{"id":38249,"date":"2024-10-14T10:07:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-14T17:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38249"},"modified":"2024-09-07T15:08:56","modified_gmt":"2024-09-07T22:08:56","slug":"the-voice-of-one-crying-in-the-wilderness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-voice-of-one-crying-in-the-wilderness\/","title":{"rendered":"The voice of one crying in the wilderness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness<\/em> by Jonathan Haidt is an extremely hard book for me to read.<\/p>\n

I say \u201cis\u201d because I\u2019m still in the middle of it (actually, towards the beginning of it).<\/p>\n

I can only take small sections at a time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not because it\u2019s too dense or difficult. I find both the style and the research compelling, and it would usually be the kind of book that I couldn\u2019t put down before finishing.<\/p>\n

The problem is I have kids who my wife and I raised in the late 2010\u2019s and early 2020\u2019s. And while we thought we were doing a decent job of delaying giving them smartphones until high school (all three of them were literally the LAST kids in their classes to have these devices), as I\u2019m reading this book I keep thinking \u201cmy God, what have we done?\u201d<\/p>\n

And even as I\u2019m trying to write this blog, I have to keep stopping, to weep. (I apologize for maybe being too vulnerable, but this blog is very personal).<\/p>\n

You see, we have three great kids. Intelligent, creative, quirky, respectful. They have always been able to hold their own in a conversation with adults. They can all confidently travel anywhere, alone.<\/p>\n

The two older ones have a wicked-smart grasp of how narrative works: novels, tv, film\u2014any of it. I would wager that they could critically analyze a story as well or better than anyone in this doctoral cohort. And they\u2019re only 21 and 23.<\/p>\n

You are likely to see both their names early on the credit roll of a movie you\u2019re watching in the next decade (and no, that\u2019s not just \u201cdad\u201d talking).<\/p>\n

While the 17-year-old doesn\u2019t share her brother\u2019s refined taste in media (she loves Hallmark channel movies!) she is highly social, in love with Jesus, and a true emerging leader. Anyone who has seen her speaking or leading tells her mom and me \u201cshe\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it sounds like I\u2019m bragging, to be honest, I am, a little. But that\u2019s not the point.<\/p>\n

The point is, all three of my kids struggle with mental health issues that are occasionally debilitating, and sometimes disastrous. I won\u2019t be more specific because this is an open blog and though their journeys may be public, not all the details have been.<\/p>\n

Over the last few years my wife and I have asked over and over what we missed that we could have done differently, or better, or what we could have stopped doing to help our kids. There are as many answers as there are questions. I firmly believe that there is not only a single answer to a problem as complex as mental health\u2014so there are a lot of coulda\/shoulda\/woulda\u2019s in our lives right now.<\/p>\n

But the one cause that we hadn\u2019t considered deeply enough was their exposure to technology.<\/p>\n

Sure, I\u2019ve been exposed to the idea that social media isn\u2019t helpful for a teenagers (or my) mental health. I\u2019ve wrestled with how often I scroll on Instagram or X. I\u2019ve read a book about How to Break Up with Your iPhone[1], and I\u2019ve watched and made my family watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix. I\u2019ve read what authors like Gene Twengy have suggested about how harmful technology might be for kids.[2]<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like I haven\u2019t heard about the problem.<\/p>\n

But even with all the earlier information I came across about the dangers of technology, this book just hit different for me.<\/p>\n

While the other things I\u2019ve read gave me glimpses of the challenge, The Anxious Generation is a wake-up call for me. And though I can encourage others with it, use it in my NPO project and look to help shape my kid’s patterns even now as young adults, in so many ways it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

Damage has been done. And I not only allowed it but invited it to happen.<\/p>\n

My one solace can be found in the old wise query: \u201cWhen is the best time to plant a tree?\u201d The answer is 20 years ago. The follow up question is, \u201cWhen is the second best time to plant a tree?\u201d The answer is, today.<\/p>\n

This book is already being received well. Leaders, educators and the culture at large are recognizing the need for accountability and change in this area. Our choices are metaphorically and literally killing a rising generation. Will we pay attention?<\/p>\n

Will it be our \u201csmoking kills you\u201d moment where culture decided to stop believing the tobacco company lies that cigarettes were fine? Or will Haidt be just one more voice crying in the wilderness who we listen to, momentarily, and then collectively bury our faces back in our smartphones while our kids are being destroyed?<\/p>\n

Only time will tell.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1] Cathrine Price. How To Break Up With Your iPhone. New York, Penguin Random House, 2018.<\/p>\n

[2] https:\/\/psychology.sdsu.edu\/social-media-and-kids-mental-health-jean-twenge\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt is an extremely hard book for me to read. I say \u201cis\u201d because I\u2019m still in the middle of it (actually, towards the beginning of it). I can only take small sections at a time. It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2489,1214],"class_list":["post-38249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dlgp02","tag-haidt","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38249"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38249\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38250,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38249\/revisions\/38250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}