Tagphones
Are Phones to Blame for a Spiritual Crisis?
Technology is often impersonal magic. It makes things easy, but erodes personal formationPhones block access to spiritual depth. That’s what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt writes in his newest bestseller The Anxious Generation. The frenetic, distractible nature of the screen-based existence most of us live in every day is eroding our ability to pursue meaning, transcending values, and empathy for other people. Haidt was recently joined in conversation by Andy Crouch, a Christian author who has written extensively on technology and culture in books like The Tech-Wise Family and The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World. “My life is full of convenience,” Crouch writes in the latter title mentioned. It is full of transaction, at its best a mutually beneficial exchange of value, a kind of arm’s-length benign use Read More ›
Smartphone: The “Experience Blocker”
Experience is the key to emotional development and a fully human lifeSmartphones are distracting and addicting, but according to Jonathan Haidt, and supported by our common experience, they can also keep us from a basic ingredient of human life: Experience. Sometimes I wonder if the worst aspect of the “dopamine culture,” as culture critic Ted Gioia calls it, is not that we no longer have the attention spans to focus on our work, but that we no longer seem able to enjoy activities that aren’t based on screens. Simple pleasures like a good meal, meant to savor and digest at a slow pace, or going through a rich and complicated novel that yields real insight and literary joy, or even kissing an actual person in an affectionate way are all “old-school” Read More ›
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?
Finally Something the Politicians Agree On: Phone-free Schools
Governors in both red and blue states are getting screens out of classrooms
What Happened to “Third Spaces”?
Many men are lacking the deep community and sense of brotherhood (fraternity) they need to flourish and grow.. Bringing back communal institutions might be crucial for social cohesionA few decades ago, the club was more of a thing. And not the kind where people rave and disco until six in the morning. No, these were “gentlemen’s clubs,” places where guys could separate themselves both from familial and professional venues and enjoy meaningful connection with other men. Anthony Bradley, a scholar at the Acton Institute, shared some of his thoughts and findings on the decline of these “third spaces” and how they’ve been detrimental towards men in particular. The rise of more egalitarian attitudes towards gender, which had the great net benefit of opening the door for more equal opportunity for women, inadvertently led to the decline of these male-centric institutions. Today, we see the result: many men Read More ›
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 ›
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 ›
