![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Coddling-196x300.jpg\")
<\/a>I listened to an interesting podcast the other day wherein NYU professor Jonathan Haidt<\/strong> was interviewed about his book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure<\/em>.\u00a0 The book takes a deep dive into the culture of “safetyism” that has developed on college campuses and how it interferes with young people\u2019s social, emotional, and intellectual development and has contributed to the divisions<\/strong> we see in our culture.\u00a0 It’s more complicated than that, and certainly more nuanced that I can do justice to here.\u00a0 He’s an interesting guy and has a number of videos on YouTube if you want to learn more about him and his research.<\/p>\nI promise – next week we will be back to talking about football or cake or something a bit lighter!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson I listened to an interesting podcast the other day wherein NYU professor Jonathan Haidt was interviewed about his book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/stressed-200x300.jpg\")
<\/a>What caught my attention, and led me to this post, was his discussion about the effect of social media on young people.\u00a0 (I actually started this post a couple of weeks ago after I watched Haidt, and coincidentally blends right into what my brother posted about last week).\u00a0 Haidt cited a statistic that was startling: between 2010 and 2015 the suicide rate of teenage girls almost tripled<\/strong>.\u00a0 Haidt concluded the advent of social media, with its constant bombardment of “influencers” who appear to have a perfect face and body, combined with negative, sometimes cruel, comments young girls receive about their own posts, is a primary cause of depression and feelings of worthlessness.\u00a0 This struck a chord with me, as I had just remarked to a friend that I couldn’t imagine being a teenager today<\/strong>, having to be constantly “photo worthy”.\u00a0 Heck, my heart skips a beat now when someone accidently FaceTime’s me.\u00a0 If I don’t have my hair done and makeup on, I pretend I was in the shower when they called.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Selfie-300x200.jpg\")
<\/a>It seems every young woman I see lately is clutching her phone<\/b>\u00a0like a lifeline. <\/strong>I think about how far we have come from the more reticent generations before us.\u00a0 It was pretty common growing up that our mothers – and certainly our grandmothers – were known to say, “Oh, don’t put me in the picture!”\u00a0 Now we have social media platforms that contain nothing but people taking pictures of themselves.<\/strong>\u00a0 I keep an Instagram account to post photos of Dash the Wonder Dog, and a lot of the photos that come across my feed are of women with their phone to their face, trying to pose in just the right way, with their lips in the perfect pout or their hair tousled to project something between “I just got up” and “I’m the sexiest person alive”.\u00a0 I’d like to blame the Kardashians<\/strong> for starting this trend, but that’s too easy a target.\u00a0 There are plenty of people, and companies, to blame for this fascination with how we look and the compulsion to let others know how we look.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/helping-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>Aside from the damage all this does to self-esteem, the bigger concern for me is the inward focus<\/strong> of this trend.\u00a0 The “influencers” give the impression that if you just have the right clothes, purse, makeup, yada yada, life will be good.\u00a0 But those of us of a certain age know that no amount of beautiful outward trappings will bring you happiness. Which is why Heidt is so concerned about the mental health of young people, who strive so hard to replicate an airbrushed version<\/strong> of someone and are then bitterly disappointed when they fall short.\u00a0 I think this is an urgent problem that needs a drastic solution.\u00a0 Removing phones is impractical and unrealistic – we can’t put that genie back in the bottle.\u00a0 Maybe we need to have a draft for young people where they are required to do community service<\/strong>.\u00a0 It would not only get them out of the house and into broader society, but it would also expose them to people less fortunate, who have bigger problems than not having the right brand of sneakers or a statement handbag.\u00a0 It would be a start.<\/p>\n