flâneur

Protecting our attention - by Nadia - Monomythical

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I was rather confused when sociologist Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, came out earlier this year, which examines the harmful effects of phone and social media use among children and teenagers. Haidt posits that mindless screen time is perhaps not-great for us, and we should take the issue more seriously. It wasn’t Haidt’s thesis that confused me, but the defensive response from many of my peers, who alleged that he was fearmongering – much as critics once wrung their hands about books, television, video games, or any other form of new media. This was cognitive dissonance for me. While there are many benefits to social media – I owe my career, many close friendships, and even my marriage to Twitter – doomscrolling is obviously bad. Nobody feels good after scrolling on their phones for hours, and this simple observation alone seems to reasonably justify a deeper examination of social media’s effects on our psychology. So, why were so many people in tech either reluctant t

I was rather confused when sociologist Jonathan Haidt’s book, The Anxious Generation, came out earlier this year, which examines the harmful effects of phone and social media use among children and teenagers. Haidt posits that mindless screen time is perhaps not-great for us, and we should take the issue more seriously. It wasn’t Haidt’s thesis that confused me, but the defensive response from many of my peers, who alleged that he was fearmongering – much as critics once wrung their hands about books, television, video games, or any other form of new media. This was cognitive dissonance…

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