Jonathan Haidt

We can see each other's facial expressions.

But on Zoom, there's a little bit of awkwardness.

You know, you don't quite get the timing.

So video games, Twitch, all these things that allow you to go to two-way voice and face, those have some benefits.

I'll grant that.

Whereas going back and forth in group texts, group text is performance, not connecting one-on-one like an old phone call.

So synchronous is good.

All the asynchronous ones, I think, miss that.

Another feature is that you now have such vast quantity.

Imagine taking the number of people you talk with every day, multiply that by 50, right?

Okay, that might sound great, but how much time do you then have for anyone?

So you don't get the kind of in-depth conversations.

The large groups are not connecting.

They're performing, and kids are anxious.

They have to think carefully before they put something out because what if I make a mistake?

Play needs to have lots of low-cost mistakes.

You say something stupid, your friend says, oh, that was mean, and you say, oh, sorry.

But when you grow up online, it's like growing up in a minefield because you never know.

One mistake, it could actually ruin your life.

So this is something that so many professors have observed.