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Introducing the Tech & Society Lab at NYU Stern

Building a research program that keeps pace with technology as it changes childhood and society

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The Mass Trauma of Porn

Jun 4, 2025 • Freya India

Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Sank First and Fastest

Mar 9, 2023 • Jon Haidt

The Devil’s Plan to Ruin the Next Generation

Dec 1, 2025 • Jon Haidt

A Time We Never Knew

Apr 22, 2024 • Freya India

Recent posts

The Many Lines of Evidence That Social Media is Not Safe For Teens

How to address those who still claim that this is all just a moral panic.

Sep 23 • Nathan Witkin, Carmen Lim, Zach Rausch, and Jon Haidt

Are Phone-Free Schools Working?

Here is the evidence on all sides, across multiple outcomes.

Sep 17 • Carmen Lim, Zach Rausch, Emma Park, and Jon Haidt

Australia’s Social Media Policy Is Succeeding

Here’s what the critics are missing.

Jul 27 • Ravi Iyer, Jon Haidt, and Zach Rausch

Why You Should Be a Techno-Skeptic

My most urgent TED Talk yet.

Jun 2 • Jon Haidt

Does Early Access to Social Media Harm Later Learning? New Evidence From Italy

Students who got social media accounts by age 12 progressed less than those who waited until age 14.

Aug 11 • Marco Gui and Giovanni Abbiati

Why Did We Let Big Tech Take Over Education?

Sophie Winkleman lays out the damage from the screen-based school day and shows how to roll it back.

Jul 13 • Sophie Winkleman

The latest from

Jon Haidt

Introducing the Tech & Society Lab at NYU Stern

Zach Rausch

Introducing the Tech & Society Lab at NYU Stern

Ravi Iyer

Australia’s Social Media Policy Is Succeeding

Lenore Skenazy

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

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

The Many Lines of Evidence That Social Media is Not Safe For Teens

How to address those who still claim that this is all just a moral panic.

Sep 23 • Nathan Witkin, Carmen Lim, Zach Rausch, and Jon Haidt

Are Phone-Free Schools Working?

Here is the evidence on all sides, across multiple outcomes.

Sep 17 • Carmen Lim, Zach Rausch, Emma Park, and Jon Haidt

Does Early Access to Social Media Harm Later Learning? New Evidence From Italy

Students who got social media accounts by age 12 progressed less than those who waited until age 14.

Aug 11 • Marco Gui and Giovanni Abbiati

Limbic Capitalism Has Been Driving Addiction for Hundreds of Years

A chapter from historian David Courtwright’s magnificent book, The Age of Addiction, helps us understand how we got here and what’s likely to come.

Jun 8

Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

Laptops aren't great either.

Mar 17 • Jean M. Twenge

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

Free Play and Mental Health: What We Know, What We Don’t

Introducing the Play Collaborative Review Doc

Sep 22, 2025 • YeJin Park Roberts and Jon Haidt

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, 2025 • Lenore Skenazy, Zach Rausch, and Jon Haidt

Let Kids Be Loud

In Defense of Outdoor Play

Jul 9, 2025 • 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, 2025 • Lenore Skenazy

A Norwegian Approach to Supporting Children’s Risky Play

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

May 16, 2025 • Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter

The Case for Community in the Real World

We Took Away the Phones — Now What?

How rebuilding youth community groups can restore a play-based childhood.

May 4 • Seth Kaplan

Scrolling Alone

A brief history of the trade-off between convenience and connection in America

Feb 2 • Andrew Trousdale and Erik J Larson

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, 2025 • Deepti Doshi

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, 2025 • Sam Pressler and Pete Davis

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, 2025 • Seth Kaplan

The International Mental Health Crisis

Introducing the Tech & Society Lab at NYU Stern

Building a research program that keeps pace with technology as it changes childhood and society

Oct 5 • Zach Rausch and Jon Haidt

Teen Girls’ Suicide Rates Are Rising in Many Countries Around the World

New analyses from Europe, Japan, and South Korea show increases that in many cases began before COVID.

Jul 2 • Jean M. Twenge

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, 2025 • 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 Alex Bryson

Voices of Gen Z

You Have To Be Human

I realize now that I want to be real

Feb 4 • Freya India

Growing up Online Nearly Killed Me

A dual narrative of mother and daughter about a new school, new phone, and online grooming

Nov 20, 2025 • Roxy Longworth and Gay Longworth

We Are The Slop

Your life is my background noise

Sep 29, 2025 • Freya India

It Was the Damn Phones

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

Jun 12, 2025 • Korijanes

What Parents Can Do Now

Why Did We Let Big Tech Take Over Education?

Sophie Winkleman lays out the damage from the screen-based school day and shows how to roll it back.

Jul 13 • Sophie Winkleman

Why You Should Be a Techno-Skeptic

My most urgent TED Talk yet.

Jun 2 • Jon Haidt

The Parenting Trap

How Modern Parenting Is Making Adolescence Harder

Feb 24 • Jonathan T. Rothwell

The Amazing Generation is the Book Parents Have Been Asking For

Our new guide for kids ages 9–12 comes out Dec. 30.

Dec 22, 2025 • Jon Haidt and Catherine Price

What Governments and Tech Companies Can Do

Australia’s Social Media Policy Is Succeeding

Here’s what the critics are missing.

Jul 27 • Ravi Iyer, Jon Haidt, and Zach Rausch

How Indonesia is Protecting 80 Million Children from Online Harm

Their first-of-its-kind regulation cracks down on harmful design.

Mar 26 • Anindito Aditomo, Najelaa Shihab, Nisa Felicia, and Yeremia Dwi Hendryanto

Meta's Legal Team Abandoned Its Ethical Duties

From Big Tobacco to Menlo Park — and the collapse of legal ethics

Jan 20 • Casey Mock

Why Every Country Should Set 16 (or Higher) as the Minimum Age for Social Media Accounts

Four features of strong age-limit policies for countries ready to follow Australia’s brave lead

Jan 13 • Jon Haidt and Ravi Iyer

Responses to Skeptics

Introducing the Tech & Society Lab at NYU Stern

Building a research program that keeps pace with technology as it changes childhood and society

Oct 5 • Zach Rausch and Jon Haidt

The Many Lines of Evidence That Social Media is Not Safe For Teens

How to address those who still claim that this is all just a moral panic.

Sep 23 • Nathan Witkin, Carmen Lim, Zach Rausch, and Jon Haidt

Does Social Media Use at One Time Predict Teen Depression at a Later Time?

Reviewing longitudinal evidence

Oct 6, 2025 • Alec McClean and Jake Lebwohl

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, 2025 • David Stein

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