THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST JONATHAN
Every revolution has to start somewhere. The place it all began. The place the founders first planted their feet and stood, Jerry Maguire-style, holding their ideological goldfish aloft and crying ‘WHO’S COMING WITH ME?’
And so it came to pass that The Union Chapel, Islington was where the #IRL REVOLUTION began. For the archivists and historians amongst you, let it be known that it all started at 7pm sharp on Tuesday 30th April 2024. Because that’s when social psychologist and high priest of teen mental health, Jonathan Haidt, swung by to deliver a soul-searching sermon about the youth mental health crisis to a packed house on a balmy April evening.
For the benefit of anyone who has been comatose or cryogenically frozen over the past month, Jonathan Haidt is the author of The Anxious Generation – the book that’s become an international best-seller and sparked a national debate, having proven beyond almost all reasonable doubt the link between smartphone uptake, the loss of socialising in real life, and the mental health crisis amongst young people.
Plenty of our most esteemed institutions have already done much excellent analysis documenting the record levels of unhappiness, anxiety and mental health issues amongst UK teenagers…
Mental Health of Children & Young People Survey, NHS, 2023
The Prince’s Trust Youth Index Survey, YouGov, 2022
… but it’s Jonathan and his co-psychologist, Jean Twenge, who have pin-pointed the genesis of this crisis to the widespread uptake of smartphones with front-facing cameras and high-speed connectivity in 2012, combined with the broader trend towards over-protective parenting that led to a reduction in face-to-face socialising amongst children.
To select but a few of the many terrifying charts that bear witness to this…
For those of you who fancy a deeper dive into the evidence, you can buy the book, hit up the website, or just sit back and watch Jonathan in conversation with the Grand Dame of Daytime herself, Oprah Winfrey.
BUT BEFORE YOU HIT THOSE LINKS…
Let’s take you briefly back to The Union Chapel… an inspiring IRL space, playing host to an inspirational speaker, surrounded by hundreds of people passionate about the plight of our teenagers. The perfect place to launch the # IRL REVOLUTION.
Which is why we bowled in there, tooled up with freshly-minted merch and a question to put to the great man himself.
Did we get the chance to ask it? Did we get the answer we wanted? Were our # IRL REVOLUTION T-shirts unexpectedly under-sized? All will be revealed in our next post.
Until then, don’t forget to spread the gospel.
SHARE THIS BLOG amongst your whatsapp groups, your networks, indeed anyone you feel cares about our teenagers.
ADD YOUR VOICE by tagging us in with #IRLrevolution whenever you spot anyone else talking about this issue.
Help us build this army. Because every extra person who joins the fight to give teenagers somewhere to socialise in real life helps helps our voice to be heard and our impact to be felt.
Vive the # IRL REVOLUTION!
