The fact that all these tech executives don’t let their kids use their own technology says it all.

As a 44 year old man I have given up watching tv during the week and the amount of motivation and free time I now have is amazing, which has also led to lower stress levels. I can only imagine how messed up these kids must be.

car-free walkable cities would help to lower anxiety levels. remember, cities aren't loud, cars are LOUD.

As a parent hearing a young person say the words "I'm proud of myself" is everything! ❤❤❤

I’ve been teaching middle school for 12 years , it has gotten so much worse

I didn't know so many kids could use their phones in school. I couldn't fiddle with the calculator.

Is social media even "social" anymore? It may have been at its beginning, but it's now hypnotical. Maybe we should rephrase it "hypnotical media". There's a mindfulness workbook called 30 Days Without Social Media by Harper Daniels that I think goes great with Jonathan's book. It's so important to take long breaks from social media.

My niece is so addicted that she has to juggle two devices. She will play 2 shows at once, but she can usually only retain interest for a couple minutes. Its so sad.

I love what Haidt has to say. He's spot on. The only thing I disagree with him is that the world for children really is safer in almost every way EXCEPT pedestrian/cyclist safety. That's what makes me and my friends who are parents the most nervous. Compared to when I grew up as a latchkey kid of the 90s, drivers are now far more distracted, and mostly sit in giant SUVs with poor visibility and are far deadlier to anything or anyone they might hit. I don't worry about kidnappers or other crime. But I do worry about drivers.

A bit of a tangent, but I wonder how our car culture has discouraged kids going to the store on their own. So many places in the U.S. are not walkable.

Awww. Barbara was so stoked & proud to go grocery shopping. 🥰 That’s what they need- some autonomy and real life experiences. They want to feel capable.

I admit our family is guilty of this and I've seen it first hand when I noticed my nephew being anxious in a social public setting. I think as parents it's always a battle of keeping everything together. We want more time to work and we do that by distracting our kids with devices because we are sometimes lazy in nurturing them but at the same time, we're not teaching them how to survive by being overprotective.

As a 21 yr old… I LOVED this.

I'm a 31-year-old man, and social media is also addictive for millennials and some older generations as well. Facebook, KZfaq, and Instagram boomed in the late 2000's/early 2010's, so I've experienced some of the negative effects of these platforms during my teen and early adult years.

Another thing that needs to be done is to remove the looming threat of a visit by someone from Child Protective Services and/or the police because someone saw their kid outside without adult supervision.

I would argue an anxiety and addiction driven society is the ideal type of a capitalist world. This is what it's like to constantly seek growth.

Nodding my head in agreement, on my smartphone...😂

Too many kids in broken homes or no parents out there who unfortunately have no good influences way more now than in the 90s.

"I think most of the apps dont really care" smart kid

My son got his smart phone when he was 18. I didn't have a choice then. I resisted requests from his coach to get him a phone and I am glad I did. He is hooked to his phone now, obviously, but at least he was protected during those critical years. If parents only knew what their kids are watching at school, they would do the same.

I"m so glad to see Haidt getting the word out there of this trend and its causes.

Independence is the best feeling.

As a millennial, I didn’t get a smart phone until I was able to buy it for myself (after getting job after college). As a future mom, I will do the same for my kids. If you want one, you go get a job after turning 16 and buy one. I will not fuel this society’s addiction any more. And yes, there’s nothing wrong with saying it’s an addiction when people absolutely need to carry it around with them everywhere and it’s the first thing they reach for in the morning

How about starting by letting the kid to go to store with a sibling/friend together?

There’s more Grace for this generation than there’s ever been. It will get better and better for us

"I feel really proud of myself." You go Barbara!!

Tech companies are for-profit businesses, of course, they'll say social media isn't harmful or deflect responsibility to someone else. Families need to take personal responsibility.

I've heard those arguments against social media and phones- and I'm it is true. What I don't understand is why parents don't simply control the access. Kids don't have data if parents don't supply it, or at least control the amount and times of access.

Our kids are the Guinea pigs for figuring out what to do next

Yes! I would love it if we could collectively agree to these and do what is needed to protect our families.

I had my first anxiety attack while scrolling through instagram like in middle school, been struggling with mental illness ever since I’m 22 now.

I hope we continue having conversations like this(:

Nah, no social media until 16 is wild. I was making a Myspace behind my Mom's back at 13 in the library.

I went to the neighborhood store when I was 5. That would be child abandonment today.

These stories often don’t acknowledge the lack of public phones. If a child is out of the house without a cell phone and need help, there is no clear way for them to get help. Phones are certainly overused, but they are a safety need.

Haidt is a genius. Can't wait to read this one. "The Coddling of the American Mind" was brilliant.

I don’t understand why parents nowadays let their kids have phones so young. It literally seems so obvious that it’s not the way to go.

That is a very smart kid who said "most of the apps don't really care!"

It starts at home with the parents / guardians. Too many parents don’t know how to say the word NO to their kids. Instead of letting their kids use screens every time all the time i.e. babysitter they should instead , especially in public places teach their kids etiquette , social skills. Life isn’t about fun all the time. Sometimes you have to sit quietly, be social and learn patience .

Most of the comments here relate to young people. I've seen it even with the elderly! My aunt is 82 and didnt bother with smartphones until she was mid 70s. The phone is now her entire life. Obviously its not Tiktok etc its more for messaging, photos, instant contact with friends n family. But the addiction is the same level of need that you'd see in a teenager. The phone must always be at hand.

Don't have a phone. People are amazed when I tell them that. Email and chat on my laptop is all I need

great piece!!

Kids don’t need a smartphone. But I don’t see the issue with not having a cell phone.

iPhone and social media is the new cigarettes, the new smoking…

These apps are made to be addictive. This all goes back to money.

I like this piece. Great journalism guys!

Hes not a business professor, hes a social psychologist.

I'm a 90s baby. My mom didn't let me go out on my own until 15. I could walk to school at 12-13, but out into the city? 15.

Back in the 00s, I remember you could take days, if even a full week to get back to someone and it was ok. Now things are moving faster and faster where people expect responses within minutes. I still have 00s mentality, I'll get back to you a time that is convenient to my busy schedule, and no I am not always near or on my phone.

I drop my 9 and 11 year old sons off in our neighborhood a few streets away and tell them to figure out how to get home. When they do I give them a treat. Got to build that sense of independence and sense of direction. Can’t stand the thought of my daughter doing it though, she’s 7.

Anxiety!! We experienced a mass school shooting in our hometown. It changed our lives forever. Society has changed in more ways than he describes in his book sadly.

It’s not just that generation mostly all generations. I think anxiety is up in general. I do feel bad that we older folks seem to judge the young folks for being anxious/socially awkward when they are just using what they have

Dr. Haidt is best consumed in long term.

Love this man, protect him at all costs

We have a responsibility to make sure the next generations do not spend their childhood scrolling!!! They should be outside!!! I loved video great job CBS!

Would love to take phones from kids in my classroom, but bet you a parent would sue me in a new york minute if that phone had even looked like it was damaged by a speck of dust in my possession, and school wouldnt back us. Too much liability limits us taking phones in high school.

I'm not going to let my 6-year-old walk to the park or school by themselves just because I did it or gramps did it. There's got to be some layers here where a parent can keep their child relatively safe, but the child can practice self-autonomy.

My own parents didn't let me have a flip phone until I was 16, and I didn't have a smartphone until I graduated at 18. But conversely, I was not allowed to go over to friends' houses, and they weren't allowed over to mine. My first friend gathering at my house was at my 18th birthday/graduation party. And of those friends, 3 of them were mine, and the rest were cousins. My parents were both first responders on the fire department, so they justified it by saying that they'd seen the world, and they knew how many predators there were out there. Predators were around every corner apparently because my old birthday parties at 5-7 were always had in public, and at 8, they stopped allowing me to have birthday parties altogether. When the documentary asked: "What, then, are kids supposed to do?", my answer is: yes, I did stare at a wall for a lot of hours for as long as I can remember. When, I wasn't day-dreaming (which was often), I was cleaning the house, reading books, or doing homework. You do the best you can with what you have.

No social media till 16 is a big ask? That is itself indicative of the scale of the problem, while at the same time not being enough. Age of majority! Give them time to form those authentic, meaningful, painful, rewarding, growing-up relationships that come throughout adolescence, and then they'll have the tools to recognize shallow, addictive tech patterns when they're hit rather than take them as normal. As a high school teacher, I've actually seen this positively done with pop, of all things. "Coke? Who likes that? It's so sweet. Can I have some orange juice?" When kids are given a chance to solidify healthy patterns they are less susceptible to unhealthy ones.

Interestingly the kid in the middle of class after 6:00 time is a girl student with blue top who never raised her hand whenever teacher named social media platforms one by one. I guess she is out of every social media platform, may be she is the best kid others need to emulate.

You dont need to be an nyu professor to figure this out

Jonathan Haidt is becoming the wisest man in the world.

I was under protected as a kid and I have mental health issues and don’t see a problem with how the next generation is being raised other than the lack of training and trust around new technology

Not just technology. Anxiety is on the rise by the unrealistic expectations the school systems place on children too. The high demand they put on very young children is ridiculous! Let them be kids! They are also responsible. They sell our children to tech companies that constantly sell them “educational” programs that hook children into devices at very young age. Parents are forced to buy devices that are required by schools. So, the ban should be in schools and at home. But great point and a great start to this holistic conversation.

I am reading this book right now. It is excellent. The main points that I’m getting are that children require vigorous outside play real life play with other children. Over use of technology directly inhibits that. Parent should play a greater role in restricting excessive Internet usage Until an age when the child’s/teenagers brain is ready for it.

What if, in the end, the social media interaction was a superficial diagnosis? What if the current social media landscape simply highlights that there is no singular hierarchy and thus no place to be secured in it? It's been known for a long time that some personality types feel constant disorientation without explicit social strata and a way to locate oneself within them. I mean, look around. Status-seeking behavior hijacks ideation and we've cultivated that into personal insecurity on purpose so that consumers will buy things defensively, just to prove to others they deserve love or respect. I don't know. I just don't feel comfortable with single-answers to complex, multivariate problems. Haidt has himself a story and is selling books with it. He's the only one with good reason to invest in this hypothesis. And remember - that's all it is.

Mom says she doesn't like to protect her kid and stay in constant contact. And then she does exactly that. Mom, you are the reason your daughter is depressed.

She grabbed “Fruity Pebbles, ramen noodles, and Doritos”. Ironically, equally as dangerous.

you should need to be 18 to be on social media

i need to hear the reactions of these tech ceo's who know their genius ideas committed so much harm

Hey Babs, you're not wrong-- the phone is literally addicting. You're a smart kid. 👍🏻

Too protective in real life and not protective enough on the internet can be applied to adults as well.

Taking the car out alone the day after turning 16 was one of the most exhilarating things I did

honestly no smartphones before high school is similar to how I grew up for the most part.

Read all his books. Pretty powerful. Seeing Americans’ kids by the time they are 17-19, I will say this is not the parents’ fault completely. This is just how American youth are today: narcissistic, shallow, fine with distractedness, fine with diagnoses, and arrogant. They may change for the better, but I doubt it. Most of them will have life lessons smack them into awareness of just how unspecial they are, just much later than the previous norm for that wake-up call.

I just see a lot of people exposing their kids so they can be strong and normal and blah blah blah. There's a big difference between overprotecting and protecting your kids. What I see is a lot of irreversible consequences out of negligence and an extreme lack of discernment.

Yeah, and don’t be surprised when your kid doesn’t grow in life at the same rate you did. Everything in their life will be later than yours.

It is scary. They have a unique battle.

I'm not opposed to his ideology. My problem is that this doesn't work in a society such as we have in America. Other countries with thriving economies, lower rates of depression, active bodies, less health risks, higher education rates, and low factors of crime and gun restrictions can lean into this (i.e. Japan, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, etc...). Again, a place like America, it can not. We live in an fear based incubator due to the actual reality of what is continuing to take place here in the US and the dissolution of our quality of life.

I remember the Simpsons episode in which Marge asked Bart how many hours a day he watched television. His answer: “Six…Seven if there’s something good on”. That was in 1991. The cultural rot that blossomed in the arid dessert known as social media has roots in television. Let’s not neglect that.

It isn’t hard to keep your kids off of social media! You need to be a parent. They don’t need phones and once they have them set the controls to where they can not download apps.

People really won't get it, but the problem isn't technology, its the algorithms. Late millennials had social media, but the internet was a place, not a commodity like it is now.

I think the internet changes everything. Its not real, its just lights and mirrors, but it becomes the only reality kids have. Do kids go out and play and fight and race bikes and get hurt and get up and all this without a phone. No. We played outside till it was time to eat and in the summer we were so dirty the sweat left soot all over us. I loved being a kid cause I did not have to deal with my parents, just my peers. I remember one summer we found a big lot and we played baseball every chance we had all summer long. It was wonderful. All these decades later, it is still one of the sweetest memories. The baseball summer.

Jonathon Haight is awesome.

It's enjoyable when being with friends and not having my cellphone with me.

“I don’t want to say addicting” lol just say what it is

Why only children in America ? Have you forgotten the whole world ?

The fact that the male host expressed how unrealistic the ask is says it all.. haidt is on to something

I hope they’re not beating around the bush about inequality, precarity, and environmental degradation of all sorts, and how technology can intertwine with these 3 underlaying causes of depression

Information overload via free access to the internet has given me anxiety as a middle aged adult especially since the pandemic. These asks are the bare minimum to protect our families.

Lmao at Zuckerberg with his BS on no evidence 😂

“Its the caffeine,the nicotine,the miligrams of tar..” if you know,you know

2:00 4:33 5:25

The majority of people shouldn't be parents to begin with and to compensate for their lack of parenting skills - and because of their stupidity - they simply put a phone in their kids' hands and let that do the "work" for them. Any parent that gives their child a smartphone before that child can work and pay for it themselves should be ashamed of themselves.

The cell phone ruined society.

The tech companies have way too much power.

My question has always been, WHY? Why did parents of kids create an environment that has now resulted in this situation? Can't blame it on the technology, because parents are the ones that have allowed their kids to be attached to their phones and technology. The issue of helicopter parenting is the one that baffles me the most. Where and Why did/do Gen X parents and Millennial parents feel the need to over-parent their kids? It definitely was not the way our parents modeled behavior for us! It has ultimately created many kids that lack social skills and lack communication skills, but probably the most harmful, is a lot of them cannot handle any type of adversity or fall apart when something is hard or doesn't go their way. It has been a huge injustice to those kids, again I don't blame the kids, I blame the parents for raising them without thinking HOW it was going to affect their lives. Problem is, it will only get worse because those kids then raise kids and it will cycle out of control.

You can't compare how we live to back in the day when the option wasn't even there. OK, yes we like to track our 10 year old kid using technology but saying "Well we didn't do that 40 years ago". Ya we also didn't have air bags in cars so should we rip them all out? Our parents (in the 80-90s) also smoked 2 packs a day, should we go back there? The answer isn't in "how we used to do it" it's in adapting to what we have today. Maybe the first time our kid comes home and says "I'm depressed" we had them clean the entire basement.....maybe after that they wouldn't be so depressed. We give into our kids "feelings" WAY too much. "Oh little pookie, was 7th grade math hard today? Here have a hot coco and relax". We should be saying "Get used to it, now go shovel the driveway".

You’d have to think cell phones are the number one reason on this list.

Age 15 to 18 adolesants that work ADHD CAN PAY A PSYCHIATRIST