Teenager 2
Appearances
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World
None. No second thoughts.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World
No, he doesn't have any phone. He has periodic ability to use my phone when he's getting his air or when, you know, with oversight. And the reality of it is, and I just want to touch on something that was brought up about the AI piece.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World
That is terrifying. One of the things that we've discussed in board meetings is about the young man who killed himself because he fell in love with an AI chatbot. And the AI chatbot completely transformed him from a normal kid to someone that his mother was really struggling to connect with.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World
The young man fell so deeply in love that when the chatbot said that she thinks he should kill himself so that they could be together always, he actually killed himself. And so he was a 14-year-old boy. And there's no way at 14 that you have the capacity to regulate yourself. And the AI bot becoming a predator... on top of all of the other predators that exist in social media and on phones.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World
I mean, I just don't see the need to allow other people to spend more time raising my children than I do.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World
The need for students to get social stamps of approval are greater online than they actually are in person. I host office hours in the dorm on Monday nights, and it's interesting to see how the students conduct themselves. If I really want to disrupt their usage of the phones, I have to order pizza. And, you know, they have to put the phones down to eat.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World
And that's when we have these really wonderful conversations. Students still want to connect, but they've been led to believe that the best place for them to connect is online by people who materially benefit from them connecting online. It's really an insidious environment that they are living in now, especially considering that the tech industry
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World
You know, Titans don't want their own children to do this, but somehow it's OK for everyone else's children to do so. So I just think that's wrong.
The Oprah Podcast
Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Kids Can Choose Fun and Freedom in a Screen Filled World
Our kid's really popular, right? I mean, he doesn't have a smartphone, but you walk around his campus with him, everyone knows him. You walk around the events to his games, everyone knows him. I have watched this from a distance. If this is what being a social outcast looks like, maybe we all should be social outcasts.