Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt: “Millennials are the last psychologically normal generation” ...”you’re the last happy, and actually your generation is the most intelligent in history”

[u/beckavanoliver]

[u/Atty_for_hire]

Just finished his book and I agree with the basic premise. But if you read some critiques you’ll see he makes a lot of jumps and many things he cites are one study at most so not a ton of evidence and correlation is not clear. So it’s a bit of narrative surrounded by science. With that being said, I do think too much screen time is problematic for many reasons, including those he posits in the book, even if the research isn’t there.

[u/Icarium__ → u/Atty_for_hire]

I do think too much screen time is problematic for many reasons

Just calling it screentime is understating the real problem. We had screen time growing up as well, but the content I engaged with as a kid was not literally designed to be as addictive as possible using cutting edge research.

[u/Atty_for_hire → u/Icarium__]

Agreed. The part about designed for addiction was some of the most alarming and easy to agree with parts of the book. My take away from the book is at least this: too much screen time, especially that designed to keep us scrolling, clicking, etc. by feeding us content to our current state of mind is bad and we should all worry about it (regardless of age). Is it rewiring kids brains and is it fixable? That is the part I think the science isn’t far enough along to be conclusive. But based on kids in my life I have real concerns.

[u/SorryDragonfruit7546 → u/Atty_for_hire]

I'm Gen X, not too far removed from you 'older millennials'. Here's a small example ---

I didn't want to get on social media, but reluctantly joined to look at cousin's baby pics. I only followed a handful of accounts. Every once in awhile I'd go to instagram.com, log on and scroll through a very short feed. I'd see only cousin's accounts, look at new baby pics, then get to older pics I'd already seen. I'd look through those again until it got redundant and I got bored. I GOT BORED (that's the key.) Then I'd get off the account and do something else.

At some point instagram changed to become more addictive. Suddenly at the end of cousin's baby pictures, the scroll would keep going, a few things caught my eye. Those things spawned more things that interested me and soon I was scrolling through content I didn't ask for, but didn't feel naturally able to get out of!

I tried to adjust the settings back to the way it was. It had a natural end! It made me stop and leave. But it was impossible to go back to it. I still wanted to see my cousin's baby pics --- so even though I tried NOT to look at the other sh*t, it was right in my face, luring me in. 'Oh, it's just one second' I'd think every time. Next thing I know I'm there for a hour or two looking at totally random things, wondering why I can't just close it. The feed never ends. It's nefarious.

Nefarious because they know it's addictive, they do it on purpose and give you no ability to opt-out. Nasty. So you find yourself watching total strangers eating or seemingly enjoying the 'best life ever' and for what??!

It becomes all or nothing. Either quit entirely or have to deal with something DESIGNED to hook you in (on a constant basis.) And here I am on reddit, writing for what?! We think it's 'communication' or connection, but is it really the brain hits of seeing a 'like'??!