A note from Jon Haidt
In October 2021, the brilliant Helen Pluckrose introduced me to a young British woman who had written some superb essays about the problems members of Gen Z were facing for her at Areo, Freya wanted to talk with me about a book she was thinking about writing, and I wanted to learn more from her about what young women were experiencing online.
Freya’s writing is compassionate, gripping, and deeply psychological, including essays such as My Generation Isn’t Suffering Enough (which is about antifragility), and Women’s Sexuality is Powerful, Is Onlyfans The Way to Use It? She recently wrote an essay that has haunted me, titled We Can’t Compete with AI Girlfriends. It’s about what is going to happen to young women as ever more young men shack up with gorgeous, witty, programmable AI girlfriends, who can be given proportions and personalities unobtainable by real women . . .
— Jon
. . . P.S. If you like Freya’s writing, sign up for her Substack, GIRLS where she writes about the challenges girls face in the modern world.
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Thanks for carrying this.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, a comment I've heard since from Steven Pinker on the emerging mental health pandemic during a recent YouTube lecture says that incidences of anxiety and depression have become markedly higher in several cultures; particularly so in North America. The reported incidences are significantly greater among younger females than younger males, and more so, according to Pinker, for left-wing young women than for right-wing young women. (Unfortunately, he doesn't explain why it might be greater for left-leaning young females).
The clip can be viewed here at time stamp 1:14:16.