The briefest possible summary of The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Interestingly, both Jonathan Haidt and Scott Galloway are faculty at the NYU Stern School of Business, and I've read both their books recently. I signed up for a book club (!) that was going to discuss The Anxious Generation and I've recently finished the book. A few thoughts:

We live in a world that allowed this to happen: In a world that made gas chambers, leaded petrol, chlorofluorocarbons, and uncontrollable amounts of climate change, perhaps it fits the pattern to have a few technology behemoths take control over the minds (via the attention) of not only an entire generation, but also much of communicable culture. It is also ironic that these technologies steal precisely the attention that would allow someone to realise these technologies' harms by disguising them as pleasure. 

It's not too late: Haidt strategically pushes to introduce four behavioural norms that solve collective action problems - namely, if my child doesn't have Instagram while everyone else in their class does, my child will be the outcast. Alternatively, if my social media company doesn't target 10-year olds, then this other company will and I'll lose out. These norms are: (1) no smartphones before high schools, (2) no social media before 16, (3) phone-free schools, (4) more independence, play and responsibility in the real world. All of these sound wonderful. I think we should have these norms for a start. Parents and school teachers are already worried about these things, which will help grassroot implementations of these norms.

Everyone needs a life outside - or, you should touch grass: Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport was presumably written for working adults - people who didn't grow up in the Anxious Generation. I'm someone who very much had my adolescent years immersed in social media. All I can say is: I think my life growing up would have been a lot better if everyone played with each other and went outdoors a lot more. I wasn't personally obsessed with technology use, but it was present insofar as it appeared to provide a social life that wasn't readily available in school. For a while, I've been trying to reconfigure my life to get those needs met, and I'm curious what new experiences I'll have.

This is an interesting and important book. Even though the story sounds old - a new technology is bad for people - we must recognise that there is a difference not in degree, but in kind. No previous technological development has had the same capability to assault our attention and dopamine circuits as much as smartphones coupled with social media. I'll want to write about this book again with more nuance and detail, but that's for a subsequent day. Until then, happy surviving.