After Babel

After Babel

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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
31
A Not-So-Smartphone
How a 3D-printed prank revealed the power of collective action
 • 
Tracy Foster
14
On The Death of Daydreaming
What we lose when phones take away boredom and interstitial time
 • 
Christine Rosen
79
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

April 2025

All the Conversations That Kids Are Missing
Alison Wood Brooks on the science of conversation and the art of being ourselves
 • 
Alison Wood Brooks, PhD
45
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.
 • 
Angela Duckworth
22
Snapchat is Harming Children at an Industrial Scale
In their own words, we see that Snap Inc’s design choices expose millions of kids to harm
 • 
Jon Haidt
 and 
Zach Rausch
35
A Flawed Absolution for Smartphones
No, the Life in Media survey did not really show that 8-year-olds benefit from owning smartphones
 • 
David Stein
33

March 2025

What Careless People Teaches Us About the Tech Lobby’s Playbook
Sarah Wynn-Williams’ new book shows us that “It didn’t have to be this way”
 • 
Casey Mock
15
Taking Back Childhood From Phones—Finally
Americans don’t agree about anything. Except this: childhood belongs in the real-world.
 • 
Jon Haidt
 and 
Zach Rausch
64
An EdTech Tragedy
A groundbreaking UNESCO book on the damage wrought by ed-tech during COVID school closures around the globe
 • 
Jon Haidt
 and 
Zach Rausch
53
How Social Media Pushes Vulnerable Teens Toward Eating Disorders
Social media companies must take more responsibility to address how their products are fueling adolescent eating disorders
 • 
Kristina Lerman
28
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