Joanne Jacobs
Surgeon General: Social media is hazardous for your kids' health
Social media is endangering the mental health and well-being of children and adolescents, warns Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in a 19-page...
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Joanne Jacobs
May 13, 20231 min read
Sad, sleepy teens: Will starting school later improve mental health?
Worried about the teen mental health crisis, nine states and a number of major cities are considering mandating later start times for...
Joanne Jacobs
Apr 29, 20232 min read
Teens don't want to work, drive, have sex with a real-life person
Not long ago, teen-age boys dreamed of buying a car and "roaring away from school during lunch period, with a girl riding shotgun, on our...
Joanne Jacobs
Apr 9, 20232 min read
You are not enough: Love thy neighbor too
"You are enough" is a popular saying, writes Katherine Boyle on The Free Press. But it's not true. Americans have lost their sense of...
Joanne Jacobs
Apr 8, 20233 min read
The politics of parenting
Permissive parenting -- known as "gentle" or "mindful" or "intentional" parenting -- is spreading among left-of-center parents, writes...
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 12, 20232 min read
Digital danger: Screen time is stealing childhood
Screen time is very bad for kids, argues Michel Desmurget, a French neuroscientist, in Screen Damage: The Dangers of Digital Media for...
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 11, 20232 min read
Anxious teens: Are they working too hard in school?
Dropping SAT/ACT requirements at elite colleges could make ambitious teenagers even more anxious, writes Derek Thompson in The Atlantic. ...
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 5, 20232 min read
TikTok sets limits for teens as mental health worries grow
Social media is a major cause of the mental illness epidemic in teen girls, argues social psychologist Jon Haidt. Fifty-seven percent of...
Joanne Jacobs
Mar 4, 20232 min read
Young, liberal and depressed: Doomers are not OK
Liberals are the most depressed among the growing number of sad teenagers, writes Matthew Yglesias on Slow Boring. Teenage girls are...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 18, 20231 min read
Sad girls: Social isolation predates Covid
Fifty-seven percent of teenage girls felt "persistently sad or hopeless" in 2021, reports the Centers for Disease Control. That's double...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 12, 20232 min read
Don't risk freedom, privacy to protect kids from social media
In their zeal to protect children from social media, Utah legislators are debating legislation that would usurp parents' rights and...
Joanne Jacobs
Feb 11, 20231 min read
What parents worry about
Depression and anxiety are the top worries of parents, according to a Pew Research Center survey, report Rachel Minkin and Juliana...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 28, 20232 min read
Happy days: Connect, care about others, cope
Happy people are kind to others and to themselves, says Laurie Santos. The Yale psychology professor is offering a free, six-week course,...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 20, 20231 min read
Generation Doom: Show students a path forward
Teachers should encourage young people to believe in the future, writes Alice Dominguez on EdSurge. The Doomer Generation needs a sense...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 9, 20231 min read
Move it and lose the blues
Exercise and sports -- at least one hour three times a week -- are a natural anti-depressant for teenagers, according to an analysis of...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 9, 20231 min read
Why parents fear social media
Parents' concerns about their teenagers' social media use focuses on access to explicit sexual content and time wasting, writes Risa...
Joanne Jacobs
Jan 9, 20232 min read
Seattle schools sue TikTok and others for kids' mental-health crisis
Seattle Public Schools is suing social media companies, reports Julie Calhoun on King 5 News. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 4, 20222 min read
Home alone
Americans are socializing a lot less, staying home alone a lot more, writes economist Bryce Ward in the Washington Post. That's true for...
Joanne Jacobs
Dec 3, 20222 min read
Suicidal students: What can universities do?
Yale discriminates against students with mental-health issues, according to a lawsuit filed this week, reports William Wan in the...
Joanne Jacobs
Nov 15, 20222 min read
Some like it virtual: Will online students learn less?
Enrollment is climbing in virtual schools, even as pandemic fears wane, reports Asher Lehrer-Small on The 74. Online schools saw an...
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