Jonathan Haidt on Childhood, Play, and Social Media

Kids spend hours a day on their phones scrolling through social media. Many have debated whether all this social media use is bad for mental health, but there’s a more basic question that needs to be asked: Does all this social media use promote healthy development?

Does it help kids develop into well-formed adults? Does it help kids become resilient to the challenges they will face in their lives? And does it help kids learn how to interact constructively with their peers?

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Jonathan Haidt. Nat and Jon discuss the importance of imaginative and unstructured play; why parents are so restrictive when it comes to what their children can do in the real world yet so permissive when it comes to what they can do online; what the ideal playground looks like; why a little danger in play is important; whether technology use can explain recent test score trends; whether the social feedback kids get online helps them mature; and what parents and schools can do to push back against the encroachment of technology into kids’ lives.

Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business and the author of The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.

Show Notes:

After Babel

Let Grow