After Babel

After Babel

Home
Voices of Gen Z
What Parents Can Do Now
What Schools and Educators Ca…
Responses to Skeptics
Join Us
Archive
About

It Was the Damn Phones

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

Recent posts

View all
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
 • 
Lenore Skenazy
51
The Mass Trauma of Porn
What have we done?
 • 
Freya India
387
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
 • 
Clare Morell
29
My School Banned Phones for the Year. Here's What Happened
I didn't have to say, "get off your phone," once...
 • 
Fit To Teach
49
Eight Policy Principles to Guide our Relationship with Digital Technology
Policies have enabled cars and airplanes to be used safely. No such policies exist for social media or AI. Progress is being made to fix this…
 • 
Ravi Iyer
19
New Study Finds Most Experts Share Concerns About the Effects of Smartphones and Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health
The largest-ever expert survey finds consensus about rising mental health problems, along with general agreement about some causes and potential policy…
 • 
Jon Haidt
 and 
Zach Rausch
31
The latest from
Lenore Skenazy
If I Let My Kid Play Outside, They’ll Be Bullied!
User's avatar
Freya India
The Mass Trauma of Porn
User's avatar
Ravi Iyer
Eight Policy Principles to Guide our Relationship with Digital Technology
User's avatar
Jon Haidt
New Study Finds Most Experts Share Concerns About the Effects of Smartphones and Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health
User's avatar
Zach Rausch
New Study Finds Most Experts Share Concerns About the Effects of Smartphones and Social Media on Adolescent Mental Health
User's avatar
Alec McClean
Flaws in a Recent Lancet Study on Phone Use in Schools
User's avatar
After Babel
After Babel
A free weekly newsletter where Jon Haidt and his team make sense of how technology is reshaping society — and share insights on how we can build something better.

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

View all
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
 • 
Lenore Skenazy
51
A Norwegian Approach to Supporting Children’s Risky Play
Ellen Sandseter on the value of bumps, bruises, and building real-world confidence
 • 
Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter
43
Four Lessons for Raising Resilient Children in the Digital Age
What secular families can learn from faith-based communities
 • 
Seth Kaplan
 and 
Caroline Bryk
32
Journalist Sends Kids off on a Smartphone-Free Camping Trip – Unsupervised. Adults Quake. Kids Flourish.
The Sunday Times (UK) just ran a major story illustrating the twin prescriptions in The Anxious Generation
 • 
Lenore Skenazy
 and 
Jon Haidt
61
How Phones Are Making Parents the Anxious Generation
Smartphones are trust blockers for parents
 • 
Lenore Skenazy
119

The Case for Community in the Real World

View all
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.
 • 
Sam Pressler
 and 
Pete Davis
33
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.
 • 
Seth Kaplan
43
The Joy of Missing Out: Lessons from a Church-Wide Digital Detox
How Churches can help roll back the phone-based life
 • 
Darren Whitehead
34
Four Lessons for Raising Resilient Children in the Digital Age
What secular families can learn from faith-based communities
 • 
Seth Kaplan
 and 
Caroline Bryk
32
The Upstream Cause of the Youth Mental Health Crisis is the Loss of Community
We've forgotten what community really means.
 • 
Seth Kaplan
86

The International Mental Health Crisis

View all
How Psychological Distress Globally Accelerated Among Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic
A Three-Decade Perspective on Escalating International Psychological Distress in Adolescence
 • 
Karen Schrijvers
 and 
Thomas Potrebny
9
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.
 • 
David Blanchflower
 and 
Alex Bryson
50
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.
 • 
Zach Rausch
65
The Youth Mental Health Crisis is International Part 4: Europe
Why girls from wealthy, secular, and individualistic nations were hit hardest.
 • 
Zach Rausch
, 
Thomas Potrebny
, and 
Jon Haidt
50
© 2025 Jonathan Haidt
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture