About the only time we spend as a twosome — instead of a threesome — is on our morning walk, although he reckons I could lift the ratio if I helped him weed the vegie patch, sweep up leaves, chop some wood and be otherwise useful at all those times when he’s sans phone, instead of carping.
Then, on the weekend, he suddenly beckoned me over to hear an interview with Jonathan Haidt, the social psychologist who has thrown a grenade into human comfortville with his new book on the rewiring of childhood — and how the humans are messing it up.
Haidt heaps blame on the smartphone and social media for harming kids’ development, from sleep deprivation and mental health to loneliness and addiction. And of course, no old dog will disagree that play-based childhood has become a phone-based childhood, with a net loss to the dogs.
The worst of these effects is the apparent collapse in mental health, with rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide among teenagers rising dramatically since the 2010s.
The Boss says the Australian trend is tracking just behind that in the US, with the rate of overnight stays in hospital for young women with mental health issues more than doubling in Australia since 2008.
In his new book, The Anxious Generation, Professor Haidt — who teaches psychology at New York University — argues that for the cohort of young people that hit puberty around 2009, their sense of self was developing at the same time as three dramatic changes emerged: smartphones and life with the constant companionship of a screen; front-facing cameras and apps that thrive on selfie-culture; and apps that reduce social engagement between physical people to online ‘likes’ and emojis.
His graphic evidence makes a powerful case for the causal link between social media and deteriorating mental health among teenagers, but he doesn’t expect the platforms or governments to do much about it until enough parents get angry.
In a move that has prompted The Boss to reflect on his imperfect fatherhood, Prof Haidt lays first blame on The Boss’s generation — those parenting in the 1980s who started to protect their kids too much — while also enjoying the distracting advantages of the Atari play station.
Prof Haidt says that semi-absent parenting — at once protecting their kids from the physical world but then letting them loose in the Wild West of the digital world — has been like sending the kids off to Mars with a pat on the head and a cheerful wave.
I could have told you this myself but Prof Haidt has an even bigger audience. He wrote The Coddling of the American Mind after noticing the changes in his students’ behaviour, as they seemed to grow more isolated and risk-averse.
Just like the needs of a young dog, he reckons “a healthy human childhood with a lot of autonomy sets children’s brains to operate mostly in ‘discover mode,’ with a well-developed attachment system and an ability to handle the risks of daily life.”
He doesn’t have all the answers but says humans need to give kids their childhood and adolescence back. Prefer basic flip-phones for kids instead of smartphones, allow no phones at all in school, allow no social media before age 16 and find ways to encourage them into unsupervised play.
He offers sensible, easy suggestions for parents, starting with telling your child, “Do something new, on your own.” It can be something as simple as making a meal, climbing a tree, or taking the dog for a walk. You’ll see the results immediately, he says. Woof!
For more yarns, visit sheppnews.com.au/the-general
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