BROADCASTS.com

Both anecdotally and in research, anxiety and depression among young people\u2014often associated with self-harm\u2014have risen sharply over the last decade. There seems little doubt that Gen Z is suffering in real ways. But there is not a consensus on the cause or causes, nor how to address them. The social psychologist Jonathan Haidt believes that enough evidence has accumulated to convict a suspect. Smartphones and social media, Haidt says, have caused a \u201cgreat rewiring\u201d in those born after 1995. The argument has hit a nerve: his new book, \u201cThe Anxious Generation,\u201d was No. 1 on the New York *Times* hardcover nonfiction best-seller list. Speaking with David Remnick, Haidt is quick to differentiate social-media apps\u2014with their constant stream of notifications, and their emphasis on performance\u2014from technology writ large; mental health was not affected, he says, for millennials, who grew up earlier in the evolution of the Internet. Haidt, who earlier wrote about an excessive emphasis on safety in the book \u201cThe Coddling of the American Mind,\u201d feels that our priorities when it comes to child safety are exactly wrong. \u201cWe\u2019re overprotecting in [the real world], and I\u2019m saying, lighten up, let your kids out! And we\u2019re underprotecting in another, and I\u2019m saying, don\u2019t let your kids spend nine hours a day on the Internet talking with strange men. It\u2019s just not a good idea.\u201d To social scientists who have asserted that the evidence Haidt marshals does not prove a causative link between social media and depression, \u201cI keep asking for alternative theories,\u201d he says. \u201cYou don\u2019t think it\u2019s the smartphones and social media\u2014what is it? . . . You can give me whatever theory you want about trends in American society, but nobody can explain why it happened so suddenly in 2012 and 2013\u2014not just here but in Canada, the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, Northern Europe. I\u2019m waiting,\u201d he adds sarcastically, \u201cfor someone to find a chemical.\u201d The good news, Haidt says, is there are achievable ways to limit the harm.

Note: In his conversation with David Remnick, Jonathan Haidt misstated some information about a working paper that studies unhappiness across nations. The authors are David G. Blanchflower, Alex Bryson, and Xiaowei Xu, and it includes data on thirty-four countries.\xa0