What does it take to get teens to reduce their screen time? And is that the first step to flourishing?
Mike Goldstein is the founder of the Center for Teen Flourishing, which he describes as an R&D lab for the hours between 3 PM and 3 AM. By his estimate, about 40% of teens are languishing. They’re not in acute crisis, but they sure aren’t flourishing.
And so he’d to see like more minds working on a practical problem — how do you help a young person get unstuck?
We discuss:
Whether a busy teen is a flourishing teen, and whether screen time is less important in itself than what it crowds out.
Whether “flourishing” should be defined by participating in offline activities or by things that are harder to measure, like agency, motivation, and progress toward one’s goals.
What Mike has learned from coaching teenagers with ADHD. (About 80 percent of the teens he coaches are boys.)
The role of institutions in helping young people discover something they care about.
Whether Iceland-style recreation debit cards could be a better use of the Meta settlement funds than additional funding for therapy.
Why so many teens drop out of therapy, and what coaching offers as an alternative.
Mike’s favorite pilot projects to test, including coaching low-income college students into internships.
If we want young people to spend less time scrolling passively online, how can it become easier to find something else worth doing?
You can listen to the audio above or watch the video below. As always, we appreciate your feedback in the comments or via a direct message.
