Ezra Klein

And you're saying here that's not true.

And you're saying here that's not true.

So if you're tracking dynamics here, you have the 90s, we're getting more afraid of danger. You're having this deterioration in social trust, this deterioration in is the whole community parenting your kid? Right. And it's right about now. that you begin having an explosion in screen possibilities. Yeah, that's it. So I remember when I was younger, I remember Nickelodeon emerging. Okay. Right?

So if you're tracking dynamics here, you have the 90s, we're getting more afraid of danger. You're having this deterioration in social trust, this deterioration in is the whole community parenting your kid? Right. And it's right about now. that you begin having an explosion in screen possibilities. Yeah, that's it. So I remember when I was younger, I remember Nickelodeon emerging. Okay. Right?

Before then, there wasn't a TV channel that was programming for children at all times. Right, right. Before then, it's like there are cartoons sometimes. There was kids shows sometimes. Saturday mornings. That's right. All the time. Right.

Before then, there wasn't a TV channel that was programming for children at all times. Right, right. Before then, it's like there are cartoons sometimes. There was kids shows sometimes. Saturday mornings. That's right. All the time. Right.

And obviously from there, you get an explosion of cable channels, eventually the internet, eventually iPads and iPhones and video game consoles and all the rest of it. So talk about the sort of handoff.

And obviously from there, you get an explosion of cable channels, eventually the internet, eventually iPads and iPhones and video game consoles and all the rest of it. So talk about the sort of handoff.

I got a Nintendo, the NES, not the Super Nintendo, the first mass-available console and mass-adopted. You could argue about the Atari or whatever, but the Nintendo Entertainment System. What year was that? I don't remember now, but I was young. You're talking about late 80s? Yeah, okay. Yeah.

I got a Nintendo, the NES, not the Super Nintendo, the first mass-available console and mass-adopted. You could argue about the Atari or whatever, but the Nintendo Entertainment System. What year was that? I don't remember now, but I was young. You're talking about late 80s? Yeah, okay. Yeah.

To me, that's a big dividing point because the things that Nickelodeon and the NES do is they make it possible to put something on the television at any second of the day that will entertain a child intensely.

To me, that's a big dividing point because the things that Nickelodeon and the NES do is they make it possible to put something on the television at any second of the day that will entertain a child intensely.

One of the reasons I felt myself like a little put off by the debate that emerged around your book with a sort of like endless back and forth on the identification strategy of, you know, was this really the cause of anxiety or a correlate of anxiety and what's going on in South Korea is it got at this feeling I keep having, which is that we have lost any kind of independent and I would positively say paternalistic idea of what we want human beings to be.

One of the reasons I felt myself like a little put off by the debate that emerged around your book with a sort of like endless back and forth on the identification strategy of, you know, was this really the cause of anxiety or a correlate of anxiety and what's going on in South Korea is it got at this feeling I keep having, which is that we have lost any kind of independent and I would positively say paternalistic idea of what we want human beings to be.

And we have allowed it all to be dominated by metrics. So on the one hand, there is, are you getting good grades? If you're getting good grades, then you're fine. It's not really true.

And we have allowed it all to be dominated by metrics. So on the one hand, there is, are you getting good grades? If you're getting good grades, then you're fine. It's not really true.

We definitely see it's not true now because we're watching kids, I mean, partially through grade inflation, get plenty of good grades, not get pregnant as teenagers, not do a bunch of drugs, and they're doing terribly. The other side of it, though, is that then there's this...

We definitely see it's not true now because we're watching kids, I mean, partially through grade inflation, get plenty of good grades, not get pregnant as teenagers, not do a bunch of drugs, and they're doing terribly. The other side of it, though, is that then there's this...

I would call it the logic of capitalism, the logic of the consumer economy, which is that if you enjoy doing it, if you want to do it, then we need to have a very high bar for a reason to stop you, right? Our view is that kids should not freebase crack all the time. We've decided that's not something we should let them do.

I would call it the logic of capitalism, the logic of the consumer economy, which is that if you enjoy doing it, if you want to do it, then we need to have a very high bar for a reason to stop you, right? Our view is that kids should not freebase crack all the time. We've decided that's not something we should let them do.