{"id":38455,"date":"2024-10-15T03:09:44","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T10:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38455"},"modified":"2024-09-22T03:13:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T10:13:08","slug":"give-gen-z-some-credit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/give-gen-z-some-credit\/","title":{"rendered":"Give Gen Z some Credit"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, I sat in a parents\u2019 meeting listening to my son\u2019s teacher talk about the upcoming school year. Toward the end of the meeting a father behind me raised his hand and asked the teacher if she had a guess as to how many students in the class had phones. She hesitated but eventually estimated that all or nearly all did. Interestingly, that set off a bit of a flurry when several parents began chiming in, \u201cNot my son; not my daughter.\u201d In the end, probably 5 of us, myself included, affirmed that their 7th<\/sup> graders do not have a phone of their own.<\/p>\n

This brief experience clarified several things in my mind. Firstly, this is a high-priority issue for every parent and every educator. Secondly, while it may feel to us (and to our children) that absolutely all of their peers have the latest smart phone and that they absolutely cannot live without one, that is not necessarily true.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Haidt tackles this important issue in a book that, by his own admission, he didn\u2019t set out to write. He originally began to write about social media\u2019s disastrous effects on American democracy, but the data he was compiling on adolescent mental health was so compelling that he pivoted.[1]<\/a> And I\u2019m so glad he did. The Anxious Generation<\/em> has become a seminal work and has advanced the wider conversation around adolescent phone and social media use. He suggests four best practices that he argues will correct The Great Rewiring of children born since 1995.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. No smartphones before high school<\/li>\n
  2. No social media before 16<\/li>\n
  3. Phone-free schools<\/li>\n
  4. Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence[2]<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    His meta-analysis of numerous studies shows these four steps can effectively combat the range of risks associated with adolescents\u2019 overuse of smart phones and social media: In a related article he says, \u201cWe\u2019re talking about a range of\u00a0documented risks\u00a0that affect heavy users, including\u00a0sleep deprivation, body image distortion,\u00a0depression,\u00a0anxiety, exposure to content promoting suicide and eating disorders,\u00a0sexual predation\u00a0and\u00a0sextortion, and \u201cproblematic use,\u201d which is the term psychologists use to describe compulsive overuse that interferes with success in other areas of life.\u201d[3]<\/a> \u00a0<\/p>\n

    Going beyond the overwhelming data and Haidt\u2019s suggested best practices, there is an aspect of this debate that I find even more fascinating. Kids, even many of the same kids are more or less addicted to their phones, are pushing back against social media. My older son is 14, and he complains when his friends have their noses glued to their phones, as he puts it. He\u2019s not complaining because he feels left out. He\u2019s complaining because they\u2019re not hanging out in any meaningful way. And my son isn\u2019t the only one. In a recent New York Times article, Haidt shares data showing that many kids \u201cwished these products had never been invented: Instagram (34 percent), Facebook (37 percent), Snapchat (43 percent), and the most regretted platforms of all: TikTok (47 percent) and X\/Twitter (50 percent).\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

    I think this means the tide is turning. I believe in Gen Z and Gen Alpha after them; they are smart and capable and they are beginning to recognize how detrimental screen addiction is. I love that Haidt concludes his book by encouraging kids to take a courageous stand and to advocate for themselves. He writes, \u201cIf you are a member of Gen Z, society urgently needs your voice. Your words will be the most powerful of all.\u201d[5]<\/a> He even recommends an organization, Design It For Us, founded by members of Gen Z to work for change in this area. You can bet this is a conversation I\u2019m going to have with my two sons as soon as possible. This topic is too urgent to put off and too important to ignore.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    [1]<\/a> Haidt, Jonathan.\u00a0The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness<\/em>. London: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2024. 289.<\/p>\n

    [2]<\/a> Ibid., 290.<\/p>\n

    [3]<\/a> Jonathan Haidt\u00a0and\u00a0Will Johnson, \u201cGen Z Has Regrets,\u201d New York Times, September 17, 2024. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/09\/17\/opinion\/social-media-smartphones-harm-regret.html?smid=url-share<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    [4]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n

    [5]<\/a> Haidt, Jonathan.\u00a0The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness<\/em>. London: Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, 2024. 289.<\/p>\n

    [5] Ibid., 292.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A couple of weeks ago, I sat in a parents\u2019 meeting listening to my son\u2019s teacher talk about the upcoming school year. Toward the end of the meeting a father behind me raised his hand and asked the teacher if she had a guess as to how many students in the class had phones. She […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"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":[2310],"tags":[2489,1214],"class_list":["post-38455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-leadership-3","tag-dlgp02","tag-haidt","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38455","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\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38455"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38609,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38455\/revisions\/38609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}