About this Event
Dr. Jonathan Haidt's new book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness tells of a sharp increase in mental health issues for teenagers since the smartphone brought social media into everybody's constant presence.
In an interview Dr. Haidt said:
"‘For all human history, millions of years, all mammals play. Anyone who has had a puppy knows it’s all about play. So we had playdates in childhood, up until around 2010.’
In Britain, he says, the number of children who went on real-life playdates then fell sharply. Lockdown, needless to say, didn’t help.
‘I’m calling it the great rewiring of childhood… It hit the US, Canada, Britain, Australia, New Zealand in exactly the same way.’
Social media is a bit of a misnomer, he says. It’s no longer about connecting people, but ‘performing on a platform’. Perhaps this is fine for grown-ups, but not for children, ‘where they can say things in public, including to strangers, and then be publicly shamed by potentially millions of people… Children should not be on social networks."
So do we need to ban smartphones for children to make this work? Or is that an overreaction?
Join the debate at 104 London Debaters; YOU can give your opinion during Floor Contributions.
The meeting will be held on the first floor of the Windsor Castle pub in Victoria, a beautiful Victorian pub with great food, drinks and reasonable prices. Make sure to give the code word: Debate Club!
Read more about the club and debating HERE.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
The Windsor Castle, 23 Francis Street, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
