> The book that just came out, "The Anxious Generation," by Haidt
Not without controversy? https://archive.is/KU6FS
Technological progress has historically scared people: https://pessimistsarchive.org/
Not without controversy? https://archive.is/KU6FS
Technological progress has historically scared people: https://pessimistsarchive.org/
However, it's a book that's squarely in the topic of "Kids and technology," and is built around research that spans through Covid. I'm aware the concept of reading books is rather outdated, but I still try to suggest long form literature on topics that matter, versus some short form articles.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2024/03/22/anxious-gene...
They're the sort of newspaper that I would expect would be very, very happy to cheerlead for "Everyone on consumer digital tech, all hours of all the days."
But even then, the article isn't exactly highly critical of the book. It talks about the fact that there's a lot of correlation to make arguments, without even acknowledging the ever-growing pile of studies demonstrating causation - when you ask groups of teenagers or young adults to go without their social media apps or smartphones for a while, they get better for a while in terms of the sort of mental health metrics that have been going nuts lately.
And of course he's writing defensively. There's no shortage of people who will, as you've seen in this discussion, start defending how "people arguing against smartphones" are just "scared of new technology" or such (ignoring that a lot of people who've worked in tech their entire lives and deeply understand the technologies used are some of the leading edge arguing that we shouldn't be using the stuff as we do).
In any case, a discussion about the book is certainly an improvement over other options.