I am reading The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt. It is an excellent book, and I would highly recommend it. The main point of his book is that we have observed two parental trends in the United States since 1993. Parents were over-protective in the real world for the first fifteen years of that period, and they have been under-protective in the virtual world for the last fifteen years.
Here are the four elements that define real-world interaction:
- It occurs in the flesh. That is to say, two or more children are physically present with each other.
- It occurs simultaneously, which signifies that the children experience nonverbal communication.
- One person communicates with another or with many people. Yet, communication is what is happening at the moment. In other words, no multitasking is involved. Kids are focused.
- These interactions occur within a community of other children. They maintain high standards for entering and exiting the community.
In the virtual world, Haidt describes four features.
- They are disembodied. Flesh and blood are not needed—only language.
- They emphasize text-based posts and comments. People are not present in the flesh via screen.
- These interactions feature one person addressing many people, and many communication exchanges between people can occur at once.
- These communities provide easy access and easy exit. If they are unhappy with the group, children and young people can easily cut off communication with the community. Relationships are disposable.
I’ve offered enough summary to hint at what Haidt is driving at. Over the past 30 years, parents have restricted their kids’ play time with other children too much. Conversely, parents have also been much too permissive with virtual interaction.
Haidt proposes that parents abolish virtual communication with children. They should instead encourage face-to-face interaction. They should not enter the virtual world until well into their teenage years.
Haidt’s expression of concern is worth a good, hard look. One of Haidt’s citations came from a study mentioned in this article (https://www.businessinsider.com/kids-under-13-use-facebook-instagram-2021-5). Here is the headline: “40% of kids under 13 already use Instagram and some are experiencing abuse and sexual solicitation, a report finds, as the tech giant considers building an Instagram app for kids”
Now that’s some headline.
There is a reason why this generation of young people is called the anxious generation. Indeed, we in the church can help make a difference.
I’m Mark Edge; thanks for reading.
P.S. I’ll be on vacation next week but look forward to posting again on June 24.
You can purchase Mark’s new book Holy Chaos How To Walk with God in a Frenzied World here: