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Youth Toolkit

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Integrating expertise across technology, mindfulness, and educational instruction, this interactive toolkit helps young people navigate - and push to change - a broken social media environment.

Each guide contains questions and activities that can be self-directed or worked through in a group or classroom setting. Each guide can be useful on its own, though they are best when used as a full curriculum. They are designed for educators to use with youth ages 13-25 but can be used by anyone to learn about these issues and to push for a humane, sustainable, and equitable future.

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Guides for Healthy Tech Use for Kids & Youth - Center for Humane Technology

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We've provided a guide for educators to encourage more healthy and humane tech use with youth aged 13-25. However, this guide will be useful for anyone looking to encourage a more humane and sustainable future.

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In a recent article written for Slate, journalist Dan Kois recounts the shock his younger coworkers expressed when they discovered that he had, earlier in his career, earned a master's degree while working a full-time job. "It was easy," he explained:

"I worked at a literary agency during the day, I got off work at 5 p.m., and I studied at night. The key was that this was just after the turn of the millennium. 'But what would you do when you had work emails?' these coworkers asked. 'I didn't get work emails,' I said. 'I barely had the internet in my apartment.'"

In his article, Kois goes on to interview other members of Generation X about their lives in the early 2000s, before the arrival of smartphones or even widely available internet. They shared tales of coming home and just watching whatever show happened to be on TV (maybe "Seventh Heaven," or "Law and Order"). They also talked about going to the movies on a random weekday evening because they had nothing else to do, or just heading to a bar where they hoped to run into friends, and often would.
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I found myself recently, as one does, watching the mini-documentary featurettes included on the DVD for the popular 2014 Keanu Reeves movie, John Wick - an enjoyably self-aware neon noir revenge-o-matic, filmed cinematically on anamorphic lenses.

At the core of John Wick's success are the action sequences. The movie's director, Chad Stahelski, is a former stuntman who played Reeve's double in The Matrix trilogy and subsequently made a name for himself as a second unit director specializing in filming fights. When Reeves asked Stahelski to helm Wick, he had exactly this experience in mind. Stahelski rose to the challenge, making the ambitious choice to feature a visually-arresting blend of judo, jiu-jitsu, and tactical 3-gun shooting. In contrast to the hand-held, chaotic, quick-cutting style that defines the Bourne and Taken franchises, Stahelski decided to capture his sequences in long takes that emphasized the balletic precision of the fighting.

The problem with this plan, of course, is that it required Keanu Reeves to become sufficiently good at judo, jiu-jitsu, and tactical 3-gun shooting so as not to look clumsy for Stahelski's stable camera. Reeves was game. According to the featurette I watched, to prepare for production, he trained eight hours a day, four months in a row. The effort paid off. The action set pieces in the movie were show-stopping, and after initially struggling to find a distributor, the film, made on a modest budget, went on to earn $86 million, kicking off a franchise that has since brought in hundreds of millions more.
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Believe it or not, one of the most important technology announcements of the past few months had nothing to do with artificial intelligence. While critics ... Read more

Not long ago, my kids' school asked me to give a talk to middle school students and their parents about smartphones. I've written extensively on the intersection of technology and society in both my books and New Yorker articles, but the specific issue of young people and phones is one I've only tackled on a small number of occasions (e.g., here and here). This invited lecture therefore provided me a great opportunity to bring myself up to speed on the research relevant to this topic.

I was fascinated by what I discovered.

In my talk, I ended up not only summarizing the current state-of-the-art thinking about kids and phones, but also diving into the history of this literature, including how it got started, evolved, adjusted to criticism, and, over the last handful of years, ultimately coalesced around a rough consensus.

Assuming that other people might find this story interesting, I recorded a version of this talk for Episode 246 of my podcast, Deep Questions. Earlier today, I also released it as a standalone video. If you're concerned, or even just interested, in what researchers currently believe to be true about the dangers involved in giving a phone to a kid before they're ready, I humbly suggest watching my presentation.

In the meantime, I thought it might be useful to summarize a few of the more interesting observations that I uncovered:
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Based on a tip from a reader, I recently tumbled down an esoteric rabbit hole aimed at the writing habits of the novelist Danielle Steel. Even if you don't read Steel, you've almost certainly heard of her work. One of the best-selling authors of all time, Steel has written more than 190 books that have cumulatively sold over 800 million copies. She publishes multiple titles per year, often juggling up to five projects simultaneously. Unlike James Patterson, however, who also pushes out multiple books per year, Steel writes every word of every manuscript by herself.

How does she pull this off? She works all the time. According to a 2019 Glamour profile, Steel starts writing at 8:30 am and will continue all day and into the night. It's not unusual for her to spend 20 to 22 hours at her desk. She eats one piece of toast for breakfast and nibbles on bittersweet chocolate bars for lunch. A sign in her office reads: "There are no miracles. There is only discipline."
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In recent months, I've received quite a few emails from readers expressing concerns about ChatGPT. I remained quiet on this topic, however, as I was writing a big New Yorker piece on this technology and didn't want to scoop my own work. Earlier today, my article was finally published, so now I'm free to share my thoughts.

If you've been following the online discussion about these new tools you might have noticed that the rhetoric about their impact has been intensifying. What started as bemused wonder about ChatGPT's clever answers to esoteric questions moved to fears about how it could be used to cheat on tests or eliminate jobs before finally landing on calls, in the pages of the New York Times, for world leaders to "respond to this moment at the level of challenge it presents," buying us time to "learn to master AI before it masters us."

The motivating premise of my New Yorker article is the belief that this cycle of increasing concern is being fueled, in part, by a lack of a deep understanding about how this latest generation of chatbots actually operate. As I write:
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An article appearing last month in the Los Angeles Times book section opens with a nondescript picture of a young man in a Hawaiian shirt standing in front of a brick wall. The caption is arresting: "Taylor Koekkoek is one of the best short-story writers of his (young) generation. So why haven't you heard of him?"

On March 21st, Koekkoek (pronounced, cook-cook) published his debut short story collection, Thrillville, USA. Those who have read it seem to love it. The Paris Review called it a "raw and remarkable debut story collection." The author of the LA Time s piece braved a blizzard in a rental car just for the chance to interview Koekkoek at his Oregon house. And yet, the book has so far escaped wide notice: At the time of this writing, its Amazon rank is around 175,000.

The LA Times provides some insight into this state of affairs:
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Back in 2016, I reported on a rumor that was circulating about employee dissatisfaction at Meta (then, Facebook). Developers, it seemed, were unhappy with the company's trendy, but also unbearably noisy and distracting, 8-acre open office floor plan.

"Developers need to concentrate," explained an amused Joel Spolsky at a conference that year, before going on to add that Facebook was paying a 40 - 50% premium for talent because people didn't want to work under those conditions. A commentator on my essay pointed to a podcast episode where Facebook insiders claim that the open office was never more than 30% occupied. "Apparently, the majority of people that work there make sure that they are away from their desk when they need to get work done," he explained.
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Study Hacks - Decoding Patterns of Success - Cal Newport

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The Study Hacks blog by author and professor Cal Newport - on deep work, success, productivity, work-life balance.

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Your Undivided Attention w/ Tristan Harris

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Your Undivided Attention w/ Tristan Harris

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In our podcast, Your Undivided Attention, co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin explore the unprecedented power of emerging technologies: how they fit into our lives, and how they fit into a humane future.

Join us every other Thursday as we confront challenges and explore solutions with a wide range of thought leaders and change-makers - like Audrey Tang on digital democracy, neurotechnology with Nita Farahany, getting beyond dystopia with Yuval Noah Harari, and Esther Perel on Artificial Intimacy: the other AI.

Your Undivided Attention is produced by Executive Producer Sasha Fegan and Senior Producer Julia Scott. Our Associate Producers are Sara McCrea and Kirsten McMurray. We are a top tech podcast worldwide with more than 23 million downloads and a member of the TED Audio Collective.

Do you have a question for Tristan and Aza to answer on the podcast? Click here to fill out this form.

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Your Undivided Attention Podcast - Center for Humane Technology

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Co-hosts Tristan Harris and Aza Raskin explore the incredible power that technology has over our lives and how we can use it to catalyze a humane future. We explore solutions with a wide-range of thought leaders, change-makers, and whistleblowers. Now part of the TED Audio Collective.

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The dilemma

Never before have a handful of tech designers had such control over the way billions of us think, act, and live our lives.

The Mental Health Dilemma

A 5,000 person study found that higher social media use correlated with self-reported declines in mental and physical health and life satisfaction.

- American Journal of Epidemiology, 2017

The Democracy Dilemma

The # of countries with political disinformation campaigns on social media doubled in the past 2 years.

- New York Times, 2019

The Discrimination Dilemma

64% of the people who joined extremist groups on Facebook did so because the algorithms steered them there.

- Internal Facebook report, 2018

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The Social Dilemma - A Netflix Original documentary

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We tweet, we like, and we share- but what are the consequences of our growing dependence on social media? Discover what's hiding on the other side of your screen in this new documentary film Netflix - The Social Dilemma.

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Nelda Live Ep. 40 |  Nicholas Carr | How Technology is Affecting our Brains

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Welcome To The Cult Factory: A Conversation with Tristan Harris (Episode #218)

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Sam Harris speaks with Jaron Lanier about the economics, politics, and psychology of our digital lives. They discuss the insidious idea that information should be free, what we should want from an advanced economy, the role of advertising, libertarianism in Silicon Valley, the problems with social media, and other topics.

Jaron Lanier is a scientist, musician, and writer best known for his work in virtual reality and his advocacy of humanism and sustainable economics in a digital context. His 1980s start-up VPL Research created the first commercial VR products and introduced avatars, multi-person virtual world experiences, and prototypes of major VR applications such as surgical simulation. His books Who Owns the Future? and You Are Not a Gadget were international bestsellers, and Dawn of the New Everything was named a 2017 best book of the year by The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, and Vox. His most recent book is 10 Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now.
Episodes that have been re-released as part of the Best of Making Sense series may have been edited for relevance since their original airing.

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Sam Harris speaks with Jaron Lanier about the economics, politics, and psychology of our digital lives.

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Why I Left Twitter: A Conversation with Cal Newport (Episode #304)

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Jaron Lanier - Ten Reasons for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

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Jaron Lanier - Ten Reasons for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

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Nicholas Carr - The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

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Nicholas Carr - The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains

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Powtoon | Create Awesome Videos Yourself

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Powtoon gives you everything you need to easily make professional videos and presentations that your clients, colleagues, and friends will love! No design or tech skills are necessary - it's free, easy, and awesome!

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Feature Films Short Films Extras Pixar In Concert Art Exhibition Pixar In A Box The Science Behind Pixar Theatrical Shorts SparkShorts Cars Toons Toy Story Toons Home Entertainment

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A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.

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Niel Postman - The Disappearance of Childhood

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Niel Postman - The Disappearance of Childhood

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DPLA provides free digital access to banned books

DPLA has launched The Banned Book Club to ensure that all readers have access to the books they want to read. The Banned Book Club makes e-book versions of banned books available to readers in locations across the United States where titles have been banned via the free Palace e-reader app.

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The Digital Public Library of America brings together the riches of America's libraries, archives, and museums, and makes them freely available to the world.

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MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials

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MIT OpenCourseWare is a web based publication of virtually all MIT course content. OCW is open and available to the world and is a permanent MIT activity

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Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

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A majority of teenagers in the United States reported becoming distracted when using digital devices in class, and it has some correlation with their academic performance, according to results from the 2022 Program for International Student Assessment.

The PISA questionnaire, which the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation administers to 15-year-olds every three years, asked students how often they were distracted by using digital devices (such as smartphones, websites, or apps) during their math lessons and how often they were distracted by other students using those resources.

About two-thirds of U.S. students reported that they get distracted by using digital devices, and about 54 percent said they get distracted by other students who are using those resources, the PISA results found.

Those numbers are on par with the global average: 65 percent of students in countries that are part of the OECD said they get distracted by using digital devices, and 59 percent reported getting distracted by other students who are using digital devices.

These distractions show a strong correlation with lower academic performance, according to the report analysis. On average across OECD countries, students who said that they were distracted by other students using digital devices in class in at least some math lessons scored 15 points lower in mathematics than those who reported that this never or almost never happens.

The results "highlight the importance of finding effective ways to limit the distraction caused by using digital devices in class," according to the report.

Many schools and districts in the United States have restricted student cellphone use during the school day because the devices have become an enormous distraction in the classroom. A Common Sense Media report found that teenagers receive a median of 273 notifications a day, with nearly a quarter coming in during school hours. U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation that would require a study on the effects of cellphone use in schools on students' mental health and academic performance.

In the Brush school district in Colorado, Superintendent Bill Wilson said part of the reasoning for restricting cellphone use during instructional hours in his district is to help students "focus on learning and take one element of distraction and disruption out of their life at least for the time that they were at school."

However, most U.S. schools now also have 1-to-1 computing environments in which every student has a school-issued learning device, and those digital devices can be a distraction, too. It's more challenging to completely restrict laptop use in class when much of student learning now happens online. Many educators are simply being more intentional about when and how they use digital devices in the classroom.

"We're really working hard to be very mindful of what we choose to put kids on computers for," said Kristy Zaleta, the principal of Rogers Park Middle School in Danbury, Conn. For instance, students can use their laptops to practice math lessons using personalized learning software, but that practice time is limited to 30-45 minutes per week in school. Other lessons revolve around physical manipulatives and hands-on activities, she said.

The following charts show how often students are distracted by their own use of digital devices as well as other factors related to students' use of technology, according to the 2022 PISA data.

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Digital Distractions in Class Linked to Lower Academic Performance

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The 2022 Program for International Student Assessment found that two-thirds of U.S. students get distracted by digital devices in class.