John Fanning writes: During the last decade there has been widespread coverage of survey results and medical reports dealing with an increase in mental health issues among young people, or Gen Z as the headline writers prefer.
Little surprise then that a substantial new book on the subject, The Anxious Generation, by social psychologist and New York University lecturer Jonathan Haidt has become a worldwide bestseller, attracting mostly favourable reviews in prestigious publications and clocking up an impressive thirty-plus pages of reviews and comment on Google.
The first part of Haidt’s book presents a wealth of convincing detail on the damage being done to adolescents by overexposure to mobile phones. Increased levels of anxiety and rates of depression have coincided with their ubiquitous use among the first generation in history to go through puberty with a portal in their pockets distracting them away families and friends into an alternative universe, sometimes attractive and seductive but often unsuitable for adolescents. Hence the book’s sub-title: ‘The Great Rewiring of Childhood’.
As a result of this overexposure, young people are being forced into becoming their own brand managers. always thinking ahead about the effect of the content and photos they receive and send themselves. They also must dissect the continuous prattle of the so-called ‘influencers’ whose main talent is an ability to attract masses of young people to follow their dubious and self-serving advice.
Haidt is relentless in outlining the damage to young people’s lives: social deprivation, through living life in an alternative universe; sleep deprivation, from too much time spent on social media platforms; attention fragmentation, since the nature of the platforms encourages constant hopping from one subject to another, leading finally to addiction. Social media may in theory connect us to everyone else in the world, but it distances us from the people around us; the smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle delivering digital dopamine to a new generation.
The author’s second target is ‘safetyism’; the over-cosseting of young people from independent contact with the outside world. At the same time as they are being given free access to the online world, concerned parents are over-protecting children from the real world. Surveys show that ‘free play’, unstructured time with friends engaging in activities freely chosen by participants, is in decline. The continuous round of summer camps in Ireland during the school holidays is a good example of this trend. At a wider level we have also seen a decline in the significance of long-established traditional rituals designed to mark the transition from childhood to adulthood. Although celebratory, these were also solemn rites of passage unlike today’s Holy Communion and Confirmation consumer-fests.
In the second half of the book Haidt discusses what action can be taken by governments, parents and teachers to combat the problem. Several proposals are put forward for how governments could play a more active role, including asserting a duty of care and raising the age of external verification to sixteen, an end to punishing parents for giving children real world freedom, the designing of more child-friendly public spaces and the introduction of more sports development schemes. He advises schools to introduce more stringent bans on mobile phone usage and parents to make children help more in the home. These are all very well-intentioned and some are being openly discussed in Ireland but they are unlikely to affect the level of societal change that will be necessary.
Haidt also considers several spiritual exercises derived from ancient traditions, which will no doubt have some readers eye-rolling, but perhaps because our current predicament is so precarious the word ‘spirituality’ is beginning to make regular appearances in contemporary comment. Some of this will be familiar, particularly the Buddhist practice of meditation. The digital world demands immersion, distraction and collaboration; what we need is more detachment, concentration and silence. Religions used to mark off certain times of the year as sacred; Haidt believes we need to reconnect with the rhythms of the calendar and our communities and ensure more regular exposure to the grandeur of nature: he refers to Pascal’s belief that there is ‘a God-shaped hole’ in every human heart yearning for meaning, connection and human elevation.
Doubtless implementing all of these recommendations would help alleviate some of the problems outlined by Haidt but I can’t see our Silicon Valley overlords losing much sleep over this book. He does refer to their egregious behaviour, their denials, obfuscation and well-funded public relations campaigns when dealing with critics. Meanwhile the relentless search for even greater profitability continues, Whistleblower Frances Haugen has revealed that tech platforms have been studying how to attract users as young as four using artificial intelligence to select content most likely to keep them hooked. Meanwhile they continue to display complete contempt for us ‘Earthlings’. When Mark Zuckerberg was once asked why people allowed their data to be freely used to attract more advertising he replied, ‘dumb fucks’.
Certainly older ‘dumb fucks’ like me need to be wary of criticising a technology we don’t understand while criticising a generation we can’t control. Socrates worried that the spread of the ability to write would erode people memories; my mother in the 1950s worried that listening to Radio Luxembourg would damage my chances of a good Inter. Plus ça change.
But there are other reasons not to lose heart. Previously powerful addictive categories are losing their appeal among young people; there have been significant declines in their smoking and drinking behaviour. The myriad annual cultural and rock festivals, like Electric Picnic, attract growing numbers engaged in communal celebration. Perhaps we are witnessing a revolt of the ‘dumb fucks’?
26/10/2024
