Virginia's first lady wisely refers to Jon Haidt's writing and research. If you haven't read the "Anxious Generation" or the "Codding of the American Mind" who should! He's a brilliant Yale professor who lays out the damage social media is doing to our young.
Protect Kids From Social Media
Smartphones have ‘rewired’ childhood. Virginia is doing something about it.
By Suzanne S. Youngkin, WSJ
Sept. 25, 2024 12:49 pm ET
When data reinforce lived realities, we need to pay attention. Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” demonstrates that social media and digital technology are contributing to rising mental-health issues among today’s youth.
As parents of four Generation Z children who grew up during the rise of the internet, Glenn and I found Mr. Haidt’s insights particularly harrowing. He argues that parents tend to overprotect children in the real world, where they need free play and independence, while underprotecting them in an increasingly predatory and toxic online world.
Mr. Haidt shows that childhood was “rewired” between 2010 and 2015. Products such as Instagram, iPhones and Snapchat became entwined with adolescent development. In 2011 only 35% of American households owned smartphones. By 2015 that figure grew to over 70%. The percentage of high-schoolers using social media “nearly every day” jumped from 51% in 2008 to 82% in 2015. Covid increased this overreliance on screens. Teens spend an average of 4.8 hours a day on social media.
The consequences were disastrous, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics. The adolescent suicide rate has risen 167% for girls and 91% for boys since 2010. Depression diagnoses were up 145% for girls and 161% for boys.
We can’t accept this as the new normal. Mr. Haidt offers a plan for change with four simple norms: No smartphones before high school, no social media before age 16, no phones in school, and more independence and free play in the real world.
My husband’s Executive Order 33, which establishes “bell to bell” cellphone-free education in Virginia, directly enacts the third norm. But we can’t mandate cultural change. We need to encourage it by studying the data, fostering conversations and taking action together.
Last week, Mr. Haidt and I hosted a discussion at a Virginia elementary school on protecting childhood. He emphasized that it isn’t too late to reverse these trends. His hope-filled message is available for viewing on the Virginia Department of Education’s YouTube page.
As a mother, I understand the pressures young people face. Changing the culture will take a collective effort and be challenging. Parents, teachers and school administrators are making that effort. Let’s come together in our communities and reclaim childhood.
Mrs. Youngkin is first lady of Virginia.
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