The Anxious Generation (4) - Bring Childhood Back to Earth
- 2025年9月22日
- 讀畢需時 2 分鐘
已更新：2025年11月4日
The author started the “The Anxious Generation” with a fanciful story, in which a tech entrepreneur transported children away from Earth to grow up on Mars, without their parents’ consent. Unfathomable as it is, but in some ways the children are not fully present here on Earth with us, even though the children may not be on Mars.
What should have parents, schools and governments done to bring childhood back to Earth?
Parents should practice letting your kids out of your sight without them having a way to reach you, as well as encourage sleepovers, and do not micromanage them. Form child-friendly neighborhoods. The adults should overcome their own palpable anxiety. When their worst fears did not occur, they will learn that their child is more capable than they had thought.
Children thrive when they are rooted in real-world communities, not in disembodied virtual networks. That is why Kevin Stinehart, a teacher in South Carolina, built a no-phone zone and offered a “Play Club” for the kids. Children cannot deliberately hurt anyone; and they can't leave without telling the person in charge. Adults intervene only in the case of an emergency.
A fourfold solution should be carried out by the government: Assert a Duty of Care, where companies have duties to design their services in the “best interests” of children, and the code defines children as anyone under the age of 18; raise the age of internet adulthood to 16; facilitate age verification; as well as encourage phone-free schools.
You may say the author is a dreamer, but he is surely not the only one on Earth…
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese blamed how social media is doing social harm to teenagers. The government has included Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X as well as TikTok to the social media ban for children under 16. Under the ban, teenagers are able to view content but will not be permitted to have an account, for uploading content or interacting on the platform.
In the UK, the Online Safety Act received Royal Assent in 2023. Under the Act, platforms must take action to stop children seeing illegal and harmful material, such as carrying out age checks. While in Japan, a proposal of 2-hour daily limit on smartphones is being debated by lawmakers in the Toyoake municipal government in Aichi, to encourage residents to manage screen time.
Many people complained about feeling that they were constantly fighting against technology…
Are you experiencing posting ennui? In an essay for the New Yorker, Kyle Chayka stated that social media discourages casual posting, not mundane moments but punditry, provocation, and self-promotion. She believed that we are heading to “Posting Zero”, stop sharing things on social media and seek more privacy, as they tire of the noise, the friction, and the exposure.
A Polynesian expression suggested, “Standing on a whale, fishing for minnows.” It is better to do a big thing rather than many small things, and sometimes the big thing is unnoticed but right underfoot. Any country that cares about fostering belonging, community, or mental health, but that hasn't gone phone-free, is standing on a whale, fishing for minnows.
Title: The Anxious Generation
Author: Jonathan Haidt
Year: 2024
Region: USA
Publisher: Penguin Press
Genre: Social Sciences
Score: 7/10
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