Haidt, Jonathan. “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now.” The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2024, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/03/teen-childhood-smartphone-use-mental-health-effects/677722/. by Philopater Habib

Central Claim

prh57 — 2024-10-13 16:59:23 UTC

Bring awareness to the fact that social media is negatively affecting children's social lives by not giving them a real childhood because endless scrolling is not realistic. Apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Tiktok, and Facebook have taught kids an unnatural way of living to where they are reliant on their devices all day, every day.

Subclaim 1: Kids mental health is declining because of their reliance on social media

prh57 — 2024-10-14 00:37:20 UTC

Kids who have been reliant on social media have had a negative effect on their mental health, because of how high their social anxiety and depression rates have increased.

Evidence 1

prh57 — 2024-10-14 00:48:04 UTC

"Human childhood and adolescence evolved outdoors, in a physical world full of dangers and opportunities. Its central activities––play, exploration, and intense socializing––were largely unsupervised by adults, allowing children to make their own choices, resolve their own conflicts, and take care of one another" (Haidt 12). This is significant because Haidt is trying to emphasize how humans evolved outdoors with excitement and interacting with nature and other humans, not sitting indoors scrolling through social media.

Evidence 2

prh57 — 2024-10-14 00:51:46 UTC

"In recent decades, seeing unchaperoned children outdoors has become so novel that when one is spotted in the wild, some adults feel it is their duty to call the police. In 2015, the Pew Research Center found that parents, on average, believed that children should be at least 10 years old to play unsupervised in front of their house, and that kids should be 14 before being allowed to go unsupervised to a public park" (Haidt 13). Haidt's intention here is to emphasize how kids playing outside alone has become such a phenomenon that some people call the cops because they think that the kids are in danger. Haidt is trying to show how the introduction of social media negatively affected people, specifically adult's views on other people making them only look like a threat.

Subclaim 2: Not only the children, but the adults too

prh57 — 2024-10-14 00:54:53 UTC

The introduction of social media did not only have an affect on the kids, but also the adults who supervise them because they know the negative affects of it. Through this, device and social media usage has increased dramatically.

Evidence 1

prh57 — 2024-10-14 00:59:32 UTC

"By 2003, 55 percent of American households had a computer with (slow) internet access. Rates of adolescent depression, loneliness, and other measures of poor mental health did not rise in this rst wave. If anything, they went down a bit. Millennial teens (born 1981 through 1995), who were the rst to go through puberty with access to the internet, were psychologically healthier and happier, on average, than their older siblings or parents in Generation X (born 1965 through 1980)" (Haidt 16). The introduction of the internet was fast approaching and the majority of American households were adopting the technology, little did they know what they were getting in to.

Evidence 2

prh57 — 2024-10-14 01:03:03 UTC

"In 2011, only 23 percent of teens had a smartphone. By 2015, that number had risen to 73 percent, and a quarter of teens said they were online “almost constantly.” eir younger siblings in elementary school didn’t usually have their own smartphones, but after its release in 2010, the iPad quickly became a staple of young children’s daily lives" (Haidt 17). With the introduction of all these new technologies, kids had so many ways to stay connected, whether they may or may not be old enough to own cell phones, they would stay connected through other means of technology, like computers and iPads.

Subclaim 3: Not only are cell phones costing money, but something more valuable: time

prh57 — 2024-10-14 01:34:06 UTC

The screen time of teenagers has grown significantly throughout the years. Kids and teens spend an average of 5 hours a day just sitting on their phones scrolling through social media.

Evidence 1

prh57 — 2024-10-14 01:36:41 UTC

"e numbers are hard to believe. e most recent Gallup data show that American teens spend about ve hours a day just on social-media platforms (including watching videos on TikTok and YouTube). Add in all the other phone- and screen-based activities, and the number rises to somewhere between seven and nine hours a day, on average" (Haidt 21). Haidt says that because of the addictiveness of social media, people are spending more than a third of their day on social media.

Evidence 2

prh57 — 2024-10-14 01:39:11 UTC

"I recently surveyed my students at NYU, and most of them reported that the very rst thing they do when they open their eyes in the morning is check their texts, direct messages, and social-media feeds. It’s also the last thing they do before they close their eyes at night. And it’s a lot of what they do in between" (Haidt 24). According to a survey conducted on NYU students, students are constantly glued to their devices, claiming its the first thing they look at when they wake up and the last thing they look at before sleep. Which is extremely unhealthy and sad because it shows how reliant a lot of people are on their devices.

Subclaim 4: More harm than help

prh57 — 2024-10-14 01:42:12 UTC

The constant use of social media is negatively affecting a lot of the aspects of people's lives, like their mental, physical, and emotional health. Because of the reliance on devices, people do not know how to approach other people because of how socially awkward they feel, which can be blamed on the devices.

Evidence 1

prh57 — 2024-10-14 01:44:54 UTC

"Staying on task while sitting at a computer is hard enough for an adult with a fully developed prefrontal cortex. It is far more difficult for adolescents in front of their laptop trying to do homework. ey are probably less intrinsically motivated to stay on task" (Haidt 31). Because of how mentally straining always staying on devices can be, some people are struggling to do their work even if they are using a laptop because of their constant need to check their phone for that notification.

Evidence 2

prh57 — 2024-10-14 01:54:05 UTC

"It even happens in the classroom. Studies con firm that when students have access to their phones during class time, they use them, especially for texting and checking social media, and their grades and learning suffer. is might explain why benchmark test scores began to decline in the U.S. and around the world in the early 2010s—well before the pandemic hit" (Haidt 32). Kids have become so addicted to their devices that if they ever get the chance to use them, like in school, they will, which have negative side affects, like bad grades.

Subclaim 5: Despite all the addiction, young people admit they do not like being this attached

prh57 — 2024-10-14 02:14:28 UTC

Despite the addiction that young people have to their phones, they admit that it is a problem and they must address it. The kids who have the addiction believe that it would be better for them to get rid of the phones in schools in order for them to improve their grades and social lives.

Evidence 1

prh57 — 2024-10-14 02:23:27 UTC

"With all the talk of regulating social media, raising age limits, and getting phones out of schools, you might expect to nd many members of Gen Z writing and speaking out in opposition. I’ve looked for such arguments and found hardly any" (Haidt 39-39). Here, Gen Z is recognizing the problem and are trying to find solutions for the addiction that they have brought themselves into. They want to try their best to step away from the devices and just live their lives as humans were intended to.

Evidence 2

prh57 — 2024-10-14 02:31:38 UTC

"A 27-year-old man who spent his adolescent years addicted (his word) to video games and pornography sent me this re flection on what that did to him:

I missed out on a lot of stuff in life—a lot of socialization. I feel the effects now: meeting new people, talking to people. I feel that my interactions are not as smooth and uid as I want. My knowledge of the world (geography, politics, etc.) is lacking. I didn’t spend time having conversations or learning about sports. I often feel like a hollow operating system" (Haidt 41). He realized that his addiction when he was younger negatively affected him to this day and he regrets it because of his lack of his social skills.

Subclaim 6: Action needs to be taken

prh57 — 2024-10-14 02:40:03 UTC

It is not only enough for parents, teachers, and administrators to advocate against the use of devices in classrooms and at home, but the government must do something as well. Congress must pass laws that limit kids and teens to overuse the internet and social media.

Evidence 1

prh57 — 2024-10-14 02:41:21 UTC

"Governors and state legislators have been much more effective, and their successes might let us evaluate how well various reforms work. But the bottom line is that to change norms, we’re going to need to do most of the work ourselves, in neighborhood groups, schools, and other communities" (Haidt 51). Government officials are already on board, like several governors and senators which could push to the ban of over usage of these devices.

Evidence 2

prh57 — 2024-10-14 02:43:10 UTC

"There are now hundreds of organizations––most of them started by mothers who saw what smartphones had done to their children––that are working to roll back the phone-based childhood or promote a more independent, real- world childhood" (Haidt 51). With the help of the government, it would be easier for parents to enforce strict rules on screen times for kids, which would increase the quality of their childhood by making it more fulfilling.

Key Words

prh57 — 2024-10-14 02:47:24 UTC

Loneliness/Friendlessness - teens who become lonely will look toward social media for validation and fake online friends
Social media platforms are designed for virality and addiction – the social media platforms, like twitter, facebook, Instagram, and snapchat are designed for kids to be completely addicted to them and to want to endlessly scroll which keeps them on the app more and makes the companies more money
Young people who are deprived of opportunities for risk taking and independent exploration will, on average, develop into more anxious and risk-averse adults – because all of the kids are on social media all of the time, they have no time to go and play outside, unlike their parents, and people fear that because they are indoors all of the time, that they will grow soft and will not be willing to take risks that can be good for them
A general decline in social capital-the degree to which people knew and trusted their neighbors and institutions – because of how social media has affected people, parents are scared to have their kids go outside because they know how social media affects people and they don’t know how it will affect their neighbors because they could go crazy

Broader Implications

prh57 — 2024-10-16 16:06:20 UTC

With technology being introduced into everyone's lives so rapidly, the next generation will be exposed to all the good and bad that the internet and social media offer. The internet may be good in allowing people to connect with others they would not normally connect with, and communicate with friends easier, But people are oblivious of the negative effects that this can have on people, especially on children and adolescents. There may be a lot of friendly communication on the internet, but there are some people out there who are not so nice, and they seek out to verbally harm other people just for their own amusement. Because of this, kids and teens have experienced a level of mental distress unlike anything doctors, psychiatrists, and psychologists have ever seen before. Teenagers have had increase in anxiety/panic attacks, self harm situation/suicidal thoughts, and suicide because of the negative implications that the internet has on these teenagers. Not only does it negatively affect the way they think and they're will to live, but it is also addicting. The majority of teenagers are on their phones for more than 6 hours daily, which is more time indoors than any previous generation has spent outdoors playing sports, and spending real time with friends. Haidt has dedicated this article to address this issue and bring awareness to what is happening to kids and teens these days and how to solve this ongoing issue.