After Babel | Jon Haidt | Substack

Limbic Capitalism Has Been Driving Addiction for Hundreds of Years

A chapter from historian David Courtwright’s magnificent book, The Age of Addiction, helps us understand how we got here and what’s likely to come.

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Why the Mental Health of Liberal Girls Sank First and Fastest

Mar 9, 2023 • Jon Haidt

The Mass Trauma of Porn

Jun 4, 2025 • Freya India

The Devil’s Plan to Ruin the Next Generation

Dec 1, 2025 • Jon Haidt

Social Media is a Major Cause of the Mental Illness Epidemic in Teen Girls. Here’s the Evidence.

Feb 22, 2023 • Jon Haidt

Recent posts

Why You Should Be a Techno-Skeptic

In his most urgent TED Talk yet, Jon Haidt reminds us that human connection is not optional.

Jun 2 • Jon Haidt

Treasure Your Attention

Jonathan Haidt's advice to the NYU Class of 2026 on how to flourish in a world that raises many obstacles to human flourishing.

May 20 • Jon Haidt

The State of Childhood in the U.S.

A new survey of U.S. parents by the Institute for Family Studies suggests that kids are still overprotected in the real world and underprotected online.

May 14 • Lyman Stone, Michael Toscano, and Grant J. Bailey

We Took Away the Phones — Now What?

How rebuilding youth community groups can restore a play-based childhood.

May 4 • Seth Kaplan

Don’t Let Big Tech Hide Behind a Rainbow Flag

Lennon Torres on why social media regulation is a prerequisite for LGBTQ safety.

Apr 17 • Lennon Torres

The Case Against Social Media: Seven Lines of Evidence

Your guide to the evidence that will help decide thousands of future court cases.

Apr 9 • Jon Haidt and Zach Rausch

The latest from

Jon Haidt

Why You Should Be a Techno-Skeptic

Zach Rausch

The Case Against Social Media: Seven Lines of Evidence

Ravi Iyer

Why Every Country Should Set 16 (or Higher) as the Minimum Age for Social Media Accounts

Lenore Skenazy

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones

After Babel

After Babel

A free weekly newsletter where Jon Haidt and his team make sense of how technology is reshaping society — and offer practical guidance on how we can respond.

The Case Against The Phone-Based Childhood

Limbic Capitalism Has Been Driving Addiction for Hundreds of Years

Historian David Courtwright helps us understand how we got here and what’s likely to come in this chapter from The Age of Addiction.

Jun 8

Phones at School: Less Learning, More Loneliness

A new analysis shows the twin impacts of the leisure use of devices during the school day: declines in test scores and increases in feelings of…

Mar 17 • Jean M. Twenge

EdTech is Borrowing Zuckerberg's Playbook

The "No Evidence of Harm" Refrain is a Familiar Deflection

Feb 26 • Jared Cooney Horvath

Mountains of Evidence

Two new projects catalogue research on social media’s many harms to adolescents. Some of the strongest evidence comes from Meta.

Jan 14 • Jon Haidt and Zach Rausch

How Tech Companies Rig Parental Guilt

Platforms profit from children’s attention while parents absorb the blame

Dec 18, 2025 • Daniel Frost, Sarah Coyne, and Jane Shawcroft

The Case for Independence, Free Play, and Responsibility in the Real World

Free Play and Mental Health: What We Know, What We Don’t

Introducing the Play Collaborative Review Doc

Sep 22, 2025 • YeJin Park Roberts and Jon Haidt

What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones

Children who were raised on screens need more freedom out in the real world.

Aug 11, 2025 • Lenore Skenazy, Zach Rausch, and Jon Haidt

Let Kids Be Loud

In Defense of Outdoor Play

Jul 9, 2025 • Katherine Martinko

If I Let My Kid Play Outside, They’ll Be Bullied!

What to say to other parents (or yourself!) to put bullying fears in perspective

Jun 10, 2025 • Lenore Skenazy

A Norwegian Approach to Supporting Children’s Risky Play

Ellen Sandseter on the value of bumps, bruises, and building real-world confidence

May 16, 2025 • Ellen Beate Hansen Sandseter

The Case for Community in the Real World

We Took Away the Phones — Now What?

How rebuilding youth community groups can restore a play-based childhood.

May 4 • Seth Kaplan

Scrolling Alone

A brief history of the trade-off between convenience and connection in America

Feb 2 • Andrew Trousdale and Erik J Larson

The Algorithm Next Door

How local digital platforms like Nextdoor and Facebook are fraying the fabric of neighborhood trust — and what we can build instead.

Jul 31, 2025 • Deepti Doshi

A New American Awakening

How the chaos of the phone-based life is giving rise to a quiet revolution in civic life—and what it will take to make it last.

May 1, 2025 • Sam Pressler and Pete Davis

The Real User Interface: Recovering Our Neighborhoods

Although the technological forces driving us apart are powerful, the forces needed to hold us together are right in front of us.

Jan 14, 2025 • Seth Kaplan

The International Mental Health Crisis

How Psychological Distress Globally Accelerated Among Youth During the COVID-19 Pandemic

A Three-Decade Perspective on Escalating International Psychological Distress in Adolescence

Feb 19, 2025 • Karen Schrijvers and Thomas Potrebny

The Global Loss of the U-Shaped Curve of Happiness

Happiness used to be U-shaped by age, with middle age the least happy. Not anymore. Young people are now the least happy.

May 27, 2024 • David Blanchflower and Alex Bryson

The Girls Are Not Alright: Responses to Three Claims that the Youth Mental Health Crisis Is Exaggerated

Why changes in stigma and self-reporting procedures cannot explain the international decline of adolescent girls’ mental health.

Apr 11, 2024 • Zach Rausch

The Youth Mental Health Crisis is International Part 4: Europe

Why girls from wealthy, secular, and individualistic nations were hit hardest.

Jan 30, 2024 • Zach Rausch, Thomas Potrebny, and Jon Haidt

Voices of Gen Z

You Have To Be Human

I realize now that I want to be real

Feb 4 • Freya India

Growing up Online Nearly Killed Me

A dual narrative of mother and daughter about a new school, new phone, and online grooming

Nov 20, 2025 • Roxy Longworth and Gay Longworth

NYC, Join the Mass Deletion: October 10, 2025

Oct 5, 2025 • Freya India

We Are The Slop

Your life is my background noise

Sep 29, 2025 • Freya India

What Parents Can Do Now

Why You Should Be a Techno-Skeptic

In his most urgent TED Talk yet, Jon Haidt reminds us that human connection is not optional.

Jun 2 • Jon Haidt

The Parenting Trap

How Modern Parenting Is Making Adolescence Harder

Feb 24 • Jonathan T. Rothwell

The Amazing Generation is the Book Parents Have Been Asking For

Our new guide for kids ages 9–12 comes out December 30th.

Dec 22, 2025 • Jon Haidt and Catherine Price

How Tech Companies Rig Parental Guilt

Platforms profit from children’s attention while parents absorb the blame

Dec 18, 2025 • Daniel Frost, Sarah Coyne, and Jane Shawcroft

What Governments and Tech Companies Can Do

How Indonesia is Protecting 80 Million Children from Online Harm

Their first-of-its-kind regulation cracks down on harmful design and incentivizes safer technology.

Mar 26 • Anindito Aditomo, Najelaa Shihab, Nisa Felicia, and Yeremia Dwi Hendryanto

Meta's Legal Team Abandoned Its Ethical Duties

From Big Tobacco to Menlo Park — and the collapse of legal ethics

Jan 20 • Casey Mock

Why Every Country Should Set 16 (or Higher) as the Minimum Age for Social Media Accounts

Four features of strong age-limit policies for countries ready to follow Australia’s brave lead

Jan 13 • Jon Haidt and Ravi Iyer

Strong Public Support To Restrict Social Media for Children in Germany

A huge majority of adults favors a minimum age for social media – and even adolescents themselves see harm from social media.

Dec 16, 2025 • Ludger Woessmann, Katharina Wedel, Franziska Pfaehler, and Vera Freundl

Responses to Skeptics

Does Social Media Use at One Time Predict Teen Depression at a Later Time?

Reviewing longitudinal evidence

Oct 6, 2025 • Alec McClean and Jakey Lebwohl

A Flawed Absolution for Smartphones

No, the Life in Media survey did not really show that 8-year-olds benefit from owning smartphones

Apr 11, 2025 • David Stein

Flaws in a Recent Lancet Study on Phone Use in Schools

Five problems that call into question the authors’ conclusion that phone free schools don’t improve mental health or academic performance

Feb 13, 2025 • Jon Haidt, Zach Rausch, and Alec McClean

The Fundamental Flaws of The Only Meta-Analysis of Social Media Reduction Experiments (And Why It Matters), Part 3

The recent meta-analysis of social media experiments achieved a statistically insignificant result only due to a string of errors.

Oct 4, 2024 • David Stein