"We are blessed, in and around Boston, with intimate old neighborhoods built before the dominance of the automobile. While some of these places — particularly those home to Black and immigrant families — were bulldozed in the mid-20th century to make way for highways, the many that remain recall an age when streets were designed for the people who lived there, not the cars passing through.And they might hold the secret to getting our kids off their phones and into a better headspace.Dr. Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, has called youth mental health a national crisis, and in 2023 issued an advisory warning that social media may have a serious negative impact on children. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt also pins much of the blame for kids’ worrisome mental health state on these platforms. In his best-selling book The Anxious Generation, Haidt notes that adolescent anxiety and depression rose almost in lockstep with the widespread adoption of smartphones equipped with addictive apps and self-facing cameras for video chats and selfies.Tech companies have invested vast resources to make their products irresistible, he argues, yet many of us grant those same companies unfettered access to our children’s minds through their phones. It’s hard enough for adults to refuse social media’s signature cocktail of dopamine and depravity, but experts say our still-growing children are even more vulnerable to its reward rhythms. According to Haidt, it’s “literally rewiring” childhood."
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