How can you apply Jonathan Haidt’s four rules for raising low-tech kids in a digital world?

Why is the “great rewiring of childhood” driving a mental health crisis for Gen Z?

Explore the critical link between early smartphone use and rising teen anxiety. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt offers a proven roadmap to reverse childhood phone addiction, implement effective digital detoxes, and restore independent play.

If you are ready to break the cycle of digital dependence, continue reading to master the four essential strategies for restoring a healthy, play-based childhood for your family.

Recommendation

Gen Z is experiencing increased anxiety and a decline in meaningful social interactions, due to the prevalence of smartphones in their early childhood. Yet, parents and schools largely fail to protect today’s children from the adverse impacts of smartphone use.​​​​​ According to social psychologist and NYU professor Jonathan Haidt, enough is enough. It’s time to stop buying young kids smartphones, says Haidt, and encourage them to play outside more. Learn about four steps you can take to protect youth mental health and start supporting kids in digitally detoxing from their screens.

Take-Aways

• Smartphone usage has dramatically changed the experience of childhood for younger generations.
• Create digital detox opportunities for stressed-out youth addicted to their screens.
• Follow Jonathan Haidt’s four recommendations to protect teenage mental wellness.

Summary

Smartphone usage has dramatically changed the experience of childhood for younger generations.

In just five years, between 2010 and 2015, a “great rewiring of childhood” occurred. Children started spending less time playing together in person and more time staring at screens, where companies attempted to grab their attention with the intention of selling products. Gen Z differs from previous generations because they’re the first generation to get smartphone and social media access before they hit puberty, which cut down on time spent playing with their friends in person. Despite the fact that social media is contributing to higher levels of anxiety among gen Z, as social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and interviewer Simon Sinek discuss, it can be tough to quit these highly addictive platforms: Users get a “dopamine hit” when using them, much like smokers.

“How is it that an entire generation is now sucked into this terrible, terrible way to grow up?” (Jonathan Haidt)

As a professor of graduate MBA and undergraduate courses at NYU, Haidt explains that his gen Z students often report that social media diminishes their happiness levels and productivity. Yet students say they can’t quit because “everyone else is on it,” and they believe they’d miss out on career opportunities and social engagement. Younger generations aren’t the only ones spending less time engaging in meaningful interactions; democracy itself is unraveling, as politicians now play more to an internet audience, arguing on platforms such as X (Twitter), which fuels increased polarization. As Sinek points out, a push to spend less time playing to an imagined audience and more time having genuine, in-person interactions, is a necessary part of the “restoration of humanity,” whether among government workers or children.

Create digital detox opportunities for stressed-out youth addicted to their screens.

Constant smartphone usage is distracting children in classrooms, given that they’re doing everything ranging from gambling online to streaming sexually explicit content instead of paying attention. Tech companies have created what social scientists refer to as a “collective action problem”: If everyone were to stop buying kids smartphones, they’d better protect their mental well-being and focus, yet parents don’t take individual action, because they believe doing so would put them at too much of a disadvantage. If you’re a parent, you may find yourself buying a smartphone for your young child, despite being aware of the potential mental health risks, because you don’t want your child to “miss out” on using a smartphone if their peers already have one.​​​​​

“It’s insane that we let kids have the greatest distraction device ever invented.” (Jonathan Haidt)

Take steps to help children digitally detox from smartphones. Consider, for example, hosting phone-free events — Sinek suggests taking children’s smartphones and putting them “in a bucket,” while giving your number to the other parents so they know how to reach out in case of an emergency. Like any addicts, children are going to experience “withdrawal symptoms,” such as acting out, when they first lose access to their phones, but parents should stick with it, because after a while, smartphone-free children and adults alike see numerous benefits, such as enjoying the present moment and each other’s company more fully. If sending your child to digitally detox for three to four weeks or more at summer camp is a possibility, consider doing so: At camp, children’s dopamine neurons will have time to reset, and children will come back home with a happier disposition which will last until they start using their phones again.

Follow Jonathan Haidt’s four recommendations to protect teenage mental wellness.

Doing the following four things — which cost parents and schools virtually nothing — can help improve the mental health of young people:

1. Save smartphones for high school — Consider buying yourself and your children a less addictive phone model without social media functionality, such as a flip phone.
2. Keep children under 16 off social media — Research shows that boys and girls spend about five hours every single day on social media, which includes content streaming platforms such as TikTok.
3. Push for “phone-free schools” — It’s time to break up with smartphones in the classroom. Schools can enable this by offering parents assurances that they can contact their children quickly in case of emergency.
4. “Free-range kids” — Children should be allowed to play independently on their own and given more personal responsibility.

About the Podcast

Jonathan Haidt is a social psychologist and a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He’s the author of books including The Anxious Generation and The Coddling of the American Mind.