User Profile

Eric Ireland

EricIreland@bookwyrm.social

Joined 4 years ago

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Eric Ireland's books

Currently Reading

Jonathan Haidt: The Anxious Generation (2024, Penguin Publishing Group)

The Anxious Generation

Haidt argues the introduction of smart phones around 2012, with the resulting constant access to social media, has caused the decline in teen girls' mental health around the world, along with the loss of freedom as parents became more worried about "stranger danger". Research seems pretty robust to me, even though it cannot prove causation. I'm old so I grew up without mobile phones or internet, riding my bike around the suburbs. Even if the thesis of the book is wrong, I think a free range, smart-phone free childhood is not going to kill anyone, so why not try it? The only problem is that if your kid is the only one who doesn't have a smart phone or social media, they'll feel left out. So it's good to try and get your kids' friends' parents to ban the smart phones too. As regards letting kids roam the neighbourhood, I …

Sonia Orchard: Groomed (Paperback, Affirm Press)

​Sonia Orchard was in her forties when she told a therapist about the boyfriend she …

Suspenseful personal story of historical abuse

Orchard snuck into a nightclub in Melbourne in 1985 when she was 15, and met a 26 year old man. She went to a therapist 30+ years later, who encouraged her to report it. Great page turner. I had to keep reading to find out whether the bastard got it in the end. You can probably guess.