Increasingly, in many countries, there is concern about the terrible effects that overexposure to screens has on the health, both physical and mental, of young people.
Here, the Parti Québécois is calling for a digital action plan that would be implemented from the next school year. The CAQ rejected the motion requesting it by 70 votes to 30.
In this important issue, reading is essential: the latest book by Jonathan Haidt, a renowned social psychologist. His work is a bomb of nearly 400 tightly packed pages, full of data, studies, but also valuable practical advice.
I obviously cannot summarize it here and would like to emphasize that what he describes comes mainly from research on the United States and that its generalization must be careful. But what we learn there makes the PQ proposal even more necessary.
Pierrot is going to Mars
To understand what Haidt is saying, let us focus on this metaphor with which he opens his book.
Coming home from school, your ten-year-old child tells you that a billionaire has chosen him, along with a few other children of the same age, to live permanently on Mars. Their academic performance, the study of their genomes and the fact that at this young age adaptation on Mars will be possible would justify these choices.
You didn’t know all this. You think of course of all that this separation implies on the human level, but also of the radiation on Mars and its terrible effects on humans, of the gravity, different there, which will cause deformities, and you conclude that it This is a completely crazy idea. You say no.
But you are told that your child, who is begging you to let him go, has already given his consent by signing a form and that he has checked the box provided for this purpose, ensuring that he has obtained his parents’ agreement. .
Haidt, while of course making the necessary nuances, thinks that something of this kind happened for generation Z, young people born after 1995. Two factors will play a role, according to him.
The first is these new technologies and their effects on children, effects that are all the more terrible since children have been left in the virtual world without protection. The second factor, unfolding at the same time, is this new, well-intentioned but disastrous trend to overprotect children in the real world and restrict their autonomy, with all the harm that ensues.
These two factors lead to a profound and disturbing redefinition of childhood and adolescence.
Perils and remedies
What followed, according to Haidt, were mental health problems manifested by sharp increases in anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicide, more clearly and more markedly among girls. Haidt also describes, among these effects, lack of sleep, deprivation of social relationships, fragmentation of attention and dependence, again with somewhat different effects in boys. You must read these pages and what the author relies on to advance his conclusions.
But this book is also valuable because it suggests ways to reverse these terrible trends and bring back to Earth our young people who have left for Mars.
We need, says Haidt, a concerted collective plan (like what the PQ is asking for), a plan that would bring together the government, companies working in the field of these technologies, schools and parents. Examples ?
The minimum age for being able to use the Internet should be raised to 16 — compared to 13 today — and we should put in place a real verification system; no smartphone or social media until high school; Regarding schools, Haidt suggests in particular that cell phones be completely banned: upon arriving at school, the child should leave their device in a place provided for this purpose for the entire day.
He also suggests, this time in reference to the overprotection of children mentioned above, that there be a playground at school where children would play for real, with little supervision from adults.
Epictetus to the rescue
A little philosophical joy as a bonus, Haidt recounts how, while he was writing this book, his respect for certain ancient wisdoms grew as he discovered how relevant they could be to confront these evils and help us remain masters of our lives.
He recalls some of them and, to my great happiness, cites the Stoics, and among them Epictetus, who wrote this: “If we entrusted your body to the first person who came, you would be indignant; and you, when you entrust your soul to the first comer, so that he may disturb and upset it with his insults, are you not ashamed? » (ManualXXVIII).
And fuck social media, then.
Thanks again, Epictetus.
Reading suggestion: The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewriting of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental IllnessJonathan Haidt, Penguin Press, New York, 2024. Translation coming soon, we hope…