What changed when parents gave their 10-year-old her first iPad?

Michie · May 3, 2024

An update as tmatt digs deeper into "The Anxious Generation" by Jonathan Haidt

I continue to work my way through the much-discussed book “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt.

It’s slow work, in part because I am taking lots of notes. I don’t know about you folks, but I am a slow, careful reader when dealing with subjects that I believe are unusually important.

A night or two ago, I hit a passage that — in my page annotations for the interview I hope to do with Haidt — I have nominated as a crucial chunk of summary material linked to the book’s Big Idea. Here it is:

Once we had a new generation hooked on smartphones (and other screens) BEFORE the start of puberty, there was little space left in the stream of information entering their eyes and ears for guidance from mentors in their real-world communities DURING puberty. There was just an infinite river of digital experience, customized for each child to maximize clicks and ad revenue, to be consumed alone in his or her room.

Note that one of the most important effects of a smartphone childhood is that it can unplug a child — during one of life’s most stressful transitions — from guidance by parents, mentors, pastors, teachers, etc.

In that context, consider the book’s case study about “Alexis” of greater New York City, who was given her first iPad at the age of 10.

She opened an Instagram account herself by stating that she was 13, even though she was 11. She would download the app, use it for a while, and then delete it so her parents wouldn’t see it. She learned, from other underage Instagram users, how to hide the app on her home screen under a calculator app, so she no longer had to delete it. When her parents eventually learned that she had an account and began to monitor it and set restrictions, Alexis made secondary accounts where she could post without their knowledge. …
Within six months of opening her account, the content Instagram’s algorithms chose for Alexis had morphed from her initial interest in fitness to a stream of photos of models to dieting advice and then to pro-anorexia content. In eighth grade, she was hospitalized for anorexia and depression.

“Alexis” is not alone, of course.

Continued below.