S22.E10: Jonathan Haidt; Fareed Zakaria; Mark Esper

[sheetmoss]

Zakaria was particularly annoying

[aghst]

Jonathan Haidt says teens started having emotional problems such as depression in 2010, which is when the smart phone became common.

So he supports the bill DeSantis signed, banning social media until teens are at least 14.  And flip phones until the same or similar age.

But when did giving smart phones to kids, including kids under 10 years old, become a common thing?

I was under the impression that parents were giving hand me down phones as they upgraded themselves.

In any event, the iPhone came out in 2007.  It didn't really take off, have big volumes, until iPhone 4 which was announced in June 2010 and started shipping in fall of 2010.

Were parents giving their kids the newest, state of the art phones in 2010?

I'm guessing it became more widespread, with kids having phones which had reasonable performance, not antiquated, more around 2015.

Does that time line match when kids supposedly got more depressed?

I agree that social media have made kids depressed, like girls with body issues.

But it's not a new thing, weren't there depressed kids or girls with poor self-esteem and body-image issues before the 2010s?

Now maybe Haidt would say those issues existed but the problem exploded in the last 10-15 years.

I quickly Googled his name.  It appears he's written books, given talks and interviews so it's his thing now, even though his day job is a professor at NYU business school.

[Tara]

Regarding the phone thing….my oldest was 13 in 2010. We gave her her first phone in 2007, making her 10. And while we didn’t buy the latest and greatest, we also didn’t give her hand me downs. We were not in the minority by any means. I have a memory of phones with cameras not being allowed in classrooms. I am sure that rule has gone out the window.

I also remember MySpace, where the kids would message each other, and even then it was used to spread gossip and negativity. I do not envy these kids growing up with all this technology.

Bill mentioned kids being disrespectful to their parents. I think that exists only on TV and movies. I agree with him in that I don’t know why that is becoming the norm even on that medium. It’s annoying to say the least.

[Smokeyblow]

18 hours ago, sheetmoss said:

Zakaria was particularly annoying

He's annoying whenever I've seen him, has the ability to make people get up out of their chairs to go & do something else for an hour though.

He strikes me as very condescending.

Edited March 31 by Smokeyblow

[Starchild]

Another commercial for an HBO show during the interview, so I guess that's going to be a thing now.

[Hanahope]

Kids absolutely had emotional problems before 2010.  many were just told to ignore them or deal with it.  some got through ok, others didn't.  Gen Xers were routinely ignored and self-raised.  but we didn't have social media publishing every teen runaway or suicide back then, so we didn't hear about it as much. Nor did we have the type of mass shootings that have become prevalent.  i agree that social media has made some things worse, or at least we all know about more of them.

[sugarbaker design]

On 4/5/2024 at 5:20 PM, Starchild said:

Another commercial for an HBO show during the interview, so I guess that's going to be a thing now.

I just watched my DVRed show.  There wasn't a commercial during the Haidt interview.  Doesn't Max have commercial-free and lesser priced with commercial options?

[Shrek]

10 hours ago, sugarbaker design said:

I just watched my DVRed show.  There wasn't a commercial during the Haidt interview.  Doesn't Max have commercial-free and lesser priced with commercial options?

Not sure about the options as I have HBO on both cable & Max but I know there were no commercials for me.

[Starchild]

I'm watching cable (I know!) in Canada, so maybe it's different here.

[gimmyqueue]

Is it appropriate in this forum if I broach the subject of all the constant applause after every single line uttered by anybody (mostly Bill) on his show? I've enjoyed Bill since his Politically Incorrect run, but damn, can't they stop applauding every time he farts?