"Saying they are great metaphors for neurons, Haidt explained that tree-root growth is structured by the environment where they are found. Referring to a picture of a tree growing around a Civil War-era tombstone, where the tombstone scratched the bark 100 years ago, and the tree adapted. The same is true for Gen Z, he argued: "Their brains have been growing around their phones very much in the way that this tree grew around this tombstone.""
"Beyond mental health, Haidt said this has physical manifestations. Children are "growing hunched around their phone," he said, with phone addiction literally "warping eyeballs," leading to a global rise in myopia (short-sightedness). Screen time is also known to harm sleep, he added. He went on to describe a "great rewiring" of humanity, brought on by the smartphone. This "great rewiring," which Haidt places between 2010 and 2015, coincides with a synchronized global collapse in teen mental health."
A swift shift from play-based to phone-based childhoods produced neurological, mental, and physical changes in those born after 1995. Brain development adapted around persistent smartphone use, likened to tree roots growing around an obstacle. Physical effects include hunched posture, increased myopia, and disrupted sleep. The period between 2010 and 2015 marks a synchronized global collapse in teen mental health, with a steep rise in anxiety and depression among Gen Z compared with earlier cohorts. Smartphone addiction and omnipresent social media contributed to what is described as a global ‘‘great rewiring’’ of human behavior and physiology.
Read at Fortune
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