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cover of episode Jonathan Haidt on the Plague of Anxiety Affecting Young People

Jonathan Haidt on the Plague of Anxiety Affecting Young People

2024/4/19
logo of podcast The New Yorker Radio Hour

The New Yorker Radio Hour
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David Remnick
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Jonathan Haidt
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Jonathan Haidt: 智能手机和平板电脑的普及，特别是2008年App Store和2010年Instagram的出现，以及推送通知功能，导致了2012年和2013年青少年心理健康状况的急剧恶化。智能手机和社交媒体让青少年更容易分心，因为他们的大脑前额叶皮层尚未发育完全，缺乏冲动控制能力。2009年以后的社交媒体更注重“表演”和“病毒式传播”，加剧了青少年的焦虑。智能手机改变了人们的意识，它占据了人们生活的中心。即使青少年在一起，他们也可能各自使用手机，导致缺乏真正的互动和存在感。应该限制青少年接触社交媒体，而不是完全禁止互联网。智能手机和社交媒体对女孩的影响大于男孩，因为女孩更倾向于使用视觉平台，进行异步互动，并参与到更注重“表演”和“品牌管理”的社交活动中。在现实世界中，我们过度保护孩子，而在虚拟世界中，我们又保护不足。青春期是大脑发育的关键时期，而智能手机和社交媒体可能会对大脑发育产生持久的影响。关闭手机通知可以帮助青少年改善心理健康。 David Remnick: 青少年焦虑、抑郁和自残的发生率急剧上升，始于2010年代。一些评论家质疑Haidt关于社交媒体和青少年心理健康之间因果关系的论证。 David Remnick: 一些评论家质疑Haidt关于社交媒体和青少年心理健康之间因果关系的论证。

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This chapter introduces Jonathan Haidt's new book, 'The Anxious Generation,' which argues that smartphones and social media have led to a 'great rewiring' in the current generation. Haidt suggests that the constant use of these technologies from a young age has impacted not only their emotional well-being but also their neurological development. The chapter highlights the dramatic increase in mental health issues among young people, particularly after the introduction of the App Store and push notifications around 2008-2009.

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Both anecdotally and in research, anxiety and depression among young people—often associated with self-harm—have risen sharply over the last decade.  There seems little doubt that Gen Z is suffering in real ways.  But there is not a consensus on the cause or causes, nor how to address them.  The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt believes that enough evidence has accumulated to convict a suspect.  Smartphones and social media, Haidt says, have caused a “great rewiring” in those born after 1995.  The argument has hit a nerve: his new book, “The Anxious Generation,” was No. 1 on the New York Times hardcover nonfiction best-seller list.  Speaking with David Remnick, Haidt is quick to differentiate social-media apps—with their constant stream of notifications, and their emphasis on performance—from technology writ large; mental health was not affected, he says, for millennials, who grew up earlier in the evolution of the Internet. Haidt, who earlier wrote about an excessive emphasis on safety in the book “The Coddling of the American Mind,” feels that our priorities when it comes to child safety are exactly wrong.  “We’re overprotecting in [the real world], and I’m saying, lighten up, let your kids out! And we’re underprotecting in another, and I’m saying, don’t let your kids spend nine hours a day on the Internet talking with strange men. It’s just not a good idea.” To social scientists who have asserted that the evidence Haidt marshals does not prove a causative link between social media and depression, “I keep asking for alternative theories,” he says. “You don’t think it’s the smartphones and social media—what is it? … You can give me whatever theory you want about trends in American society, but nobody can explain why it happened so suddenly in 2012 and 2013—not just here but in Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Northern Europe. I’m waiting,” he adds sarcastically, “for someone to find a chemical.” The good news, Haidt says, is there are achievable ways to limit the harm.  

*Note: In his conversation with David Remnick, Jonathan Haidt misstated some information about a working paper that studies unhappiness across nations. The authors are David G. Blanchflower, Alex Bryson, and Xiaowei Xu, and it includes data on thirty-four countries. *