We Don’t Have to Give In to the Smartphones.
By Jonathan Haidt, Will Johnson, and Zach Rausch
Since the dawn of the television age, parents have struggled to limit or guide their children’s screen time.
But with the arrival of smartphones that can — and do — go everywhere and with social media apps that teenagers now use for an average of five hours every day, many parents feel a sense of resignation. The struggle has been lost. Parents who try to delay giving a smartphone until high school or social media until 16 know that they’ll face the plaintive cry from their children: “But I’m the only one!”
To better understand the tensions over technology playing out in American families, we worked with the Harris Poll to conduct two surveys. As we reported last year, our survey of 1,006 members of Gen Z found that many young people feel trapped — tethered to digital products like TikTok and Snapchat. Nearly half of all participants expressed regret about having access to many of the most popular social media platforms.
Read the full The New York Times article.
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Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership.