Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis
mars-the-red-planet-with-detailed-surface-features-and-craters-in-deep-space-blue-earth-planet-in-outer-space-mars-and-earth-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Mars, the red planet with detailed surface features and craters in deep space. Blue Earth planet in outer space. mars and earth, concept

Growing Up on the Internet is Like Growing Up on Mars

We need to come back to Earth
Share
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flipboard
Print
Email

A 1999 clip of David Bowie talking about the arrival of the internet made some rounds this morning, and is worth listening to. Bowie likens the internet to an alien space invasion, something we’ve never seen before, a development both “exhilarating and terrifying.” Here is the minute-long clip:

In the beginning of his new book The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt likens growing up with the internet to growing up on Mars. What Bowie said turned out to the perfect metaphor for understanding what happened to Gen Z, those born after 1995 and who were the first to undergo adolescence with the internet and, most importantly, with smartphones. If we raised our children on Mars, Haidt says, we wouldn’t expect them to turn out “normal.” They would have to adjust to a million different variants in order to survive. But in a way, that’s what we’ve done to today’s young. We’ve allowed them to roam an extraterrestrial landscape without understanding the resident aliens.

It’s hard to accept that you’ve been living on a different planet if it’s all you’ve known your whole life, but many members of Gen Z (me included) seem to be “waking up” and realizing, thanks in large part to respected researchers and advocates like Haidt, that an online life isn’t a fulfilling one. We are lonelier than ever, more anxious, depressed, and distracted. We are sleeping less, and are going on fewer dates, etc. The mental health crisis among Gen Z is inseparably linked to smartphones.

Smartphone addiction also leads to “spiritual degradation.” Writing as a Christian and quoting from Haidt, Martin Saunders goes beyond mental health issues and reckons with the reality that these devices promote a self-centered way of life. He writes,

I find in Haidt an unlikely ally in this concern; unlikely because the author is a confirmed atheist. Yet despite his beliefs (or lack of them), Haidt devotes an entire chapter of The Anxious Generation to spirituality, one which takes a high view of Jesus’ teaching and even affirms the idea of the “God-shaped hole”. He argues that smartphones actually drive spiritual degradation: “[social media] trains people to think in ways that are exactly contrary to the world’s wisdom traditions: Think about yourselves first; be materialistic, judgemental, boastful, and petty; seek glory as quantified by likes and followers.” (see page 52 for a real life example of how God saved one TikTok influencer from this way of thinking).

Haidt is clear: our digital culture isn’t neutral; it’s offering a kind of anti-discipleship.

-Martin Saunders, Why your smartphone might be stopping you from following Jesus | Magazine Features | Premier Christianity

Not only is the online world making us angry and sad. It’s also causing our character to atrophy. I’ve witnessed this personally, and continue to struggle with escaping the constant allure of the screen and simply “touch grass.” Perhaps it is time to start asking ourselves what we are using these devices to replace. Social connection? A sense of validation or worth? Romance? The data shows a sad story of millions of people trying to meet deep human longings through a pixelated screen. We need to come back to Earth.


Peter Biles

Writer and Editor, Center for Science & Culture
Peter Biles is the author of several works of fiction, most recently the novel Through the Eye of Old Man Kyle. His essays, stories, blogs, and op-eds have been published in places like The American Spectator, Plough, and RealClearEducation, among many others. He is an adjunct professor at Oklahoma Baptist University and is a writer and editor for Mind Matters.

Growing Up on the Internet is Like Growing Up on Mars