Oprah and Jonathan Haidt on How Social Media Is Changing Childhood
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What is the epidemic of mental illness among today's youth?
Hey, everybody. Hey, there. A warm welcome to you. Thanks for joining me here on the Oprah podcast. I am actually really excited to talk to Jonathan Haidt about his book, The Anxious Generation, how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. This book is doing something That you actually don't see often these days. It's causing a real shift in public opinion and even policies in a big way. For anyone under the age of 25 and certainly for other age groups, much of life is lived through smartphones, tablets and on social media. On this episode, we are asking the question, at what cost?
It takes away from so many things in my life.
We are only just beginning to understand the impact social media and smart devices have on the mental and emotional health of young people whose brains are still developing. I know this is an issue that is top of mind for many of you parents.
When he does not have access to social media or his phone, he gets very agitated. He gets very angry. He has what I would call a teenage temper tantrum.
Social psychologist, NYU professor, and best-selling author Jonathan Haidt is on a mission to reach parents not only about his belief of the harmful effects of smartphones and social media, but also to help them take action now to prevent potential long-term damage in their children.
It is urgent that you restore your brain. You're still young, but if you do this until you're 25, then the damage might be permanent.
Jonathan's New York Times bestseller, The Anxious Generation, how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness, digs into the skyrocketing mental health crisis in young people.
We have to change the way we're raising kids. We have to give them back an exciting, fun childhood in the real world, not on a screen.
Jonathan Haidt joins us. Thank you for joining me from your office at NYU. Hello. Hello, Oprah.
How nice to be back talking with you.
So this book has been on the New York Times bestsellers list now for one year. And I would say it's because it's resonating. And any time I run into parents who are talking about what to... I don't know what we're going to do about all these phones. I go, have you read The Anxious Generation? So many people have read it. What do you think it is that's... Kept it on the New York Times bestsellers list and has kept you running from one seminar to the next talking about this.
Well, thanks, Oprah. It's very easy to answer that question. The answer is that all over the world, all over the developed world at least, family life has become a fight over screen time. It wasn't like this in 2010. I mean, we fought over television a little bit, but it's once our kids all got iPads, iPhones, social media apps, and that all happened around 2012. It's been a fight over screen time. We all hate it. We're all feeling trapped. We're all looking for a way out. And I think that's why the book has been a bestseller around the world.
Okay. So what's going on with the teens who are basically addicted? Would you say that there is an addiction problem?
Absolutely. Absolutely. Let me share with you two horrific stats. And you might expect this to be the suicide stats that you and I talked about last time, you know, up 50 percent for adolescents since 2010, up 140 percent for younger teen girls. Those are horrific. But there are two other numbers I can't get out of my mind. One is 48%, which is the percentage of our adolescents in America who say that they are online almost constantly. The phone is always in their hand. They're always checking it. Even if they're talking with you, they're thinking about what's on the phone. They are checked out of life. They're never fully present. They're almost constantly involved in social media. That's one number, 48% of our teens that's happened to. And then what I just found yesterday, which I can't believe, but here it is, 40 percent. That's the number of two-year-olds, two-year-olds in this country, who have their own iPad, their own iPad.
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