After Babel | Jon Haidt | Substack

Reclaiming Conversation in the Age of AI

Sherry Turkle on AI, empathy, and the fight for human connection

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Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Sank First and Fastest

Mar 9, 2023 • Jon Haidt

Social Media is a Major Cause of the Mental Illness Epidemic in Teen Girls. Here’s the Evidence.

Feb 22, 2023 • Jon Haidt

The Mass Trauma of Porn

Jun 4 • Freya India

A Time We Never Knew

Apr 22, 2024 • Freya India

Recent posts

Meta’s AI Companion Policy is Outrageous

They will only truly change it when the law requires them to do so

Aug 22 •

We Are Rushing Into the Same Mistakes We Made With Social Media

Let’s press pause on AI chatbots for kids

Aug 20 •

Artificial Intimacy: The Next Giant Social Experiment on Young Minds

How emotionally intelligent chatbots could trigger a new mental health crisis

Aug 14 •

Kristina Lerman

and

How Is Your New School Phone Policy Working?

Introducing the TAPS: Toolkit for Assessing Phones in Schools

Aug 12 •

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,

, and

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones

Children who were raised on screens need more freedom out in the real world.

Aug 11 •

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, and

First We Gave AI Our Tasks. Now We’re Giving It Our Hearts.

What happens when we outsource our children’s emotional lives to chatbots?

Aug 6 •

The latest from

Zach Rausch

How Is Your New School Phone Policy Working?

Jon Haidt

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones

Lenore Skenazy

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones

Freya India

The Mass Trauma of Porn

Ravi Iyer

Eight Policy Principles to Guide our Relationship with Digital Technology

Alec McClean

Flaws in a Recent Lancet Study on Phone Use in Schools

After Babel

After Babel

A free weekly newsletter where Jon Haidt and his team make sense of how technology is reshaping society — and offer practical guidance on how we can respond.

The Case Against The Phone-Based Childhood

Reclaiming Conversation in the Age of AI

Sherry Turkle on AI, empathy, and the fight for human connection

9 hrs ago •

Artificial Intimacy: The Next Giant Social Experiment on Young Minds

How emotionally intelligent chatbots could trigger a new mental health crisis

Aug 14 •

Kristina Lerman

and

First We Gave AI Our Tasks. Now We’re Giving It Our Hearts.

What happens when we outsource our children’s emotional lives to chatbots?

Aug 6 •

Smartphone Gambling is a Disaster

We aren’t meant to have a casino in our pockets

Jul 24 •

Jonathan D. Cohen

and

Isaac Rose-Berman

It’s Not Just a Game Anymore

How new monetization models changed gaming, and what parents need to know

Jul 21 •

and

The Case for Independence, Free Play, and Responsibility in the Real World

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones

Children who were raised on screens need more freedom out in the real world.

Aug 11 •

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, and

Let Kids Be Loud

In Defense of Outdoor Play

Jul 9 •

Katherine Martinko

If I Let My Kid Play Outside, They’ll Be Bullied!

What to say to other parents (or yourself!) to put bullying fears in perspective

Jun 10 •

A Norwegian Approach to Supporting Children’s Risky Play

Ellen Sandseter on the value of bumps, bruises, and building real-world confidence

May 16 •

Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter

Four Lessons for Raising Resilient Children in the Digital Age

What secular families can learn from faith-based communities

Oct 14, 2024 •

and

The Case for Community in the Real World

The Algorithm Next Door

How local digital platforms like Nextdoor and Facebook are fraying the fabric of neighborhood trust — and what we can build instead.

Jul 31 •

A New American Awakening

How the chaos of the phone-based life is giving rise to a quiet revolution in civic life—and what it will take to make it last.

May 1 •

and

The Real User Interface: Recovering Our Neighborhoods

Although the technological forces driving us apart are powerful, the forces needed to hold us together are right in front of us.

Jan 14 •

The Joy of Missing Out: Lessons from a Church-Wide Digital Detox

How Churches can help roll back the phone-based life

Oct 23, 2024 •

Darren Whitehead

Four Lessons for Raising Resilient Children in the Digital Age

What secular families can learn from faith-based communities

Oct 14, 2024 •

and

The International Mental Health Crisis

How Psychological Distress Globally Accelerated Among Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic

A Three-Decade Perspective on Escalating International Psychological Distress in Adolescence

Feb 19 •

Karen Schrijvers

and

Thomas Potrebny

The Global Loss of the U-Shaped Curve of Happiness

Happiness used to be U-shaped by age, with middle age the least happy. Not anymore. Young people are now the least happy.

May 27, 2024 •

David Blanchflower

and

The Girls Are Not Alright: Responses to Three Claims that the Youth Mental Health Crisis Is Exaggerated

Why changes in stigma and self-reporting procedures cannot explain the international decline of adolescent girls’ mental health.

Apr 11, 2024 •

The Youth Mental Health Crisis is International Part 4: Europe

Why girls from wealthy, secular, and individualistic nations were hit hardest.

Jan 30, 2024 •

,

Thomas Potrebny

, and

Voices of Gen Z

It Was the Damn Phones

A Gen Z poet conveys the effects of the phone-based childhood

Jun 12 •

Gen Z, Social Media is Optional

Young people can use technology to connect directly while shunning the apps designed to hook us

Jan 23 •

Gabriela Nguyen (inactive)

We Live In Imaginary Worlds

This is all one big hallucination

Oct 21, 2024 •

No, I’m Not Always Available

Don’t apologize for disconnecting

Sep 19, 2024 •

What Parents Can Do Now

How to Protect Kids from Porn

5 Layers that Prepare Our Kids for a Mature Digital World

Jul 17 •

It's Never Too Late to Turn Things Around

What to do if you’ve already given a child under 14 a smartphone — or allowed social media before age 16.

Jul 2 •

This Summer, Take a Family Digital Detox

Why a 30-Day digital detox may be the best gift you can give your kids—and how to make it work

Jun 2 •

A Not-So-Smartphone

How a 3D-printed prank revealed the power of collective action

May 13 •

What Schools and Educators Can Do Now

How Is Your New School Phone Policy Working?

Introducing the TAPS: Toolkit for Assessing Phones in Schools

Aug 12 •

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,

, and

The All-New Big Tech American School

A mother and former teacher sums up in 3 minutes what happened when schools became "Silicon Valley profit centers”

Jun 25 •

Emily Brownlee, M. Ed.

My School Banned Phones for the Year. Here's What Happened

I didn't have to say, "get off your phone," once...

May 30 •

Schools Don’t Know How Well Cell Phone Policies Are Working. You Can Help.

Angela Duckworth, Matthew Gentzkow, and Hunt Allcott are leading the first nationwide survey on school phone policies.

Apr 18 •

Angela Duckworth

What Governments and Tech Companies Can Do

Meta’s AI Companion Policy is Outrageous

They will only truly change it when the law requires them to do so

Aug 22 •

We Are Rushing Into the Same Mistakes We Made With Social Media

Let’s press pause on AI chatbots for kids

Aug 20 •

How Is Your New School Phone Policy Working?

Introducing the TAPS: Toolkit for Assessing Phones in Schools

Aug 12 •

,

,

, and

How to Legislate in a Half-Known World

Why lawmakers should act on a “rational basis review” of the available evidence, rather than waiting for definitive proof.

Jun 18 •

Responses to Skeptics

A Flawed Absolution for Smartphones

No, the Life in Media survey did not really show that 8-year-olds benefit from owning smartphones

Apr 11 •

Flaws in a Recent Lancet Study on Phone Use in Schools

Five problems that call into question the authors’ conclusion that phone free schools don’t improve mental health or academic performance

Feb 13 •

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, and

The Fundamental Flaws of The Only Meta-Analysis of Social Media Reduction Experiments (And Why It Matters), Part 3

The recent meta-analysis of social media experiments achieved a statistically insignificant result only due to a string of errors.

Oct 4, 2024 •

The Worst Argument That Social-Media Companies Use to Defend Themselves

Why are tech leaders so adamant about pushing their creations on other people’s kids, while protecting their own?

Sep 16, 2024 •

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