Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, contends that children are losing the ability to pay attention as they spend half their lives perusing social media content designed to hook them.

Findings

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Short bits of content, Haidt argues, are not akin to storytelling that can elicit conversations and social skill building. Instead, they disrupt critical thinking and executive function.
Haidt says that Snapchat, as a platform, is particularly dangerous for kids since it connects them with strangers and the messages disappear, attracting people who don't want records of their actions.
Haidt says that lawsuit documents reveal that in 2022, Snapchat was receiving 10,000 reports of sextortion—per month—from American users.
Social media teaches users that if something isn't interesting within seconds, you should immediately cast it aside by swiping away, to the detriment of development and society, according to Haidt.
Meta incentivized increasing the stickiness of products like Instagram or Facebook by telling its engineers that increased user time on the site would lead to raises.
Community and state-level actions designed to limit children's exposure to social media include state bans on using phones in schools, parents installing landlines in their homes for children's use, and the creation of broader norms around free play and social interactions.