The Anxious Generation

Author: Jonathan Haidt
Finished: 2024-11-16
Started: 2024-08-31
Status: Read

Four aspects of “real-world” interactions

• Embodied
• Synchronous
• Accountable
• High barrier of entry and exit

Stephen points out a main message of Haidt’s book — people are growing up with too little nurturance of the spirit. This connects to my own wish for my kids to have a sense of reverence, for something.

Went to some trouble to find the Meta deck described as “chilling” in this book, and it was… just a normal marketing deck that probably didn’t significantly influence any product decisions, and which had some maliciously-misinterpretable slides way into the appendix. A significant Gell-Mann effect moment for me.

Overall, though, I appreciated my usual periodic dose of Haidt telling society to get a grip on itself, and the simple reminders of concepts like:

• Kids should spend more time in “discovery mode” and less in “defend mode”.
• Kids need more unstructured time.
• Kids shouldn’t have phones, or other potentially unhealthy devices, until later than we think.