Jonathan Haidt

So this is now the new normal.

But what this goes along with is a general sense of threat in the world, a reluctance to take risks.

And a lot of surveys and behaviors bear this out.

Gen Z is very bad at risk-taking.

Now let me make clear, none of this is a criticism of them.

Building on what Greg and I argued in the Coddling the American Mind, we overprotected the hell out of them.

We never let them out of our sight.

We never let them go out onto the playground without someone watching and blowing a whistle and saying, no running, don't push.

So we did this to them.

And it was the combination of the overprotection

in the real world where they need to grow up and get tough.

That's right.

You have older Gen Z. That's right.

So it's we as a society and it's we as parents.

Absolutely.

So there's two parts to the story.

The book is about how we've overprotected children in the real world, and that begins in the 1980s.

You're right.

And then the other half is we've underprotected them online.

And while that begins in the 1990s, it really super accelerates between 2010 and 2015.