Jonathan Haidt has long promoted the idea of a play-based childhood and not a phone-based one.
The NYU Stern School of Business professor writes in his bestselling book “The Anxious Generation” that kids who grow up with prolonged exposure to both smartphones and social media are at a higher risk for anxiety and depression.
In 2012 and 2013, as Instagram gained in popularity, many young people — especially young girls — joined the app and “levels of depression, anxiety and self harm skyrocketed,” Haidt told CNBC Make It at the Fast Company Innovation Festival last week.
To quell the mental health risks of this tech, Haidt advocates for establishing four norms.
The first pertains to the systems at large and advocates that schools become phone free. Many states across the U.S. are already introducing legislation that mandates no cell phones in schools. For example, as of the 2025-2026 school year, New York City prohibits student use of “personal internet-enabled electronic devices” during the school day.
