“If you were the devil, how would you destroy the next generation, without them even knowing it?”
Here’s a bit of the answer he shared in a Free Press article:
“I’d keep them busy. Always distracted” and “I’d watch their minds rot slowly, sweetly, silently. And the best part is, they’d never know it was me. They’d call it freedom.”
Mr. Haidt wrote, “It seemed to
be saying, if the devil wanted to destroy a generation, he could just give them
all smartphones.” He came to this after studying why Gen Z, the kids born
between 1996 and 2012, experienced an increase in mental health problems
beginning in the early 2010s.
Sometimes, truth also comes packaged in unorthodox places.
The Babylon Bee online satire site had a recent
headline, “Jesus Heals Demon-Possessed Man by Taking Away His
Cellphone.” “Multiple reports indicated that the man’s rages,
convulsions, and foaming at the mouth were instantly healed as soon as
Jesus removed the man’s smartphone from his hand,” the story reads. “At
publishing time, witnesses had reported that Jesus had told the man to
go and scroll no more, or something worse might happen to him.”
Christians familiar with biblical accounts of
Jesus’ miracles, plus his admonition to the woman caught in adultery to
“go and sin no more,” will get this immediately.
Yet you don’t have to be a Christian to
question whether smartphones have been a blessing or a curse. Clearly,
they are both. Remember what it was like trying to connect with someone
arriving at an airport? Or losing written directions on the way to a
destination? Or not having change for a pay phone? Scratch that last one
if you’re younger than 40.
The convenience has been astonishing. The
world’s accumulated knowledge is at our fingertips. You can talk
face-to-face with friends, loved ones and business acquaintances around
the world, but the price has been steep.
A story broke last year in The New York Times
about a remote Amazon tribe getting internet access and cellphones and
developing social pathologies within two years. The tribe says the paper
exaggerated, and it has filed a defamation lawsuit.
Nonetheless, the social effects of ubiquitous
cellphones are obvious. Every weekday, on a nearby corner, middle and
high school kids wait for a school bus. Every one of them has his or her
head down, engrossed in a cellphone. No one is talking. No girl is
flirting with a boy. No boys are comparing sports scores. At least not
in person.
When we encounter these teens on neighborhood
walks, we’re often surprised and saddened that they won’t even return a
friendly “Hello.”
Apple founder Steve Jobs introduced iPhones in January 2007, and by the 2010s, they were everywhere. With instantaneous communication, Big Tech has
created an environment in which kids are fed constant opinions and,
often, dark themes. They can become victims of scathing psychological
attacks or become part of a peer group assaulting another student. They
can watch videos ad nauseam on TikTok, access pornography, create
deepfakes and read posts that make their parents out to be ogres if they
exert any discipline whatsoever glued to their phones angels” or make
them subject to “spiritual degradation.” All too often, he writes, it’s
the latter.
Personally, I have no doubt that God exists,
came miraculously in human form 2,000 years ago to save our souls, and
is still doing so. In any case, Haidt is on to something important.
He offers “four norms” that could help: No smartphones before high
school, no social media before 16, phone-free schools from kindergarten
through 12th grade, and more independence, free play and responsibility
in the real world.
Children, he says, need “to do hard things,
over and over, and suffer setbacks and losses, in order to become
strong, independent adults.” In other words, they need to develop
character, something about which the Bible has much to say. For example,
“Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but whoever takes crooked
paths will be found out.” (Proverbs 10:9)rampant. Throw cellphones into this
mix, and you have a perfect storm.
A committed mother and father can make an
enormous difference. For those lacking such a foundation, faith in a
loving God goes a long way. “He will heal the broken-hearted and bind up
their wounds.” (Psalm 147:3) The Apostle Paul offered a timeless
antidote to angst and cynicism that could apply even to overuse of
cellphones: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just,
whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there
is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about
these things.” (Phil. 4:8)
Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.
