1. On this historic day, when the senate will vote on KOSA, a new survey of school principals conveys the scale of damage done by the phone-based childhood.


To those who say that this is just another moral panic, only 1% of principals agree with you: nbcnewyork.com/news/local/gen…
2. To those who say that mental health is not really getting worse, it's just that students are more aware or open, only 8% of principals agree with you:

Zuckerberg is wrong. There are now dozens of experiments showing causality. I laid out the evidence in these two posts:



afterbabel.com/p/social-media…
afterbabel.com/p/why-some-res…

https://twitter.com/julesterpak/status/1752717370483745159

If you are not convinced that the experiments show causality, then consider whether you'd make Pascal's wager. What are the costs of acting (if I turn out to be wrong), vs the costs of not acting (if Zuckerberg turns out to be wrong)?
afterbabel.com/p/why-some-res…

I wish I had not resigned from @APA in 2021 so that I could resign now.

This petition lays out the capture of APA by the oppressor/victim mindset, which is bad for psychologists, their research, their patients, and the country. I signed.

change.org/p/call-to-prot…
I began warning in 2011 that the loss of viewpoint diversity within psychology would have dire effects on the quality of our science and public support for our field. We were becoming a "tribal moral community" circling around sacralized victims

1. British people: Here is what has been happening to the mental health of your children since 2010.
Full story here:

jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/internationa… 2. Canadians: Here is what has been happening to the mental health of your children since 2010.
Full story here:

jonathanhaidt.substack.com/p/internationa…

1. In the debate over whether social media caused the teen mental illness epidemic, the loudest voice is the complete absence of Gen Zers saying “no.”

I have spoken at many high schools. Not once did a student say that social media was on the whole good for them. 2. Sure, some teens will point to some benefit of social media. Not all are harmed, and some say that on the whole they enjoy it. But all see the massive waste of time and the devastation it causes to many of their friends, and to their generation.

1. Journalists are increasingly concluding that the evidence is solid: social media and the transition to phone-based childhood is a major cause of the teen mental health epidemic. Here is @DLeonhardt:

nytimes.com/2023/02/27/bri… 2. Here are 2 good points from @DLeonhardt's column:

Thread:
1. Today I’m launching the After Babel Substack. It’s about how recent changes in technology made so many things go to to hell in the 2010s, especially teen mental health and liberal democracies

jonathanhaidt.substack.com 2. After Babel will be a blog I’ll keep as I write two books. I’ll share discoveries, hypotheses, and best readings. I’ll ask for criticism. This year I focus on 1st book, Kids In Space: Why Teen Mental Health is Collapsing. Why did the collapse start so suddenly around 2012?

Thread: In the early 2010s, something changed in the wiring of society, and things got weird -- first on campus, then everywhere. I've been struggling to understand it, writing a series of four articles in @TheAtlantic.

1) In 2015, with @glukianoff:
theatlantic.com/magazine/archi… 2) In 2019, with @TobiasRose

theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

1. I was saddened to read a student's account of how the intellectual climate has changed at UVA since I left in 2011, when it was wonderful.

It's not just @UVA, it's most schools... [thread]

nytimes.com/2022/03/07/opi… 2. At @HdxAcademy we just published our 2021 Campus Expression Survey, which backs up what Emma Camp writes about UVA: 60% of students say they are reluctant to discuss controversial issues; they are most afraid of other students.

heterodoxacademy.org/campus-express…

1. During a culture war, attacks by each side make the other side stronger. This is why @HdxAcademy does not fight the culture war. Rather, we are academics helping the academy to improve during a culture war. See all that we have accomplished in 2021:
heterodoxacademy.org/library/fiscal… 2. On p.3 we state our mission, vision, and 3-part strategy, on a single page:

1. In my latest in @TheAtlantic, I show that evidence is strong (though not perfect) that Instagram contributed to the large and sudden rise in teen girls' depression that began around 2013. Strong enough for regulators to act now. The case is 4 steps

theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/… 2. Step 1: Harm to teens is occurring on a massive scale.

There are so many studies showing elbows around 2013, especially for girls. See my google doc w @jean_twenge here:
docs.google.com/document/d/1di…

e.g., recent data on self harm from UK, from
bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.11…

1. In The Coddling, @glukianoff and I pointed to Instagram as a main suspect in the sudden rise of depression/anxiety among Gen Z girls that began around 2012.

New report: Facebook’s own internal research supports that hypothesis.

wsj.com/articles/faceb… 2. Some background: The increase in teen depression/anxiety is very large and sudden, around 2012, in USA, Canada, and UK. Bigger for girls. See this Google doc lit review with many graphs:

docs.google.com/document/d/1di…

Thread:
1. I join emerging consensus that “screen time” is not well-linked to mental health problems for teens. Yet @jean_twenge and I find that most studies that clear “screen time” do not clear social media for girls. Great summary by Markham Heid:

elemental.medium.com/kids-are-stari… 2. I've been persuaded by debate & discussion with @candice_odgers, @CJFerguson1111, @OrbenAmy & @ShuhBillSkee that some forms of “screen time” are good, esp when promoting synchronous interaction (FaceTime, Zoom, multiplayer video games); and of course many are educational.