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    <fireside:genDate>Mon, 25 May 2026 13:35:01 -0500</fireside:genDate>
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    <title>Increments - Episodes Tagged with “Haidt”</title>
    <link>https://www.incrementspodcast.com/tags/haidt</link>
    <pubDate>Thu, 06 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0800</pubDate>
    <description>Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon. 
Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at incrementspodcast@gmail.com. 
</description>
    <language>en-us</language>
    <itunes:type>episodic</itunes:type>
    <itunes:subtitle>Science, Philosophy, Epistemology, Mayhem</itunes:subtitle>
    <itunes:author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:author>
    <itunes:summary>Vaden Masrani, a senior research scientist in machine learning, and Ben Chugg, a PhD student in statistics, get into trouble arguing about everything except machine learning and statistics. Coherence is somewhere on the horizon. 
Bribes, suggestions, love-mail and hate-mail all welcome at incrementspodcast@gmail.com. 
</itunes:summary>
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    <itunes:keywords>Philosophy,Science,Ethics,Progress,Knowledge,Computer Science,Conversation,Error-Correction</itunes:keywords>
    <itunes:owner>
      <itunes:name>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:name>
      <itunes:email>incrementspodcast@gmail.com</itunes:email>
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  <title>#82 - Are Screens Really That Bad? Critiquing Jon Haidt's "The Anxious Generation" </title>
  <link>https://www.incrementspodcast.com/82</link>
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  <pubDate>Thu, 06 Mar 2025 09:30:00 -0800</pubDate>
  <author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</author>
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  <itunes:episodeType>full</itunes:episodeType>
  <itunes:author>Ben Chugg and Vaden Masrani</itunes:author>
  <itunes:subtitle>A review of Jonathan Haidt's newest book on social media and adolescent mental health. Are we losing a generation to TikTok, or have social scientists forgotten how to make causal claims?</itunes:subtitle>
  <itunes:duration>1:52:49</itunes:duration>
  <itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>
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  <description>&lt;p&gt;Anxiety, dispair, loneliness, depression -- all we need is a social media recession! A popular thesis is that All The Bad Things things are on the rise among adolescents because of social media, a view popularized in Jon Haidt's 2024 book &lt;em&gt;The Anxious Generation&lt;/em&gt;. Haidt is calling for an end of the "phone-based childhood" and hoping that schools banish all screens for the benefit of its students. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But is it true than social media is causing this mental health crisis? Is it true that there even is a mental health crisis? We do a deep dive into Haidt's book to discuss the evidence. &lt;/p&gt;

We discuss

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A weird citation trend in philosophy &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Whether there is a mental health crisis among teens &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Some inconsistencies in Haidt's data on mental health outcomes &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Correlation vs causation, and whether Haidt establishes causation &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Why on earth do the quality of these studies suck so much?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Whether Haidt's conclusions are justified&lt;br&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

References

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;The Anxious Generation&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Jon Haidt's &lt;a href="https://www.afterbabel.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;After Babel Substack&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;After Babel's &lt;a href="https://www.afterbabel.com/p/social-media-mental-illness-epidemic" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;main post&lt;/a&gt; attempting to establish causation, and &lt;a href="https://www.afterbabel.com/p/why-some-researchers-think-im-wrong" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;the response to critics&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1diMvsMeRphUH7E6D1d_J7R6WbDdgnzFHDHPx9HXzR5o/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.rqnt07sjvlcd" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Collaborative review doc on adolescent mood disorders&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w-HOfseF2wF9YIpXwUUtP65-olnkPyWcgF5BiAtBEy0/edit?tab=t.0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Collaborative review doc on social media and mental health&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;a href="https://matthewbjane.github.io/blog-posts/blog-post-6.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Matthew B Jane's criticism of Haidt's meta-analysis&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;a href="https://reason.com/2023/03/29/the-statistically-flawed-evidence-that-social-media-is-causing-the-teen-mental-health-crisis/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Aaron Brown's criticism&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/dont-panic-about-social-media-harming-your-childs-mental-health-the-evidence-is-weak-2230571" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Stuart Ritchie's criticism&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;a href="https://petergray.substack.com/p/45-the-importance-of-critical-analyses" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Peter Gray's criticism&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

Datasets

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://data-browser.hbsc.org/measure/life-satisfaction/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Unaggregated life satisfaction data for boys/girls ages 11/13/15 across 44 countries&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/intentional-self-harm-hospitalisations/intentional-self-harm-hospitalisations-by-age-sex" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Australia hospital admissions due to self harm&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2024-05/ER1300EMB.pdf" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;France hospital admissions due to self harm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="https://yourhealthsystem.cihi.ca/hsp/inbrief?lang=en&amp;amp;_gl=1*rtyvsz*_gcl_au*MTA5ODMwMzc5MS4xNzM3NTAyMTk0*_ga*MTM0Njk4MTc4MS4xNzM3NTAyMTk0*_ga_44X3CK377B*MTczNzUwMjE5NC4xLjAuMTczNzUwMjIwNi4wLjAuMA..#!/indicators/083/self-harm-including-suicide/;mapC1;mapLevel2;sex(F);trend(C5001,C300);/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Canada&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;
&lt;a href="https://www.cmaj.ca/content/195/36/E1210" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Ontario&lt;/a&gt; 
# Socials&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Become a patreon subscriber &lt;a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations &lt;a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Click dem like buttons on &lt;a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;youtube&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;

&lt;p&gt;No screen time for a month. If you send an email to &lt;a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;incrementspodcast@gmail.com&lt;/a&gt;, we're taking away your iPad. &lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Image credit: &lt;a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/social-media-causing-psychological-harm-youth-and-young" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener"&gt;Is social media causing psychological harm to youth and young adults?&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
</description>
  <itunes:keywords>social-media, Haidt, anxiety, mental health, parenting</itunes:keywords>
  <content:encoded>
    <![CDATA[<p>Anxiety, dispair, loneliness, depression -- all we need is a social media recession! A popular thesis is that All The Bad Things things are on the rise among adolescents because of social media, a view popularized in Jon Haidt&#39;s 2024 book <em>The Anxious Generation</em>. Haidt is calling for an end of the &quot;phone-based childhood&quot; and hoping that schools banish all screens for the benefit of its students. </p>

<p>But is it true than social media is causing this mental health crisis? Is it true that there even is a mental health crisis? We do a deep dive into Haidt&#39;s book to discuss the evidence. </p>

<h1>We discuss</h1>

<ul>
<li>A weird citation trend in philosophy </li>
<li>Whether there is a mental health crisis among teens </li>
<li>Some inconsistencies in Haidt&#39;s data on mental health outcomes </li>
<li>Correlation vs causation, and whether Haidt establishes causation </li>
<li>Why on earth do the quality of these studies suck so much?</li>
<li>Whether Haidt&#39;s conclusions are justified<br></li>
</ul>

<h1>References</h1>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036" rel="nofollow">The Anxious Generation</a> </li>
<li>Jon Haidt&#39;s <a href="https://www.afterbabel.com/" rel="nofollow">After Babel Substack</a> </li>
<li>After Babel&#39;s <a href="https://www.afterbabel.com/p/social-media-mental-illness-epidemic" rel="nofollow">main post</a> attempting to establish causation, and <a href="https://www.afterbabel.com/p/why-some-researchers-think-im-wrong" rel="nofollow">the response to critics</a>. </li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1diMvsMeRphUH7E6D1d_J7R6WbDdgnzFHDHPx9HXzR5o/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.rqnt07sjvlcd" rel="nofollow">Collaborative review doc on adolescent mood disorders</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w-HOfseF2wF9YIpXwUUtP65-olnkPyWcgF5BiAtBEy0/edit?tab=t.0" rel="nofollow">Collaborative review doc on social media and mental health</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://matthewbjane.github.io/blog-posts/blog-post-6.html" rel="nofollow">Matthew B Jane&#39;s criticism of Haidt&#39;s meta-analysis</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://reason.com/2023/03/29/the-statistically-flawed-evidence-that-social-media-is-causing-the-teen-mental-health-crisis/" rel="nofollow">Aaron Brown&#39;s criticism</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/dont-panic-about-social-media-harming-your-childs-mental-health-the-evidence-is-weak-2230571" rel="nofollow">Stuart Ritchie&#39;s criticism</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://petergray.substack.com/p/45-the-importance-of-critical-analyses" rel="nofollow">Peter Gray&#39;s criticism</a> </li>
</ul>

<h1>Datasets</h1>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://data-browser.hbsc.org/measure/life-satisfaction/" rel="nofollow">Unaggregated life satisfaction data for boys/girls ages 11/13/15 across 44 countries</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/intentional-self-harm-hospitalisations/intentional-self-harm-hospitalisations-by-age-sex" rel="nofollow">Australia hospital admissions due to self harm</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2024-05/ER1300EMB.pdf" rel="nofollow">France hospital admissions due to self harm</a></li>
<li><a href="https://yourhealthsystem.cihi.ca/hsp/inbrief?lang=en&_gl=1*rtyvsz*_gcl_au*MTA5ODMwMzc5MS4xNzM3NTAyMTk0*_ga*MTM0Njk4MTc4MS4xNzM3NTAyMTk0*_ga_44X3CK377B*MTczNzUwMjE5NC4xLjAuMTczNzUwMjIwNi4wLjAuMA..#!/indicators/083/self-harm-including-suicide/;mapC1;mapLevel2;sex(F);trend(C5001,C300);/" rel="nofollow">Canada</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.cmaj.ca/content/195/36/E1210" rel="nofollow">Ontario</a> 
# Socials</li>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
<li>Become a patreon subscriber <a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations <a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</li>
<li>Click dem like buttons on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow">youtube</a></li>
</ul>

<p>No screen time for a month. If you send an email to <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a>, we&#39;re taking away your iPad. </p>

<p>Image credit: <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/social-media-causing-psychological-harm-youth-and-young" rel="nofollow">Is social media causing psychological harm to youth and young adults?</a>. </p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
  </content:encoded>
  <itunes:summary>
    <![CDATA[<p>Anxiety, dispair, loneliness, depression -- all we need is a social media recession! A popular thesis is that All The Bad Things things are on the rise among adolescents because of social media, a view popularized in Jon Haidt&#39;s 2024 book <em>The Anxious Generation</em>. Haidt is calling for an end of the &quot;phone-based childhood&quot; and hoping that schools banish all screens for the benefit of its students. </p>

<p>But is it true than social media is causing this mental health crisis? Is it true that there even is a mental health crisis? We do a deep dive into Haidt&#39;s book to discuss the evidence. </p>

<h1>We discuss</h1>

<ul>
<li>A weird citation trend in philosophy </li>
<li>Whether there is a mental health crisis among teens </li>
<li>Some inconsistencies in Haidt&#39;s data on mental health outcomes </li>
<li>Correlation vs causation, and whether Haidt establishes causation </li>
<li>Why on earth do the quality of these studies suck so much?</li>
<li>Whether Haidt&#39;s conclusions are justified<br></li>
</ul>

<h1>References</h1>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036" rel="nofollow">The Anxious Generation</a> </li>
<li>Jon Haidt&#39;s <a href="https://www.afterbabel.com/" rel="nofollow">After Babel Substack</a> </li>
<li>After Babel&#39;s <a href="https://www.afterbabel.com/p/social-media-mental-illness-epidemic" rel="nofollow">main post</a> attempting to establish causation, and <a href="https://www.afterbabel.com/p/why-some-researchers-think-im-wrong" rel="nofollow">the response to critics</a>. </li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1diMvsMeRphUH7E6D1d_J7R6WbDdgnzFHDHPx9HXzR5o/edit?tab=t.0#heading=h.rqnt07sjvlcd" rel="nofollow">Collaborative review doc on adolescent mood disorders</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1w-HOfseF2wF9YIpXwUUtP65-olnkPyWcgF5BiAtBEy0/edit?tab=t.0" rel="nofollow">Collaborative review doc on social media and mental health</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://matthewbjane.github.io/blog-posts/blog-post-6.html" rel="nofollow">Matthew B Jane&#39;s criticism of Haidt&#39;s meta-analysis</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://reason.com/2023/03/29/the-statistically-flawed-evidence-that-social-media-is-causing-the-teen-mental-health-crisis/" rel="nofollow">Aaron Brown&#39;s criticism</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/technology/dont-panic-about-social-media-harming-your-childs-mental-health-the-evidence-is-weak-2230571" rel="nofollow">Stuart Ritchie&#39;s criticism</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://petergray.substack.com/p/45-the-importance-of-critical-analyses" rel="nofollow">Peter Gray&#39;s criticism</a> </li>
</ul>

<h1>Datasets</h1>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://data-browser.hbsc.org/measure/life-satisfaction/" rel="nofollow">Unaggregated life satisfaction data for boys/girls ages 11/13/15 across 44 countries</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/intentional-self-harm-hospitalisations/intentional-self-harm-hospitalisations-by-age-sex" rel="nofollow">Australia hospital admissions due to self harm</a> </li>
<li><a href="https://drees.solidarites-sante.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/2024-05/ER1300EMB.pdf" rel="nofollow">France hospital admissions due to self harm</a></li>
<li><a href="https://yourhealthsystem.cihi.ca/hsp/inbrief?lang=en&_gl=1*rtyvsz*_gcl_au*MTA5ODMwMzc5MS4xNzM3NTAyMTk0*_ga*MTM0Njk4MTc4MS4xNzM3NTAyMTk0*_ga_44X3CK377B*MTczNzUwMjE5NC4xLjAuMTczNzUwMjIwNi4wLjAuMA..#!/indicators/083/self-harm-including-suicide/;mapC1;mapLevel2;sex(F);trend(C5001,C300);/" rel="nofollow">Canada</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.cmaj.ca/content/195/36/E1210" rel="nofollow">Ontario</a> 
# Socials</li>
<li>Follow us on Twitter at @IncrementsPod, @BennyChugg, @VadenMasrani</li>
<li>Come join our discord server! DM us on twitter or send us an email to get a supersecret link</li>
<li>Become a patreon subscriber <a href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Or give us one-time cash donations to help cover our lack of cash donations <a href="https://ko-fi.com/increments" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</li>
<li>Click dem like buttons on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_4wZzQyoW4s4ZuE4FY9DQQ" rel="nofollow">youtube</a></li>
</ul>

<p>No screen time for a month. If you send an email to <a href="mailto:incrementspodcast@gmail.com" rel="nofollow">incrementspodcast@gmail.com</a>, we&#39;re taking away your iPad. </p>

<p>Image credit: <a href="https://www.uclahealth.org/news/article/social-media-causing-psychological-harm-youth-and-young" rel="nofollow">Is social media causing psychological harm to youth and young adults?</a>. </p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.patreon.com/Increments">Support Increments</a></p>]]>
  </itunes:summary>
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