, from Oprah to Joe
0:59.8	Rogan to The Daily Show, to Bill Maher, Christian Aminapur, 60 Minutes, you name it.
1:04.2	Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at NYU. And he lays out a case in which social media is the cause of the skyrocketing rates of anxiety
1:15.7	and depression, which have gone up at the dramatic clip.
1:20.1	Some 57% of female high school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness
1:26.4	in 2021, up from 36% a decade ago,
1:30.4	according to a biannual survey released last year by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
1:35.5	Among teenage boys, feelings of hopelessness grows from 21% to 29%.
1:40.8	So it's less pronounced, but it's still present.
1:43.3	Hate is obviously not alone in blaming social media. In 2023, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an
	...

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