This book review was written by Eugene Kernes
“While fear triggers the full response system at the moment of danger, anxiety triggers parts of the same system when a threat is merely perceived as possible. It is healthy to be anxious and on alert when one is in a situation where there really could be dangers lurking. But when our alarm bell is on a hair trigger so that it is frequently activated by ordinary events – including many that pose no real threat – it keeps us in a perpetual state of distress. This is when ordinary, healthy, temporary anxiety turns into an anxiety disorder.” – Jonathan Haidt, Chapter 1: The Surge of Suffering, Page 31
“With so many new and exciting virtual activities, many
adolescents (and adults) lost the ability to be fully present with the people
around them, which changed social life for everyone, even for the small
minority that did not use these platforms.
That is why I refer to the period from 2010 to 2015 as the Great
Rewiring of Childhood. Social patterns,
role models, emotions, physical activity, and even sleep patterns were
fundamentally recast, for adolescents, over the course of just five years.” – Jonathan
Haidt, Chapter 1: The Surge of Suffering, Page 37
“It’s the same dynamic for what has been called the
psychological immune system – the ability of a child to handle, process, and
get past frustrations, minor accidents, teasing, exclusion, perceived
injustices, and normal conflicts without falling prey to hours or days of inner
turmoil. There is no way to live with
other humans without conflicts and deprivations. As the Stoics and Buddhists taught long ago,
happiness cannot be reached by eliminating all “triggers” from life; rather,
happiness comes from learning to deprive external events of the power to
trigger negative emotions in you.” – Jonathan Haidt, Chapter 3: Discover Mode
and the Need for Risky Play, Page 69
Is This An Overview?
Anxiety is a healthy response to an appropriate reality, but
becomes a disorder when anxiety is excessive.
Since 2010, there has been a rise in mental health problems, especially
anxiety and depression. 2010 to 2015 is
an era called the Great Rewiring of Childhood, as human development during
childhood has drastically changed in a short amount of time. The Great Rewiring fundamentally changed
social patterns, role models, emotions, physical activity, and sleep
patterns.
There are two parts to the problem, which is a culture of
not tolerating any risk, and phones connected to the internet known as
smartphones. While children have become
protected too much in the real world, children are not protected enough in the
virtual world. The combination enabled
anxiety to be triggered frequently due to ordinary events, causing individuals
to feel they are in a perpetual state of distress. Which is an anxiety disorder. Without the emotional capability to overcome
the anxiety.
Since the 1980s, safety has become a priority in society, to
be more protective of children. As
society no longer tolerated any perceived risk, children had their autonomy
restricted. Legal actions have been
taken against parents who temporarily unsupervised their child. As society had restricted taking risks
outside, children have basically been forced to spend more time at home. The problem with not allowing children to
take even minor risks, was that children did not develop tolerance to physical
and emotional harm, skills to resolve conflicts with others, and how to manage
their own emotions and other individual’s emotions. By depriving children of all anxiety
triggers, children did not learn how to deprive external events from the power
to trigger negative emotions.
While children were protected from the outside, children
were not protected from the internet connected devices found in their own
homes. While having access to readily
available information is beneficial, there are mental health consequences of
being constantly engaged by the technology.
Smartphones are a portable technology, that has become a constant source
of distraction that has reduced the ability of individuals to be present with
those around them. The companies lack
research on the mental health effects of their products, even as companies use
psychological tricks within applications to keep people engaged. Engagement that turned to addiction. When children use social media, children
compare themselves to others who use filters to present a fake version of
reality. That means children obtain
negative feedback from society when their real metrics appear underwhelming
compared to fake metrics. To keep up the
social network, children treat social media as work. Children have adapted to constantly think of
threats to their social life, giving children anxiety disorders.
Caveats?
The focus of the book is the effects on children, with some
references to the effects on adults.
The solutions presented require action from government,
schools, and parents. Although the
author does not want to remove smartphones completely, the solutions focus on
limiting access to smartphones and other similar devices. An alternative to limiting access, would be
to train people to use the technology appropriately, or find ways to make the
technology safer.
