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You probably know Jonathan Haidt as the guy trying to save your kids from smartphones and social media apps. Likely you’ve read The Anxious Generation, which has been translated into 44 languages and sold nearly 2 million copies. One might say that Jon is Elvis for 21st-century moms who don’t understand Discord.
But when Haidt gets written about decades from now, it will be for much more than this book and the powerful movement that came from it. I think he will be regarded as one of the most important writers of this epoch.
Because he has the remarkable ability to understand—and explain—our social condition. He holds up a mirror to us.
He did it with his book The Righteous Mind, which explained why people are so passionately divided over politics and religion. He did it again with The Coddling of the American Mind, co-written with Greg Lukianoff, which explored why young people—especially on college campuses—can become totally intolerant of opposing views. And in his latest book, The Anxious Generation, he asked the obvious question: Why are teens suddenly so unhappy? Why are they losing attention, self-confidence, and the ability to socialize? Perhaps it has something to do with the mesmerizing device in their hands.
In a world gone mad, Haidt has turned common sense into a radical mission. I sat down with him in front of a live audience in New York City to talk about how we got to this point—and where we go from here.
On the fatal dangers of social media:
Bari Weiss:There are two major calls to action in your book and in the movement around it: One is banning phones in schools; the second is making sure kids aren’t on social media before the age of 16. I want to allow you to talk about two stories that I think bring the necessity of those two policies to life. I’ve heard you speak to a mom named Kirsten, whose daughter developed a pretty serious eating disorder after she was bombarded with content on her TikTok’s “For You” page. Can you tell me a little bit about her and her daughter, and why that story is so emblematic to you?
