Emily Oster took on the Jonathan Haidt-related debate in her latest post “Screens & Social Media“
Do screens harm mental health? Oster joins some other skeptics I know. She doesn’t fully back Haidt, and she does the economist thing by mentioning “tradeoffs.”
Oster, ever practical, makes a point that sometimes gets lost. Maybe social media doesn’t cause suicide. Maybe there is no causal relationship concerning diagnosed mental health conditions, as indicated by the data. That doesn’t mean that parents and teachers should not monitor and curtail screen time. Oster says that it’s obvious that kids should not have their phones in the classroom during school instruction.
Here’s a personal story from this week. My son wants Roblox. The game says 12+, and I’ve told him that I’m sticking to that. No. He can’t have it now and he can’t start chatting with strangers online. We aren’t going to re-visit the conversation until he’s 12. Is he mad at me? Yes. You know what he does when he’s really bored at home? He starts vacuuming. I’ve driven him to madness, with these boundaries I set, or to vacuuming. (Recall he likes these books. Since hearing Harry Potter 1 as an audiobook in the car, he’s started tearing through the series himself via hardcover book.)
An innocent tablet game I let him play (when he’s allowed to have screen time) is Duck Life. Rated E for everyone.
Previously, I wrote “Video Games: Emily Oster, Are the kids alright?“
And more recently, Tyler had “My contentious Conversation with Jonathan Haidt” Maybe Tyler should debate Emily Oster next about limiting phone use.
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