Tyler Cowen: belief

Transcript context

…I’ve heard the name. Can you tell me more about who that is? Well, he wrote a bestselling book. It’s still on The New York Times bestseller list, arguing that social media are truly toxic for the younger generation, ruining their lives, their mental health. In my opinion, much overstated. I do think there are some real costs involved with social media. I think he neglects the benefits. As you know, many countries either have done or will do a ban on social media for youth, typically below the age of 16, but that number can vary. Jon Haidt has led that movement intellectually. What do you think of what he’s done, of his arguments? I have a bunch of thoughts on this. I do feel we can go back somewhere around 0 AD in ancient Greece or somewhere, whatever, there is someone famous—I got to see if I can find the quote—where someone was concerned that the youth were reading too much. I remember that data point. Then I can remember when I was growing up with 512 analog TV, my parents were very concerned that my life was going to be ruined by TV. We had parentally enforced TV screen time control. I do think there’s nothing new about us evaluating what technologies are safe for young people, both as a society as well as parents. On social media, here’s where I think the interesting balance is. When I was younger, in that vulnerable 13 through 16 age, I used to learn a lot by going to the library and reading the newspaper rack and going through the card catalog, and trying to get in tune with world events. We had ABC, NBC, CBS News. All of that. I do feel that same age group right now is not going to the newspaper rack in the library, and probably doesn’t want to have anything to do with ABC, NBC, CBS world news. They are probably on a short-form social media platform. They are probably getting a lot of cat videos and a lot of sports videos and other things. They are probably getting world events as well. I think the balance is where do 13 through 16-year-olds learn about world events? I think we have to be thoughtful in how can they be very informed about world events and the news in today’s world. That’s really complicated. I guess I don’t support just a blatant all-out ban for 13 through 16. I think we have to be thoughtful where they can get their news.…

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