
TagGen Z


Ted Mosby Can Save Today’s Dating World
The modern dating landscape is abysmal
What’s Happening to Literature?
Why aren't students reading anything anymore?
The Dumbphone Revolution?
It's a crazy idea, but what if we just started using our phones to call and text people?
Haidt: Beauty and Awe Help Us Escape the Phone-Based Life
The question is: why are we drawn to beauty?
Americans Are Lonely. Sometimes Even When They’re Together
Technology can obstruct our connection with others, but it can also train us to not even want friendship in the first place
Live Music is Making a Comeback, and So is Bob Dylan
People still want to experience music in person.This past summer, 110,000 people convened for a George Strait concert in College Station, TX, the biggest crowd ever recorded to hear live music. Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” has amassed over a billion dollars in revenue, with the pop star traveling the world to sold-out amphitheaters. Coldplay, another massive musical act, is gearing up for the release of their tenth studio album, Moon Music, set to drop on October 4th. They plan a world tour for the album and are also known to fill up stadiums far and wide. So, whatever plights the world of arts and culture might be facing, and given AI’s incursion into the creator economy, one thing remains evident: people still want to experience music in Read More ›

Finally Something the Politicians Agree On: Phone-free Schools
Governors in both red and blue states are getting screens out of classrooms
Growing Up on the Internet is Like Growing Up on Mars
We need to come back to Earth
Ban the Phones and Bring Back the Books
It's time for the book, a time-tested vehicle of delight and instruction, to make a comeback in the classroomThis summer, several states have proposed banning smartphones in public schools or introducing programs that will limit kids’ phone use during school hours. So far New York, Indiana, Ohio, California, and Oklahoma have proposed bans or restrictions, showing rare bipartisan concern over the issue. The impetus for this movement came in May when Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders sent a letter to every fellow governor in the United States with a complimentary copy of The Anxious Generation, a new book by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt. Haidt shows how starting in the early 2010s kids’ mental health steeply declined. The main culprit? The smartphone, which soon became an ensnaring substitute for “real life.” Gen Z, those born after 1995, were the first Read More ›

Inside Out 2: Anxiety Takes Over
New animated film explores the internal anxieties of a teenage girl
Ozempic: Weight Loss Drug or Supermodel Shortcut?
Social media fuels impossible body standards. So, Gen Z flocks to weight loss drugs.Ozempic, the weight loss medication that diminishes one’s sense of hunger, has been used as a simple and yet effective treatment for obesity. There is debate on whether the use of drugs to combat weight gain is healthy, or should be pushed back against by simply eating better and engaging in regular exercise. Now, though, a certain brand of Ozempic users is complicating the discussion. People, particularly the young, are starting to use Ozempic to carve out the ideal beach bod. But the risks to this aren’t benign, according to a report by the New York Post. Using Ozempic or other weight loss drugs without a proper prescription can be dangerous. Per the Post: “Drugs including Ozempic and Wegovy should Read More ›

Haidt on AI: Social Media Companies Use It to Hook the Vulnerable
The famous American social psychologist and professor at New York University, Jonathan Haidt, thinks phones have essentially ruined a generation
Governor Huckabee Sanders Against Big Tech
Governor takes action based on Jonathan Haidt's research
Helpful Video Maps Out Gen Z Mental Health Crisis
The glow of the screen is swallowing a generation, and it needs to stopSocial psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation topped the New York Times bestsellers’ chart two weeks in a row, and has been stirring up a lot of commentary in the meantime. Haidt’s basic thesis is that we have drastically overprotected children in the real world and woefully under-protected them in the virtual world. A new video helpfully lines out this argument, and shows why today’s generation, more than the Millennials who preceded them, struggle so intensely with anxiety, depression, and loneliness. In a recent interview, author and public intellectual Andy Crouch said that while he doesn’t know if it can be backed up neurologically, there is something about the “glow” of screens that wakens something primordial in the Read More ›

Moving Life Online is Making Us Depressed
The phone-based childhood robs kids developmentally, says Jonathan Haidt
Too Much Focus on Mental Health?
Is our fixation on wellbeing making us miserable?“We have to deal with the cancer that is mental health.” So tweeted former presidential nominee Nikki Haley back in January. Most people knew what she meant, which was that we have to take mental health seriously and do our best to foster positive mental health. From the way she phrased it, though, you’re tempted to think that “mental health” itself is, well, what she said it is: a “cancer.” The emphasis on mental health and therapy is widespread. In many ways, it is good and proper to encourage people to be more open about their mental struggles and to get help for what they’re going through. The amount of trauma, abuse, and other mental disorders that people hide is Read More ›

Escaping the Dopamine Cartel
We can't even be bothered with "entertainment" anymore.
Two Notable Reads: Children and Tech and the Illusions of Photography
How much should kids be online? And is taking pictures taking us out of real life?
COVID-19: Technology Trends That Are Sneaking Up on Us Faster Now
Most of these changes, for better or worse, are probably here to stayWe knew big changes were coming. And that COVID-19 has ramped them up. But when experts expound grand generalities and wave their hands a lot, it can be hard to clearly see what a change means where we live and work. One writing teacher, for example, learned how to massively adapt all of a sudden: Each spring, I teach Writing about Oneself, a class on first-person reading and writing, to 12 Yale undergraduates chosen from 100 or so… Every year I fill out the registrar’s Pedagogical Needs Request Form, leaving 14 of the 15 “Technological Needs” boxes unchecked. (No, I don’t need a SMART board. No, I don’t need a digital projector. No, I don’t need a Blu-ray player.) The Read More ›