The great unplugging?
On the latest Jonathan Haidt "drop" and the relationship among smartphones, connection, and community.
In our year-end newsletter, one of us (Eric!) prophetically wondered: “Will 2024 be the year in which generations young and old unplug en masse?” While the great unplugging has not yet materialized, momentum seems to be rapidly building in the push against smartphones, particularly for young people.
If this great unplugging does occur, it’s likely we’ll look back at this month—punctuated by the release of Jonathan Haidt’s new book, The Anxious Generation—as a cultural inflection point. So, in a nod to this cultural moment, we’re focusing on smartphones, community, and connection in this week’s curated list:
We start by summarizing Haidt’s Atlantic piece that makes the case for ending what he calls the “phone-based childhood.”
Then, we highlight a few recent articles orbiting around Haidt’s argument: “It’s Obviously the Phones” by Magdalene Taylor and “Give Kids Better Places to Go” by Michelle Goldberg.
Finally, we conclude by spotlighting one community, The Bruderhof, that has taken a more intentional approach to the adoption of smartphones and the internet.
This is a case where the solution feels fairly straightforward: limit the use of smartphones. But, of course, limiting the use of smartphones presents a massive collective action problem. Despite Sam’s valiant efforts to live with a flip phone, the answer cannot be individualized. As Haidt proposes, it will take new norms—embedded in familial and community institutions—to rebalance our collective relationship to the technology that has crowded out our lives in community.
- Sam, Eric, & David
PS: A warm welcome to the 60 subscribers who joined since last week. You can expect to receive a curated list like this one from us every other week. We hope you enjoy!
The Research
The Atlantic - “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now” by Jonathan Haidt (March 2024)
The big Jonathan Haidt drop—which seems to take place every five or so years—happened this month, and it’s already making waves. In “End the Phone-Based Childhood Now,” Haidt summarizes an argument from his new book (published on Tuesday), making the affirmative case for the driving role of smartphones and social media in wreaking havoc on the social, emotional, and spiritual lives of an entire generation. The article is long but well worth the read. For those short on time or inspiration, we’ve synthesized some of the key points below.
The Causes: Birth of the Phone-Based Childhood (Sections 1-3)
“Nobody wanted their child to be isolated and alone … We had no idea what we were doing.”
Haidt asserts that the rise of high-speed internet and smartphones in the late 2000s—layered on top of the decline in children’s free play between the 1970s and 1990s—created the phone-based childhood as we know it today. Haidt identifies the early 2010s as the hingepoint: almost overnight, teens went from having flip phones and only accessing social media on their home computers, to having smartphones and reporting that they were on social media “almost constantly.”
The Consequences: Health, Relationships, & Meaning (Sections 4-6)
“Perhaps the most devastating cost of the new phone-based childhood was the collapse of time spent interacting with other people face-to-face.”
Haidt points to a panoply of consequences of the phone-based childhood, ranging from the physical, to the social, to the spiritual. Smartphones have driven declines in exercise, sleep, and several mental health indicators among teens since 2010. Feelings of purposelessness and meaninglessness in life skyrocketed between 2010 and 2019, driven by the fragmentation and anomie of public life. And, most alarming to Haidt, time spent interacting with anyone face-to-face (and friends in particular) fell off a cliff between 2010 and 2019, posing significant threats to teens' social and emotional development.
The Four Norms: Less Smartphones and Social Media, More Play (Sections 7-9)
“The main reason why the phone-based childhood is so harmful is because it pushes aside everything else … [We should] create a version of childhood and adolescence that keeps young people anchored in the real world while flourishing in the digital age.”
Considering the collective action traps created by smartphones and social media, Haidt proposes that families, schools, and communities act collectively, adopting four norms for ending the phone-based childhood now. This includes: (1) no smartphones before high school; (2) no social media before age 16; (3) no phones in schools; and (4) more independence, free play, and real-world responsibilities. Haidt rightfully acknowledges that these changes cannot fall to the individual; they must become embedded in community norms and structures. The question remains: will they?
The Reads
Haidt’s book launch—along with his affiliated promotional activities—has seemingly catalyzed a major media cycle on phones and connection. We’re sharing a few shorter reads on the topic that caught our attention over the past few weeks.
Many Such Cases - “It’s Obviously the Phones” by Magdalene J. Taylor (March 2024)
“The fact remains that even with the financial crisis, even with the lack of third spaces, we could all still be experiencing the company of our friends and family at home for free, and we are choosing not to … It’s because we’re on our phones, instead.”
Taylor and Haidt are clearly drinking from the same waters. In this piece, she argues that excessive phone usage is the primary cause of several contemporary issues, from loneliness, to decreased sexual activity, to a growing sense of societal malaise. Taylor highlights how we’re making a collective, conscious choice to prioritize screen time over real-world interactions—even when free alternatives (like visiting friends at their homes) exist. At the same time, she emphasizes the uniquely addictive nature of smartphones, including its ease of access, that distinguishes them from other forms of media consumption once blamed for a fraying social fabric. She advocates for a “renewed emphasis on the real” including reducing screen time, centering in-person relationships, and, yes, having more sex😳.
The New York Times - “The Internet Is a Wasteland, So Give Kids Better Places to Go” by Michelle Goldberg (March 2024)
Responding directly to Haidt’s new book, Goldberg makes the case that we need to both get kids off of their phones and give them better places to go instead. She draws on the work of Tim Carney—a conservative writer with whom she “agrees about very little”—and endorses his proposal for more “kid-walkable” and “kid-bikeable” neighborhoods. Here, she seems to land where Haidt lands: communities need to establish norms to simultaneously enable more phone-free childhoods and promote opportunities for more free, accessible, independent play.
The Work
The Bruderhof - Hudson Valley, NY
“The Hinkeys have already decided that they won’t give Ashton a smartphone until he graduates from high school. Like other Bruderhof children, he will grow up without video games, social media or cruising the internet.”
The Bruderhof, a group of ~3,000 people living primarily in six villages across New York’s Hudson Valley, model a collectivist Christian community that’s increasingly rare in the 21st century. They describe themselves as “...a community of Christians who, inspired by the early church, share all our money and possessions.” Just 90 minutes from the hustle of Wall Street, Bruderhof communities are tight-knit and self-sustaining, cultivating their own food (beer included!), making their own furniture, and, most importantly, caring for one another.
Technology is not forbidden in Bruderhof culture, but its influence is tempered: email is only used for business purposes, factory automation is viewed warily, and children seldom have their own devices until adulthood. This video offers a firsthand account of the purposeful approach that the Bruderhof embrace as technology increasingly rears its head in their communities. Their work poses and exemplifies an answer to an important question: amidst an increasing reliance on technology to fulfill daily obligations in society, how can we implement collectivist structures that temper technology’s negative consequences?
→ Read the NYT feature on Bruderhof here, and explore the Bruderhof culture further here. They encourage visitors, both in-person and on social media - check them out!
There’s such a major reliance on these devices and an ostracizing effect towards those that do unplug that it’s hard to imagine the pendulum swinging the other way. When the fabric of our relationships are currently dependent on group chats and social media posts and with no true alternative being presented, what incentive (beyond a sense of personal agency and “rebellion”) do we have to encourage a true sustainable change?