556. How Social Media Is Wrecking Kids' Lives and Stealing Their Childhood | Jonathan Haidt
6/19/20251 hr 35 min
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 | 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
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsJordan B. Peterson· Host0:00
This is Dr. Jordan B. Peterson. Watch Parenting, available exclusively on DailyWire Plus.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:05
(instrumental music plays) We're dealing with misbehaviors with our son.
Speaker 3· Soundbite0:08
Our 13-year-old throws tantrums.
Speaker 4· Soundbite0:09
Our son turned to some substance abuse.
Jordan B. Peterson· Host0:12
Go to dailywireplus.com today.
Jonathan Haidt· Guest0:15
Half of our kids say they're online almost constantly. Once you give your kid a smartphone and Instagram or TikTok or Snapchat, that's sort of the end of, of what we might have thought of as normal childhood.
Jordan B. Peterson· Host0:25
We've actually created machines that use reinforcement technology to optimize the grip of reinforcement technology.
Jonathan Haidt· Guest0:32
TikTok or YouTube Shorts, it's just such degrading trash.
Jordan B. Peterson· Host0:36
There's a race to the bottom online that's probably a consequence of something like algorithmic competition for grip of short-term attention, and that's completely tantamount to addiction.
Jonathan Haidt· Guest0:47
Under no circumstances should 12, 13, 14-year-old kids be doing this.
Jordan B. Peterson· Host0:51
But then there's also the problem of what children aren't doing while they're absorbed in their screens.
Jonathan Haidt· Guest0:57
My overall message, um, is once you understand what's going on in these online worlds, especially social media, they're just not for children.
Jordan B. Peterson· Host1:06
Too much supervision in the real world and no supervision at all in the online world.
Jonathan Haidt· Guest1:11
You know, if our minds are like an LLM, what are you putting in? Are you putting in movies and books and good television? Or are you putting in little 10-second clips of people getting kicked in the balls? This is a tremendous loss to any society.
Unknown speaker1:21
(instrumental music plays)