The Anxious Generation (2) - Underprotection in Virtual World

Why did children born after 1995 become “The Anxious Generation”? As an American social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt attributed this trend to 2 major reasons: overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world.

Most of us are clutching a small glass and metal rectangle. Anytime we stop moving, we assume a hunched position and stare at it. We do this the moment we sit down on a train, stand in line or enter an elevator. There is an eerie quiet in public places, even babies are mesmerized by them…

Social media has evolved over time, Jonathan Haidt concluded four major features common to the platforms that one generally think of as being clear examples of social media:

1）User Profiles

Users can create individual profiles where they can share personal information and interests.

2）User-generated Content

Users create and share a variety of content to a broad audience, including text posts, photos, videos, and links.

3）Networking

Users can connect with other users by following their profiles, becoming friends, or joining the same groups.

4）Interactivity

Users interact with each other and with the content they share; interactions may include liking, commenting, sharing, or direct messaging.

“How do we consume as much of your time and conscious attention as possible?” Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, described the thought process of people who created social media platforms in the 2000s. He was explaining the “social-validation feedback loop” by which these companies exploit “a vulnerability in human psychology”.

For businesses that earn revenue based on displaying ads alongside user-generated content, there are 3 basic imperatives: (1) get more users; (2) get users to spend more time using the app; and (3) get users to post and engage with more content, which attracts other users to the platforms.

The apps need to give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a post. And that is going to get you to contribute more content, and that is going to get you more likes and comments. When platforms offer free access, it is because the users are the product, extracting and selling the users’ attention to the paying customer - the advertisers.

Jonathan described 4 foundational harms of the new phone-based childhood that damage boys and girls of all ages: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. Attention is a choice we make to stay on one task. When we fail to make that choice and allow ourselves to be frequently sidetracked, we end up in “the confused, dazed, scatterbrained state”.

Girls are more affected by visual social comparison and perfectionism. Agency arises from striving to individuate and expand the self, while communion arises from striving to integrate the self in a larger social unit through caring for others. They are woven together to change patterns across the life course, and that weaving is important for adolescents who develop their identities.

From anonymous Instagram hate pages to full-blown teenage cancel culture campaigns, girls can drag each other down in all kinds of creative ways, even the “soft block” or a public tag in an unflattering photo. Puberty was a fraught time of transition, with heightened need for close friends. Then social media came along to make the transition harder by making it relational. 

The tech industry has found compelling ways to help boys do the things they want to do, without having to take social and physical risks that were needed to satisfy those desires. Porn separates the evolved lure (sexual pleasure) from its real-world reward (a sexual relationship), potentially making boys who are heavy users turn into men, who are less able to find them in the real world.

During the COVID, one study found that video game users mitigated feelings of loneliness in the short run, but it put some users into a vicious cycle because they used gaming to distract from feelings of loneliness. Over time they developed a reliance on the games instead of forming long-term friendships, and this resulted in long-term stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms.

Tech companies are making social media useful, helping us to find information, jobs, friends, love, and sex; making shopping and political organizing more efficient; and making life easier in a thousand ways. Even some are addicted to social media and online activities, but as with tobacco, alcohol or gambling, why would we leave it up to them to make their own decisions?

Title: The Anxious Generation

Author: Jonathan Haidt

Year: 2024

Region: USA

Publisher: Penguin Press

Genre: Social Sciences

Score: 7/10

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https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/05/21/former-facebook-president-sean-parker-on-opportunity-zones-recent-ipos.html