Derek Thompson

The other findings that you have, neuroticism up, agreeableness down, extroversion down, these also seem to me to have what you called external validities, right?

Neuroticism up.

I look around the internet and I certainly see, not just the internet, but also surveys, and I see not only is negativity through the roof, but also self-reports of anxiety and depression are up.

When I see extroversion down, I think, well,

I spent all this time writing The Antisocial Century about how we're spending less time around each other.

And in many cases, this is chosen aloneness.

It's people who could go out and see their friends who are choosing day after day and week after week to spend more time on their couch, watching television on their phones.

I wonder...

What you think it means, don't necessarily draw from what I just said.

What you think it would mean for a population, especially of young people, to have lower conscientiousness, higher neuroticism, less agreeableness, and significantly less extroversion.

What kind of a population would this describe?

So we've established the what here.

I want to talk now a little bit about the why.

What is the strongest case that the most obvious usual suspect here, the internet and smartphones, are significantly to blame for these personality changes that you've described?

Yeah, the TikTok trend that my wife pointed me to when I was writing my feature story was what some folks call cancellation.

The idea that people would record themselves dancing when someone canceled a plan with them.

They would essentially be like, oh, it's absolutely fantastic that it's a Friday night and I can just stay at home and don't have to go out.

I wanted to stay at home and watch Netflix anyway.

And it's really interesting to think that you're looking at a generation

that is spending more time alone than any generation on record, and they're also celebrating when their social plans are canceled, right?