{"id":310082,"date":"2025-12-11T03:57:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:57:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310082\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T03:57:15","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:57:15","slug":"are-the-phones-really-to-blame-plus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/310082\/","title":{"rendered":"Are the Phones Really to Blame? Plus. . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s Wednesday, December 10. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press\u2014and our take on the world at large. Today: An incredibly potent drug sold on the streets of Philadelphia is turning people into zombies. Is Trump going to accidentally start a war with Venezuela? Have the Ayatollah\u2019s henchmen fled to Canada? Is climate change a thing of the past up north? And much more.<\/p>\n

But first: Is the techlash a social mania? Tyler Cowen thinks so.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the phones.\u201d For a lot of people, this three-word phrase explains almost everything about the modern world\u2014or at least so much of what is wrong with it.<\/p>\n

Like any good slogan, it sort of explains itself. In case it\u2019s not clear, it\u2019s the idea that those small, shiny things that put the world in our pockets two decades ago are to blame for all manner of problems: learning loss, teen depression, dwindling attention spans, the loneliness epidemic, and more.<\/p>\n

A lot of you probably subscribe to some version of this view. I know I do. And so do a lot of our contributors. People like Jonathan Haidt, who last month wrote an unsettling essay for us about \u201cThe Devil\u2019s Plan to Ruin the Next Generation<\/a>.\u201d Or August Lamm, who has sworn off modern tech and written about it<\/a> in our pages. Or Jared Cooney Horvath, who last week wrote convincingly about how the digitization of our classrooms has been a disaster<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And this camp is winning the argument: There are phone bans in American schools, the flip phone renaissance<\/a>, the rise of low-tech parenting<\/a>, and Australia\u2019s ban on social media for everyone under 16, which came into effect this week. In my view, almost all of this is all good news\u2014and long overdue.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: One of the thinkers I trust the most takes a radically different view. I\u2019m talking about Free Press columnist Tyler Cowen. Tyler is a techno-optimist, and not only does he disagree with Australia\u2019s social media ban, he calls it the \u201czenith\u201d of a \u201chysteria\u201d over the harm smartphones do to kids.<\/p>\n

Now, Tyler doesn\u2019t deny that smartphones need to be used thoughtfully. He says he wouldn\u2019t want students to use them during school hours if he were running a school, for example. But he thinks the harms are grossly overstated, and he warns that the \u201ctechlash\u201d brings risks of its own\u2014not least for free expression.<\/p>\n

Like any good opinion writing, this essay from Tyler is guaranteed to make you think\u2014and his argument is worth grappling with even if, like me, you think it\u2019s the phones.<\/p>\n

\u2014Oliver Wiseman<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

A new drug has hit Kensington, Philadelphia, and as Mattha Busby reports, it\u2019s terrifying. Medetomidine delivers a high with \u201cno stages. . . you go straight to sleep,\u201d leaving people unconscious, sick, or in the ER\u2014if they wake up at all. Read Mattha\u2019s dispatch from the neighborhood long known as America\u2019s open-air drug market, now being hollowed out by the \u201cpoison\u201d dealers are mixing into $2 stamps.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

Diplomatic and military ambivalence can easily spark the flame of war, writes Chuck Lane. President Trump\u2019s show of force and flirtation with regime change in Latin America is not new; it resembles George H.W. Bush\u2019s policy on Panama, one that resulted in war. Trump may not seek war, but he is surely creating the conditions for one. If previous American operations in Latin America teach us anything, \u201cpresidents who bluff about invading eventually get called on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u2018They<\/a><\/p>\n

After Israel\u2019s strikes on Iran this summer, Benjamin Netanyahu warned that senior regime officials were \u201cpacking their bags.\u201d Now, with investigations surging and visas quietly revoked, Casey Babb reports that Iranian activists in Canada fear some of those officials have slipped into the country and are living among the very refugees they once persecuted.<\/p>\n

\"This<\/a><\/p>\n

In other news from north of the border, climate anxiety seems to have evaporated in Canada. Public opinion has taken a \u201cquiet but dramatic U-turn,\u201d with only 4 percent now calling climate change their top concern. Priorities have been \u201crearranged twice over,\u201d giving Mark Carney \u201cfar more political wiggle room\u201d to push major energy projects. All that and more in Rupa Subramanya\u2019s latest installment of This Week in Canada.<\/p>\n

Did you know the soundtrack of Americans\u2019 Christmas was written largely by. . . Jews? In a replay of this Breaking History episode, Eli Lake digs into how a generation of Jewish immigrants ended up shaping the very sound of America\u2019s most beloved holiday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"Charlie<\/a>\"Minnesota<\/a>\"Putting<\/a>\"I\u2019m<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>President Trump participates in a roundtable discussion with farmers in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Monday, December 8, 2025. (Demetrius Freeman\/The Washington Post via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Two men were arrested for allegedly running a scheme<\/a> to smuggle Nvidia\u2019s H100 and H200 AI chips to China, part of a DOJ operation that seized over $50 million in restricted GPUs. The charges landed even as President Trump moved to ease export limits on some of Nvidia\u2019s most advanced chips, underscoring the intensifying fight over control of advanced AI technology.<\/p>\n

Trump is heading to a swing district in Pennsylvania to pitch his economic message<\/a> as Republicans worry voters no longer trust the GOP on affordability. Polls show widespread frustration with high costs, while Trump resists acknowledging voters\u2019 financial strain and has dismissed affordability concerns as a \u201choax.\u201d<\/p>\n

Miami\u2019s mayoral runoff pits Republican Emilio Gonzalez against Democrat Eileen Higgins in a race that could break the GOP\u2019s nearly 30-year hold<\/a> on the office. With affordability and immigration dominating the campaign\u2014and Trump\u2019s future presidential library hanging in the balance\u2014a Higgins win would give Democrats fresh momentum heading into 2026, and cause the president to find another location for his library.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s president Volodymyr Zelensky flatly rejected<\/a> any plan that requires Ukraine to give up territory to Russia, rebuffing a key element of Trump\u2019s proposed peace deal and signaling that Kyiv won\u2019t bow to pressure from Washington or Moscow. While some provisions of the U.S.-backed plan have softened, Zelensky and European leaders insist that Putin cannot be allowed to redraw borders by force\u2014a stance that could doom the proposal entirely.<\/p>\n

Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a progressive Democrat, has launched a Texas Senate bid,<\/a> pitting her against state representative James Talarico, a rising star in the party, and jolting the Democratic primary. Both Republican candidates, Senator John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, blasted her entry in the race, with Cornyn describing her<\/a> as \u201cradical, theatrical, and ineffective.\u201d A Democrat has not won a statewide race in Texas in over three decades.<\/p>\n

Police in Goodyear, Arizona, have begun replacing hand-drawn suspect sketches with AI-generated images<\/a>, aiming for more lifelike depictions that will attract public attention. Experts warn the practice could worsen misidentification risks and face legal challenges, but the department\u2019s forensic artist says AI tools are already becoming a powerful part of police work.<\/p>\n

Nearly a year after the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, California, residents are restoring a cherished tradition. This holiday season, the community has brought back \u201cChristmas Tree Lane,\u201d lining Santa Rosa Avenue with over 130 trees illuminated with thousands of lights\u2014and offering a hopeful reminder of renewal<\/a> after the devastation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Wednesday, December 10. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[2306,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-310082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}