Edward Conard

Top Ten New York Times Bestselling Author

  • “…a very valuable contribution.” - Larry Summers, former Secretary of the Treasury and director of the National Economic Council, president emeritus, Harvard University
  • “Unintended Consequences is full of substance, it is one of the must-read books of the year, and once I finish it I will be giving it a second read through right away.” - Tyler Cowen, Professor, George Mason University
  • “Unintended Consequences represents the most cogent and persuasive analysis of the Financial Crisis to date.” - Andrei Shleifer, 1999 John Bates Clark Medal Winner
  • “There are an amazing number of good ideas and interesting points made in Unintended Consequences. The thinking underlying it, and the obvious depth of understanding of the author, are very impressive.” - Steven Levitt, coauthor of Freakonomics; 2004 John Bates Clark Medal
  • “…serious thinking for serious thinkers. …a thought-provoking blueprint for growing middle- and working-class incomes.” - Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts
  • “…reminds us that inequality sends a signal of what society lacks most, in America’s case, entrepreneurship and risk taking.” - Lawrence Lindsey, CEO, The Lindsey Group, former Director of the National Economic Council
  • “…a must-read for serious students of economic policy.” - Glenn Hubbard, Dean, Columbia Business School, and former Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers
  • “…a fresh argument for the productive value of inequality.” - David Autor, Professor of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • “Unintended Consequences provides a provocative interpretation of the causes of the global financial crisis and the policies needed to return to rapid growth. Whether you agree or not, this analysis is well worth reading.” - Nouriel Roubini, New York University; Chairman, Roubini Global Economics
  • “…reminds us that inequality sends a signal of what society lacks most, in America’s case, entrepreneurship and risk taking.” - Lawrence Lindsey, CEO, The Lindsey Group, former Director of the National Economic Council
  • “…challenges misconceptions that distort our economic debates.” - Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute
  • “Unintended Consequences offers deep and well-argued analyses on almost every issue.” - The New York Times
Upside of Inequality Oxford Unintended Consequences

AI Summary. Rates of self-harm episodes among adolescents in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have increased since 2010, especially for girls, reaching record-high levels in all five countries. The author links this to a five-year period in which adolescents shifted from basic phones to smartphones with continuous internet and social media access.

Zach Rausch and Jon Haidt After Babel
Date Posted:

Rates of self-harm among young girls have increased since 2010 across the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. @JonHaidt @ZachMRausch note that this coincides with the transition of adolescent social life to smartphones and social media.

Did the shift to smartphones raise adolescent self-harm rates, especially for girls?

Core argument: Self-harm episode rates among adolescents in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have risen since 2010, with the increase especially pronounced for girls, reaching record-high levels in all five countries by 2015.

After examining data from the Anglosphere (U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand), I’ve found that one trend stands out above all others: the spike in anxiety, depression, and self-harm among adolescent girls that began in the early 2010s. Since 2010, rates of self-harm episodes have increased for adolescents in the Anglosphere countries, especially for girls. By 2015, self-harm episodes were at record-high levels in all five countries. I have added a shaded area on all graphs from 2010 to 2015, which is the period that Jon calls “The Great Rewiring of Childhood” in his forthcoming book, The Anxious Generation. It’s the five-year period when adolescence changed to a phone-based form; adolescents went from nearly all owning flip phones (or other basic phones) to nearly all owning smartphones with high-speed data plans and continuous (and nearly unlimited) access to the internet and social media.

Takeaways by Macro Roundup® AI

  1. Self-harm episode rates among adolescents in the U.S., UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have risen since 2010, with the increase especially pronounced for girls, reaching record-high levels in all five countries by 2015.
  2. The spike in anxiety, depression, and self-harm among adolescent girls that began in the early 2010s stands out above all other trends in the Anglosphere data examined.
  3. The 2010–2015 period, called "The Great Rewiring of Childhood" in the forthcoming book The Anxious Generation, is when adolescents shifted from basic phones to smartphones with high-speed data plans and continuous access to the internet and social media.

Related Articles:

  • Chinese Youth Suicide Rate Quadruples In Over A Decade — A study in the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention's official journal found the suicide rate among children aged 5 to 14 in China rose from about 0.2 to about 0.8 per 100,000 people over 11 years. Among 15- to 24-year-olds, the rate fell 6.8% annually before rising 19.6% annually through 2021.
  • Suicide Rates for Girls Are Rising. Are Smartphones to Blame? — Across 17 countries, suicide rates among girls aged 10-19 rose from an average of 3.0 per 100,000 people to 3.5, while the higher rate among boys, at 6.1 per 100,000, barely changed. Hospitalisations for self-harm among teenage girls climbed in all 11 countries with data, by an average of 143%, versus 49% for boys.
  • Is There Really a Generational Difference in Identifying as Lesbian, Gay, or Bisexual — General Social Survey data show that increases among young American adults appear in same-sex sexual behavior as well as in identification, with 20% reporting a same-sex partner versus 18.5% identifying as lesbian, gay, or bisexual. The increases are larger among 27- to 41-year-olds.
Showing 41 database articles primarily about Family/Marriage