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Jonathan Haidt: How Phone Addiction & Social Media Are Making Us Anxious - And What To Do About It - Tools & Tactics

Sep 29, 2025

Guest

Jonathan Haidt

In this episode, Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at NYU Stern and bestselling author of The Anxious Generation, explores the mental health impacts of smartphones and social media. He discusses how short-form content is diminishing children's attention spans and why platforms like Snapchat and TikTok pose significant risks. Haidt offers practical tips for parents to manage technology use, such as setting boundaries and encouraging outdoor play. He emphasizes the need for design changes in apps to protect youth and advocates for healthier digital habits.

01:11:50

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ADVICE

Block Snapchat For Kids

Avoid letting children use Snapchat because it relentlessly connects them to strangers and facilitates sextortion.
Remove access to apps designed for anonymous, disappearing exchanges to protect minors from predators.

insights

INSIGHT

Short Videos Train A Swipe Brain

TikTok's short, variable-reward videos train brains to swipe and abandon long attention tasks.
Haidt calls TikTok a slot machine that degrades executive function for children and adults alike.

insights

INSIGHT

Virality Remade Public Conversation

Social media amplified public life into relentless, viral displays that transformed discourse and campus culture.
Haidt links the rise of algorithmic virality after 2014 to political polarization and fragile campuses.

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Loss of Attention from Short-Form Content

01:33 • 2min

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How Parents Should Position Kids for Social Media

03:49 • 2min

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Why Snapchat and TikTok Are Harmful to Children

05:22 • 4min

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How Early Screen Experiences Shape the Developing Brain

09:05 • 5min

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When and Why Social Media Changed Society

13:53 • 8min

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Design Fixes and Policy Ideas for Platforms

21:58 • 10min

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Four Norms to Roll Back Phone-Based Childhoods

31:57 • 5min

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How Parents Can Set Boundaries Without Conflict

37:17 • 3min

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Effects of Parental Phone Use on Children

40:00 • 5min

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Practical Adult Strategies to Regain Attention

45:22 • 7min

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Managing Texting and Collective Expectations

52:40 • 7min

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Morning and Evening Routines to Protect Attention

59:52 • 4min

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Top Practical Tips to Take Back Attention

01:03:53 • 3min

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Rapid-Fire Takeaways on Gen Z and Skills They Need

01:07:06 • 2min

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Resources, Upcoming Book, and Warnings About AI Toys

• Mentioned in 190 episodes

The Coddling of the American Mind

Jonathan Haidt

Greg Lukianoff

The book explores how the ideas 'what doesn’t kill you makes you weaker,' 'always trust your feelings,' and 'life is a battle between good people and evil people' have become embedded in American culture. These 'Great Untruths' contradict basic psychological principles and ancient wisdom, leading to a culture of safetyism that interferes with young people’s social, emotional, and intellectual development. The authors investigate various social trends, including fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised play, and the impact of social media, as well as changes on college campuses and the broader context of political polarization in America.

• Mentioned in 481 episodes

The Anxious Generation

Jonathan Haidt

In 'The Anxious Generation', Jonathan Haidt examines the sudden decline in the mental health of adolescents starting in the early 2010s. He attributes this decline to the shift from a 'play-based childhood' to a 'phone-based childhood', highlighting mechanisms such as sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, and perfectionism that interfere with children’s social and neurological development. Haidt proposes four simple rules to address this issue: no smartphones before high school, no social media before age 16, phone-free schools, and more opportunities for independence, free play, and responsibility. The book offers a clear call to action for parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments to restore a more humane childhood and end the epidemic of mental illness among youth.

• Mentioned in 502 episodes

Deep Work

Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World

Cal Newport

In 'Deep Work', Cal Newport argues that the ability to perform deep work—professional activities in a state of distraction-free concentration—is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. The book is divided into two parts: the first part explains why deep work is valuable, rare, and meaningful, while the second part presents four rules to transform your mind and habits to support this skill. These rules include 'Work Deeply', 'Embrace Boredom', 'Quit Social Media', and 'Drain the Shallows'. Newport provides actionable advice and examples from various successful individuals to help readers master the skill of deep work and achieve groundbreaking results.

#165

• Mentioned in 132 episodes

The Righteous Mind

Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

Jonathan Haidt

In this book, Jonathan Haidt draws on twenty-five years of research on moral psychology to explain why people's moral judgments are driven by intuition rather than reason. He introduces the Moral Foundations Theory, which posits that human morality is based on six foundations: care/harm, fairness/cheating, loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion, sanctity/degradation, and liberty/oppression. Haidt argues that liberals tend to focus on the care/harm and fairness/cheating foundations, while conservatives draw on all six. The book also explores how morality binds and blinds people, leading to social cohesion but also to conflicts. Haidt aims to promote understanding and civility by highlighting the commonalities and differences in moral intuitions across political spectra.

#890: Join us as we sit down with Jonathan Haidt – social psychologist at NYU Stern & bestselling author of The Anxious Generation – known for his research on morality, culture, politics & the impact of technology on society. In this episode, Jonathan shares the reality of social media & the impacts on children and adults. We also discuss the negative effects of smartphone dependence and solutions for healthy childhood development as well as adult guard rails in the digital age. We end the episode with practical digital habits you can implement today!

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To learn more about Jonathan Haidt, his research, purchase The Anxious Generation, and pre-order The Amazing Generation visit https://www.anxiousgeneration.com.

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