Author Jonathan Haidt discusses "The Anxious Generation"

rates of depression anxiety and suicide among young people have risen dramatically in the last decade a much buzzed about book out this week tracks the possible causes and potential solutions for what author Jonathan hike calls the anxious generation Brook Silva Braga met the NYU sociologist as he made his case for four dramatic changes in the way America raises its children this has to stop using little more than a whisper voice in a PowerPoint presentation Jonathan height is attempting a Kind of Revolution we have overprotected our children in the real world and how old they were when they could first Venture away from home on their own yell out your age okay so that's what I always find 6 to8 that was the norm then he asks them to shout out the age they've given their own kids that same freedom and all you hear is double digit numbers almost perfect uniformity 10 to 12 and that's insane the crime rate is way down everything is so much safer but we're afraid we're paranoid about our kids safety and why is that a bad thing because the way that a human being becomes a self-governing autonomous adult is by practicing being a self-governing autonomous Child and Adolescent we've set up a cycle of incompetence heay is a business school professor at NYU but several years ago he grew interested in the ways the modern world was changing his students that research led to the anxious generation where height argues kids were first made a weak by overprotection for mostly imaginary dangers then given devices that gobble up their attention and let parents keep even closer tabs on them so who has a phone their own phone we checked in with sixth graders in Manhattan and the New York suburb of Port Washington how many people have a phone height calls this the great rewiring of childhood you make the case that this is literally rewiring people's Brands yes think about neural development think about a brain the neurons feel their way out and they develop based on feedback from experience but what happens when kids instead of playing with blocks in each other they're on screens all the time you're radically changing the inputs kids are now growing up in a sea of screens he says this rewire which started around 2012 and he can't stop his hands from swiping created the anxious G generation there's a tidal wave of mental illness and it's especially anxiety and depression and tragically we see very much the same pattern with suicide and this is what happens after 2010 more than doubling of the suicide rate now whether Tech is truly to blame is debated by researchers and contested by tech companies the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health outcomes height in insists the research does show causation most clearly for teenage girls but even if it didn't he says there are other undeniable impacts I tell them all the time jokingly that they don't know how to play in the park Vivien Torres told us her 22-year-old son never had trouble playing in the real world but a decade later 11-year-old Barbara seems glued to her devices the phone can be like like I don't want to say addicting but like you know like it's can be like really likable and stuff so sometimes you're like oh wait after this video I'll go outside but then at least on to another video until another video and stuff how would you describe that moment when you're like h i could go outside but I guess I'll just do this I feel like lazy like I feel lazy I'm like you know but I don't want to go it up do you think there's anything that could change that maybe without the phone and actually Barbara's phone just broke so she's trying that out but then there's Height's first point about nervous parents even though viven grew up here in the Bronx in the more dangerous 1980s she doesn't feel comfortable letting Barbra go off alone especially without a phone our parents didn't have constant contact with us why do we need it with our kids I don't I wish I I can't answer that because now it just feels like you need to be in contact with people is that normal it's become normal is it good I don't think it's good I don't like that I don't like it it's funny you're both saying you don't like what this has done to me yeah but you can't stop it yeah yeah all of this is a set of collective action problems height has no easy solutions but he does offer some hard ones asking parents schools and tech companies to each do one difficult thing that's the key we have to act together first for parents no smartphones before high school just flip phones if needed if even a fraction of stuck to that height says those kids wouldn't be socially ostracized they'd have each other second they ask for schools no phone use ever within their buildings height wants the phones locked up for the whole school day as they are in Joe deo's class at the professional performing arts school it really does help they were much more distracted when they had their phones on them third the big ask for tech companies or possibly for lawmakers no social media until 16 right now the minimum age is is 13 but even that is unenforced these are 11 and 12 year olds how many folks are on Instagram so about half how many are on Instagram Tik Tock Tik Tok Snapchat on Snapchat meta Instagram's owner declined our interview request so did Tik Tok snap never responded but in a statement meta told us enforcing the age rules requires the help of device makers like Apple and Google Apple and Google also declined their interview requests but have pointed out their devices already come with parental controls still taking together these efforts from some of the world's largest companies are not smarter than a sixth grader and so how do you get on um lie about your age lie about your age if you're not 13 how are you on the apps F an age then I switched the year no one really says anything about it I think most of the apps don't really care many parents told us the battle over kids Tech use was already lost but Joe Deo says he hopes the experience of these kids will lead the next crop of parents to make different choices when we have our next incoming class of sixth graders come in I want to make a strong push that if you haven't already given your child a smartphone don't get them flip phone here's why but if all we do is get parents to take away that stuff and don't give them Freedom what are they going to do just sit and look at the wall so height has also co-founded a group called let grow so take a look at the different ideas both the classes we visited were just starting the program you have to learn how to do these things right kids are asked to do something independent pour it into the tray something they haven't done before I'm opening the oven now I love you God bless you Barbara Bas went grocery shopping for the first time all by herself well yes she did let our cameraman tagong and yes she grabbed Fruity Pebbles Robin noodles and Doritos how was it it was amazing I'm super proud you're smiling I feel really like finally I feel really really proud of myself for CBS Saturday morning Brooks Silva bragga New York I love this I just love the idea of you love the idea of thinking about it at least of not of the well I love I I I love it's like it's like you know Back to the Future it really is it's it's like giving our kids some hope I think about anxiety a lot because it's something our kids face it's hard we have kids that are in this range and I think about I'm like oh man we do that we didn't let him do stuff on his own until double digit age that kind of thing I don't every par says the same thing I I was allowed out when I was seven and today it's like 13 or something whatever it is it's just Banning Social Media till they're 16 seems like a really big ask or a hard thing to do the the point that he made everybody it's like a cold turkey for society yeah oh you know more discussion to come on this

Channel: CBS News

Views: 109,205

Keywords: CBS Saturday Morning, CBS News, video, anxiety, depression, mental health, author, jonathan haidt, the anxious generation

Id: hVEhtix7yWU

Length: 9min 14sec (554 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2024