This is just the latest of many books that I have read after already having formed an positive opinion about the contents, and then had that opinion confirmed. It makes it hard to evaluate a book when I know it is just telling me what I want to hear. So, I think this book is great! But maybe I wouldn't think it was as great if I didn't go in already agreeing. I will say that it's probably a little longer than it needs to be. But still.
One of the most useful pieces of analysis in the book is about what specific aspects of social media and the internet cause problems for teenagers (although I think it applies to adults as well). He divides the problem in two: overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world. The "real world" is characterized by four features. First are embodied interactions, meaning communicating with a person in a way that two bodies are together in space and can communicate with body language. Second is that communication is synchronous, and interaction is one-to-one or one-to-several. And finally, communications take place in communities with high bars to entry and exit. As in, when you talk to people in real life, you are usually tied to that person by work, family, or friendship, and what they say is unlikely to make you drop that relationship immediately--or, conversely, if a stranger, then what they say is unlikely to bring them up to friend, family, or coworker level. On the other hand, communication in the virtual world is disembodied, asynchronous, involves tons of one-to-many (not just several) conversations, and conversations take place in communities with low bars to entry and exit. When people talk to strangers or internet acquaintances on the internet, it is easy to get into an internet relationship and easy to drop it.
Haidt does a good job of showing how the development of different aspects of the internet resulted in a critical mass sometime in the mid-2010s that caused a mental health crisis among teenagers. First, high-speed broadband came about in the mid-2000s. Then, the iPhone arrived in 2007 (although it wasn't until the App Store came out and was popularized in 2008-09 that it had its biggest effects). In 2009, the "like" and "retweet"/"share" buttons came out, which completely changed social media from a way to connect with real-life friends into something that created "virality." Finally, the trend of posting way more images than text skyrocketed when phones added front-facing cameras in 2010 and Facebook acquired Instagram in 2012 (Instagram was already popular but became more popular). Haidt basically leaves it there in terms of the creation of the social media environment that started a mental health crisis for teenagers in the 2010s. I would also say there was something that went on software-wise. I don't know the technical aspects, but I remember a big discussion about "the algorithm" in the early to mid-2010s and how it was creating polarization in American society. With the development of virality, the algorithms tended to show people what they already agreed with, politically. I know that in the late 2010s, there was also a de-emphasis of political content as a reaction to that, and also a "shift to video." Also in the mid-2010s, dating apps became totally normalized, where online dating had been unusual and stigmatized before. Probably the last remaining major shift in social media to present is the arrival of short-form, swipeable video. One shift that happened in the real world that is important in causing more kids to turn to social media was the diminution of social trust in the real world due to a rising awareness of child sex abuse and "stranger danger."
Haidt's proposals include: no smartphones before high school, no social media before 16, phone-free schools, and far more unsupervised play and childhood independence. In order to increase unsupervised play, Haidt endorses seven solutions: (1) practice letting your kids out of your sight without them having a way to reach you, (2) encourage sleepovers, and don't micromanage them, (3) encourage walking to school in a group, (4) after school is for free play, (5) go camping, (6) find a sleepaway camp with no devices and no safetyism, and (7) form child-friendly neighborhoods and play-borhoods.
All in all, I think these recommendations and diagnoses are largely applicable to adults as well as children. While children may be in a more obvious path of development, I think adults are developing too. All people are affected by social media, at least in the most basic sense of opportunity cost, and probably more so in true negative effects from online dating and comparison of one's own real life with others' publicized lives on social media. Social media connections are great when they take a relationship or lack thereof and increase the quality of communication. But it is all too common to use social media as a way to decrease communication to a "good enough" level, where a text replaces a call or a call replaces an in-person interaction. While kids and teenagers are especially at risk, all people are less happy when they have less in-person communication with their community.
Miscellaneous:
- I just thought this was a good description of teenage social media-induced depression: "A girl who feels her value sinking is a girl experiencing rising anxiety. If her sociometer drop is sharp enough, she may become depressed and consider suicide. For depressed or ostracized teens, physical death offers the end of pain, whereas social death is a living hell."
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