How Social Media Is Wrecking Kids' Lives and Stealing Their Childhood | Jonathan Haidt | EP 556

In this urgent conversation, Jonathan Haidt and Jordan Peterson dissect the silent catastrophe facing Gen Z—spiraling anxiety, attention collapse, and social isolation—all amplified by addictive tech. They explore the psychological and spiritual fallout of algorithm-optimized platforms, the gendered impact on boys and girls, and what it means to raise children in a virtualized world. Data-driven but deeply human, this is essential viewing for anyone wondering what the hell happened after 2012—and how to fix it.

This episode was filmed on June 9th, 2025

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| Links |

For Jonathan Haidt:

On X https://x.com/jonhaidt?lang=en

On Substack https://substack.com/@jonathanhaidt

On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@JonathanHaidt1/videos

Website https://jonathanhaidt.com/

Read “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” https://a.co/d/04yfM36


// LINKS //


| Chapters |

(0:00) Coming up
(1:06) Intro
(2:47) 2014 marked “the great rewiring” of our children
(12:03) Social media caused the rise of self-harm in girls
(22:53) The female pattern of anti-social behavior
(26:42) What children desperately need — but aren’t getting — online
(33:30) “They said TV would rot our brains” — the crucial difference with phones
(40:36) How social media is affecting boys
(47:17) You need to know this about video games and male development
(55:08) Why women are surging ahead while men are falling behind
(1:00:31) The harsh reality of the “default man”
(1:06:52) Imagine if we built society around the strengths of both sexes
(1:12:36) You are primed to degrade yourself on social media
(1:23:52) Initiation rights for women and men
(1:29:55) It’s not hopeless: how we fight the digital race to the bottom


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