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Phone negatively impacted children’s childhood.

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Phone negatively impacted children’s childhood.

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Social Media Promotes Addictive and Harmful Behavior

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Social Media Promotes Addictive and Harmful Behavior

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The Rise of Smartphones and Social Media Correlates with Declining Mental Health in Children

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The Rise of Smartphones and Social Media Correlates with Declining Mental Health in Children

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Parental Control and Institutional Responses Have Been Weak

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Parental Control and Institutional Responses Have Been Weak

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Childhood Has Shifted from Active Play to Passive Screen Time

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Childhood Has Shifted from Active Play to Passive Screen Time

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Haidt believes that smartphones and social media have caused more anxiety, depression, and self-harm in children and teenagers. He shows data that mental health problems, especially for girls, started rising quickly after 2010, when smartphones and social media became common. Research from Jean Twenge and the CDC also shows that self-harm and suicide rates have gone up a lot in the past ten years, especially for teenage girls.

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Haidt says that children have less free play and spend more time on screens. This takes away important experiences they need to grow. He shares research showing that talking face-to-face and playing help children control emotions, learn social skills, and become strong. Because they spend more time on screens instead of real-life activities, children have fewer ways to handle stress and problems.

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Social media apps are designed in a way that makes people get addicted to them easily. These apps have certain special systems. They give people small rewards, and these rewards make people feel happy, so people keep watching the apps. Haidt talked about some studies. These studies show that apps such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat bring about some problems. For example, there is social comparison, cyberbullying, and problems related to body image. And these problems are especially serious for girls. Haidt also mentioned Frances Haugen. She told others that Facebook and Instagram are aware that their apps can be bad for people, but they still do things to make people keep using these apps.

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Decline in Attention Spans and Academic Performance

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Decline in Attention Spans and Academic Performance

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Haidt says constantly using phones makes it tough for students. It's harder for them to focus, read well, and think in a deep way. He talks about research. This research shows that students who use phones a lot have problems. They can't pay attention, they forget things easily, and they don't do well in school. Some schools decided to limit how much students can use their phones. After that, these schools saw that students behaved better and learned better. This shows that Haidt is right. Too much time looking at screens is bad for how our brains grow and develop.

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Haidt says that parents, teachers, and leaders have not done enough to protect children from too much phone use. He disagrees with the idea that kids can control their own screen time because apps are made to be addictive. He suggests stricter rules, phone bans in schools, and changes in society to focus on children's health instead of digital life. Haidt warns that if nothing changes, young people will grow up feeling lonelier, more anxious, and less ready for adult life than any generation before.

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Haidt writes for parents, teachers, and people who make laws. These are the people who can change how kids use digital devices. He writes in a way that's both knowledgeable and easy to read. He explains complicated studies so everyone can understand. He uses examples that many people can relate to, like how kids have fewer real-life friends now and spend too much time on screens. Also, he says it's a public health problem, not just a family issue. This makes more people, like those who lead society, take it seriously and act quickly.

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1. More and more kids are using smartphones and social media, and this is linked to more anxiety, sadness, and loneliness. Research shows too much screen time makes kids feel worse about themselves and see bad things online. This means we really need to help kids use tech in a balanced way.

2. Today's children spend most of their time watching videos or playing games on screens instead of playing outside or talking face-to-face. This change means they don't get enough exercise, don't learn how to make friends easily, and don't use their imaginations as much. People worry this could hurt their overall growth.

3. Social media is made to be addictive with endless scrolling and notifications, making people use it too much. Teens especially struggle because they compare themselves to perfect online images, which makes them feel bad about their looks and more likely to be cyberbullied.

4. Phones and apps are always distracting kids, making it hard for them to focus on homework or reading. When they can't pay attention well, their schoolwork gets worse and they don't develop strong thinking skills.

5. Even though many people are worried, parents and schools aren't doing enough to fix screen overuse. Some parents make inconsistent rules, and schools don't have good plans to reduce the harm from too much screen time.

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Jonathan Haidt's article says smartphones and social media are badly hurting kids' mental and social growth. He points out that more mental health problems like anxiety and depression are happening because kids use phones more. Haidt shows data that real-life friendships are dropping while online validation becomes more important. He says social media is designed to be addictive, taking advantage of young brains. He asks for quick changes like waiting to give kids phones, better parental controls, and society working together to fix these problems. He calls this a public health problem, urging schools, parents, and leaders to act fast.

In my argument map, I organized Haidt's ideas clearly. First, I wrote his main claim: phones harm child development. Then I broke it into parts: mental health issues, less real social time, parents using phones to control kids, and tech companies causing addiction. Each part has evidence to explain his thinking step by step.

For my own Argumentative Essays, I'll copy how Haidt uses different kinds of evidence—facts, expert opinions, and past trends—to make stories that convince people. I'll also use emotional words to show how kids are hurt, like Haidt does. His strong, urgent tone helps people see this as a big problem right now.

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Jonathan，Haidt “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now

”March 13, 2024 https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/teen-childhood-smartphone-use-mental-health-effects/677722/ Accessed 28 February, 2025