@mmasnick @dangillmor
First of all, thanks for responding. Certainly, a necessary first step to have a healthy discussion.

Although as a parent I have my observations on the topic and have researched game-based learning in the past, this discussion is not within my current research interests, and I have only limited time to dedicate to it. I'm really sorry for this, but my response is correspondingly very limited.

On the topic, in his response Haidt does say "My story is about two major factors (end of the play-based childhood, rise of the phone-based childhood)". However, your interpretation is "that social media and smartphones have made kids under-protected". Speaks of itself.

I also appreciate that writing for popular audiences might require some stylistic adaptation, but from my reader perspective I find your writing quite demagogical and seeking conflicts where there aren't (parents protecting children or not, multiplayer-over-the-network games and lack of physical interaction). I find it also oversimplifying in insinuating that the lack of sufficient evidence for a phenomenon is a proof of the absence of the phenomenon.

I do think you make some valid points. However, due to the all-out denial you engage in, I find it very difficult to identify these myself. Probably, it is due to my own biases and perceptions.

@mapto @dangillmor I do not deny that there are mental health problems for many kids. The piece is explicit about that. I simply point out that the evidence does not, at all, support Haidt's conjecture that it comes from kids using social media on phones without oversight (which is very much his argument throughout the book).

And, because he has incorrectly diagnosed the cause of the very real issue (which again, I never deny), I point out that his policy proposals are dangerous and misguided.