“The Great Rewiring of Childhood, in which the phone-based childhood replaced the play-based childhood, is the major cause of the international epidemic of adolescent mental illness.”
We live in a very rich wild life area, and while acting as a taxi service for my granddaughter i can't count how many times i've excitedly said " did you see that ? " only to look over and realize that she was looking at her phone with her earbuds in, oblivious to what's going on around her.
I can't understand this behaviour, it is so rude to be closed off when you are in the same freaking car with someone! Earbuds?! Come on. This is clearly a sign of bad parenting (sorry, I don't want to offend you by saying this about your children, but I have to be honest) and I just don't understand how parents allow their children to be so tuned-out.
When I was growing up, we had a limited time to watch TV, an hour I believe. The rest was spent playing games, inside or outside the house. I get it, the system f-ed us over and now more and more women have (or want) to work to pay the bills, so the parents are more absent and tired, leading them to allow things like being on the phone all the time, just to keep the peace. But man, what a depressing problem this is. Can't they see it is hurting their children and will lead to many problems down the road?
One of the main things this research leaves out, is home education and how parents, parent and/or teach their children. Before social media and smartphone technology parenting has been handed over to third parties like the state and or by strangers, or by the television so the real epidemic and source to the psychological effects of the use of any technology is a direct result of a lack of critical thinking patterns taught by the adults who apparently are responsible for how young people conduct themselves with their environment. I haven't even touched upon the psychology of the parents of these children who go about learning about their environments from lazy or incapable parents.
"Social media" is not social. In fact, social media is an oxymoron-- media is not a social activity. Substack is the closest I get to social media. Social media is not the only cause of young people's mental problems. The problem started with the Marxist invasion of the 90's; i.e., Clinton's "It Takes a Village". This made it easy for parents to abandon their duty to properly raise their children. Children were then left to being parented by the boob tube, and video games (unsupervised violence and sex). The baby sitting was then left to the computer, iPad and cell phones. Children became lazy and anti-social. They also started have behavioral and mental problems. Social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists became the "parents". Now, comes a real big problem, these "mental health professionals" put these kids on drugs to deal with the depression and other psych problems. We now know that these drugs do not work and in many cases make the mental problems worse-- causing suicide and violence. All the while the Marxists continued to destroy families and attacked the children.
I think the solution is easy to see. First, parents needs to once again practice parenting and establish a family life. Second, throw the damned cell phones in the garbage. And, finally, if the child is taking those destructive drugs, wean them off.
However, in this case, I consider you are off track and downstream (see below).
I think it is not our technological devices that are the main cause of our younger persons supposed vices and their purported “epidemic of adolescent mental illness” (see Szsaz).
Please view Male Males Substack on Haidt and others. Here is his most recent post:
The 5-part FX documentary reveals that adults’ views of teens remain stuck in a never-changing time warp. MIKE MALES JAN 25, 2025
I commented to Mike’s post which I am passing on to you and your readers:
Thanks, Mike, for a much needed, more objective analysis of this current moral morass that Haidt and others add to, the better to sell their hip-boots for.
Let us go upstream to the farthest point which is PARENTARCHY, that is the origin of Human Violence to self and others.
I consider this is the invisble “ELEPHANT IN THE WOMB” every so-called adult stares at but refuses to acknowledge. Richard Farson, Birthrights:
“A common error made by children reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag is, ‘. . . one nation, under God, invisible . . .’ There is truth in the error. To them the nation is indeed invisible. Excluded from almost every area of life in America, they have no opportunity to see it. Moreover, children are invisible to the nation. Segregated, ignored, impotent. Our world is not a good place for children. Every institution in our society severely discriminates against them. We all come to feel that it is either natural or necessary to cooperate in that discrimination. Unconsciously, we carry out the will of a society which holds a limited and demeaned view of children and which refuses to recognize their right to full humanity.”
I invite you to use PARENTARCHY to go most upstream and begin to get the attention of those still asleep in the “Nightmare of History” Lloyd deMause calls Humanity’s horrible heritage of Child Abuse/Neglect.
As happened in the 1800s when Slavery finally became morally repugnant to a majority, I believe will happen with PARENTARCY and then Statism—both will end up in the trash bin of history along with Slavery.
I hope you and your readers will join us this Sat 9pm and Sunday 9am NZ time:
Free Friends Forum 29 PARENTARCHY—The Elephant in the Womb—Personified
A Response to Tereza Coraggio’s Substack “Is Parenting an Abuse of Power?” with three daughters as “Machiavellian midgets”
“[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances. They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.
----
Letter in Town and Country magazine republished in Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, 1771
“The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth…”
----
The Conduct of Young People, Hull Daily Mail, 1925
“We defy anyone who goes about with his eyes open to deny that there is, as never before, an attitude on the part of young folk which is best described as grossly thoughtless, rude, and utterly selfish.”
I think there's at least a slight irony in a heavily web-based series calling out smart phones. I don't think there's a hard line between desk top internet computers and phones. They're both distracting. They're both over loading. They both eat away at the attention span and weaken deep reading. I wish there'd be a return to postal media---newsletters, zines, journals.....
At the very least, easily intuitive printable versions of blogs like this, so all you had to do was press a print button, and the main part with all the comments, automatically expanded, would come out on a printer. I tried it with this, but get cut-off comments and cut-off edges. Transferring to Word is a hassle and sometimes obliterates paragraphs.
Also, maybe there's too much of a good thing. Too much. Too fast. Too often. Multiplied by dozens and dozens, hundreds and hundreds, of "influencers". When there are comments, they're often just empty praise from fan boys you have to wade through or reactive rants. No nuanced push back. I miss the days of letters to the editor, that were slowly constructed with a mental attitude of care and deliberation. Even teenagers wrote "long ass" letters to pulp printed punk zines.
So, please AOI, I'd be grateful if you could at least give me an easy printable version, so I can deep read and think about it with a pencil.
I don’t want to totally dismiss this, but I think the issue has to be put in a little more historical perspective. The Youth in Crisis motif has been around for decades, maybe a century, or more. So has the “modern media is destroying culture” narrative.
“Parents need to stop pacifying their children with screens – a practice that in the future may be regarded as a passive form of child abuse.”
Yea let’s normalize this. Having an iPad is no longer a product of neglect, but abuse.
This exactly.
We live in a very rich wild life area, and while acting as a taxi service for my granddaughter i can't count how many times i've excitedly said " did you see that ? " only to look over and realize that she was looking at her phone with her earbuds in, oblivious to what's going on around her.
I can't understand this behaviour, it is so rude to be closed off when you are in the same freaking car with someone! Earbuds?! Come on. This is clearly a sign of bad parenting (sorry, I don't want to offend you by saying this about your children, but I have to be honest) and I just don't understand how parents allow their children to be so tuned-out.
When I was growing up, we had a limited time to watch TV, an hour I believe. The rest was spent playing games, inside or outside the house. I get it, the system f-ed us over and now more and more women have (or want) to work to pay the bills, so the parents are more absent and tired, leading them to allow things like being on the phone all the time, just to keep the peace. But man, what a depressing problem this is. Can't they see it is hurting their children and will lead to many problems down the road?
One of the main things this research leaves out, is home education and how parents, parent and/or teach their children. Before social media and smartphone technology parenting has been handed over to third parties like the state and or by strangers, or by the television so the real epidemic and source to the psychological effects of the use of any technology is a direct result of a lack of critical thinking patterns taught by the adults who apparently are responsible for how young people conduct themselves with their environment. I haven't even touched upon the psychology of the parents of these children who go about learning about their environments from lazy or incapable parents.
"Social media" is not social. In fact, social media is an oxymoron-- media is not a social activity. Substack is the closest I get to social media. Social media is not the only cause of young people's mental problems. The problem started with the Marxist invasion of the 90's; i.e., Clinton's "It Takes a Village". This made it easy for parents to abandon their duty to properly raise their children. Children were then left to being parented by the boob tube, and video games (unsupervised violence and sex). The baby sitting was then left to the computer, iPad and cell phones. Children became lazy and anti-social. They also started have behavioral and mental problems. Social workers, psychologists and psychiatrists became the "parents". Now, comes a real big problem, these "mental health professionals" put these kids on drugs to deal with the depression and other psych problems. We now know that these drugs do not work and in many cases make the mental problems worse-- causing suicide and violence. All the while the Marxists continued to destroy families and attacked the children.
I think the solution is easy to see. First, parents needs to once again practice parenting and establish a family life. Second, throw the damned cell phones in the garbage. And, finally, if the child is taking those destructive drugs, wean them off.
Thanks, brothers, for your as usual fine work.
However, in this case, I consider you are off track and downstream (see below).
I think it is not our technological devices that are the main cause of our younger persons supposed vices and their purported “epidemic of adolescent mental illness” (see Szsaz).
Please view Male Males Substack on Haidt and others. Here is his most recent post:
The 5-part FX documentary reveals that adults’ views of teens remain stuck in a never-changing time warp. MIKE MALES JAN 25, 2025
https://mikemales.substack.com/p/social-studies-is-billed-as-a-groundbreaking
I commented to Mike’s post which I am passing on to you and your readers:
Thanks, Mike, for a much needed, more objective analysis of this current moral morass that Haidt and others add to, the better to sell their hip-boots for.
Let us go upstream to the farthest point which is PARENTARCHY, that is the origin of Human Violence to self and others.
I consider this is the invisble “ELEPHANT IN THE WOMB” every so-called adult stares at but refuses to acknowledge. Richard Farson, Birthrights:
“A common error made by children reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag is, ‘. . . one nation, under God, invisible . . .’ There is truth in the error. To them the nation is indeed invisible. Excluded from almost every area of life in America, they have no opportunity to see it. Moreover, children are invisible to the nation. Segregated, ignored, impotent. Our world is not a good place for children. Every institution in our society severely discriminates against them. We all come to feel that it is either natural or necessary to cooperate in that discrimination. Unconsciously, we carry out the will of a society which holds a limited and demeaned view of children and which refuses to recognize their right to full humanity.”
I invite you to use PARENTARCHY to go most upstream and begin to get the attention of those still asleep in the “Nightmare of History” Lloyd deMause calls Humanity’s horrible heritage of Child Abuse/Neglect.
As happened in the 1800s when Slavery finally became morally repugnant to a majority, I believe will happen with PARENTARCY and then Statism—both will end up in the trash bin of history along with Slavery.
I hope you and your readers will join us this Sat 9pm and Sunday 9am NZ time:
Free Friends Forum 29 PARENTARCHY—The Elephant in the Womb—Personified
A Response to Tereza Coraggio’s Substack “Is Parenting an Abuse of Power?” with three daughters as “Machiavellian midgets”
https://responsiblyfree.substack.com/p/free-friends-forum-29-parentarchythe
Here is a reminder about those immoral youngsters:
THE 2,500-YEAR-OLD HISTORY OF ADULTS BLAMING THE YOUNGER GENERATION. History Hustle, Joe Gillard, April 17, 2018
https://historyhustle.com/2500-years-of-people-complaining-about-the-younger-generation/
Rhetoric, Aristotle, 4th Century BC
“[Young people] are high-minded because they have not yet been humbled by life, nor have they experienced the force of circumstances. They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.
----
Letter in Town and Country magazine republished in Paris Fashion: A Cultural History, 1771
“The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth…”
----
The Conduct of Young People, Hull Daily Mail, 1925
“We defy anyone who goes about with his eyes open to deny that there is, as never before, an attitude on the part of young folk which is best described as grossly thoughtless, rude, and utterly selfish.”
----
Get free, stay free.
I think there's at least a slight irony in a heavily web-based series calling out smart phones. I don't think there's a hard line between desk top internet computers and phones. They're both distracting. They're both over loading. They both eat away at the attention span and weaken deep reading. I wish there'd be a return to postal media---newsletters, zines, journals.....
At the very least, easily intuitive printable versions of blogs like this, so all you had to do was press a print button, and the main part with all the comments, automatically expanded, would come out on a printer. I tried it with this, but get cut-off comments and cut-off edges. Transferring to Word is a hassle and sometimes obliterates paragraphs.
Also, maybe there's too much of a good thing. Too much. Too fast. Too often. Multiplied by dozens and dozens, hundreds and hundreds, of "influencers". When there are comments, they're often just empty praise from fan boys you have to wade through or reactive rants. No nuanced push back. I miss the days of letters to the editor, that were slowly constructed with a mental attitude of care and deliberation. Even teenagers wrote "long ass" letters to pulp printed punk zines.
So, please AOI, I'd be grateful if you could at least give me an easy printable version, so I can deep read and think about it with a pencil.
Thank you.
I don’t want to totally dismiss this, but I think the issue has to be put in a little more historical perspective. The Youth in Crisis motif has been around for decades, maybe a century, or more. So has the “modern media is destroying culture” narrative.
Movies and PSAs.
Youth in Crisis, WW2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDs67J2JfkU
The Blackboard Jungle 1955 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x53MiglduxY
The Teddy Boys, England, 1955, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYfQXZ444vo&t=49s
Up the Down Staircase 1967 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Nehy01YyyQ
The Dead End Kids 1937 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKRM_l5k25s
Media
Alvin Toffler wrote the speed of life was traumatizing us all in Future Shock, 1974, 60 years ago.
Richard Weaver called newspapers “The Great Stereopticon” in Ideas Have Consequences, 1948.
Marshall Mcluhan wrote about the ravages of television in Understanding Media, 1964.
People are really liking this podcast, learning versus education, get wise:
https://soberchristiangentlemanpodcast.substack.com/p/s2-ep-44-learning-versus-education-cc8
Stoic Christianity life saving advice:
https://soberchristiangentlemanpodcast.substack.com/p/s2-ep-41-stoic-christianity-advice-eac