@hypolite I don't agree with everything and find a few things reactionary and uninformed, but I do agree with several things, possibly because I'm interpreting them through my own biases ... maybe he's more reactionary than I take him for:
Many parents are overprotective and don't allow their kids to make mistakes.
I have allowed my kid to take physical risk, and to brush it off if there's been no serious harm. At the same time I've been clear what risks are not acceptable, and why, and been compassionate and present when he has been hurt due to his own actions or those of others.
We should be very careful and deliberate about how we allow kids to use social media.
My kid has had internet devices early on, but we have recurring discussions about what he's watching, we watch many things together, and I've been careful with how much of his own words and voice he has been allowed to expose, and explained why, and he has gradually negotiated getting more of himself out there in a safe enough way.
No phones during the school day.
Yes, why, just why. Kid's school just doesn't allow it. There's enough time to play at home.
Online friends cannot replace face to face interactions.
Haidt and I probably mean this to very different degrees, but this is why I want to travel and meet more fedi people. And I'm glad that kid hangs with both entirely-internet friends but also classmates and former classmates when he's online, and we parents arrange for them to meet and do things in person outside school.
Smartphones and Internet caused a sudden increase in teen girl malaise: Just like the sudden increase in reported transgenderism at around the same time, it is more likely Internet increased the accuracy of these reports by giving individuals more freedom to speak about it. I’ve known several depressed teen girls in my day, but they wouldn’t have opened about it on the Internet because it just didn’t exist yet. I’m aware about Instagram’s negative reinforcement loop, but I don’t believe it’s the main cause for an increase in reported depression.
Unsupervised group play is beneficial to learn conflict resolution: Unless you're short, fat, wear glasses, a girl, non-white, etc… Haidt has never been any of these, and it shows.
God-shaped hole: I don’t even want to know what that was about, I dropped from the video at that point.
“Anti-fragile” kids: Haidt is basing his ridiculous concept on his personal childhood, a white man raised in the 70’s to draw conclusions about a whole generation. What about all his pairs who didn’t make it, either physically or mentally, because parenting was absent or cruel at the time? The survivor bias is strong.
Between a wrong read of flawed data (because the collection method changed drastically in 2010) and an obvious personal experience bias, his books is mostly useless.
I do agree with the 4 points you made, but I don’t think they were the main takeaways of this interview.
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