How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
English language
Published 2024 by Penguin Publishing Group.
It is a well written book. However, like most of these non fiction books I feel 20 pages would have been enough since the core thesis is really easy to grasp.
I read this because I am an educator and because I have a toddler that will be growing up in a world that favors screen time above all else. Some things are definitely worth considering (like allowing kids to have more unstructured time and responsibilities) but there’s almost no call to reform social media. There’s an explanation about why they are addicting and a push to get kids on it later, even some suggestions for legislation but almost nothing about protecting consumer privacy and the algorithms that highlight information about eating disorders to young users. Social media needs to be regulated. Otherwise banning screens at school will do little when kids are awake at 2am still scrolling. The book also suggests that the increase in people that are transgender is the latest “internet fad” which was an unnecessary paragraph in my opinion.
If you combine this book with Pete Etchells' Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time, you'll probably find a good balance of information on this subject. There are other books on this subject which will likely highlight other angles, I just haven't read them yet. ;)
Jonathan clearly understands the situation we are in, but appears to have very black and white thinking on this subject, which is an honestly natural and completely human reaction to watching two generations of kids seriously damaged by smartphones, in real time.
We can absolutely pull Gen Alpha back from the brink, but Gen Z will be the most scarred by indiscriminate access to social media via smartphones.
There are a couple of areas I didn't agree with at all, but I will keep those to myself as I think they are important as discussion points, but not to the extent implied.
I didn't …
If you combine this book with Pete Etchells' Unlocked: The Real Science of Screen Time, you'll probably find a good balance of information on this subject. There are other books on this subject which will likely highlight other angles, I just haven't read them yet. ;)
Jonathan clearly understands the situation we are in, but appears to have very black and white thinking on this subject, which is an honestly natural and completely human reaction to watching two generations of kids seriously damaged by smartphones, in real time.
We can absolutely pull Gen Alpha back from the brink, but Gen Z will be the most scarred by indiscriminate access to social media via smartphones.
There are a couple of areas I didn't agree with at all, but I will keep those to myself as I think they are important as discussion points, but not to the extent implied.
I didn't have internet access at all until my twenties, and I agree that the moment we let techbros put smartphones in our hands, we basically sold our souls to Big Tech; forever too distracted by the 24/7 pull of mobile internet to pay attention to what was happening to kids who'd never known anything else, until it had dire consequences.
This book started off really strongly, discussing something that is up there with climate change for me as a crisis everyone seems aware of but doesn't really ever move in a positive direction.
I resonate with a lot of what Haidt says even though I feel like I only caught the early beginnings of this with myspace and mmos. I can't imagine what it would be like to grow up now with social media a huge fixture of my life.
The second half of the book was very disappointing, it felt like he repeats the same two or three collective action points which left me feeling a bit hopeless. I do wonder whether it is too late and we need to lean into changing social media into a positive force and supporting kids using it.
The idea of risky play and overly defensive parenting also strikes a chord, but as …
This book started off really strongly, discussing something that is up there with climate change for me as a crisis everyone seems aware of but doesn't really ever move in a positive direction.
I resonate with a lot of what Haidt says even though I feel like I only caught the early beginnings of this with myspace and mmos. I can't imagine what it would be like to grow up now with social media a huge fixture of my life.
The second half of the book was very disappointing, it felt like he repeats the same two or three collective action points which left me feeling a bit hopeless. I do wonder whether it is too late and we need to lean into changing social media into a positive force and supporting kids using it.
The idea of risky play and overly defensive parenting also strikes a chord, but as I'm not a parent I'll reserve my opinion on how best to parent. I certainly remember the scrapes and close calls fondly.
