This is one of the most interesting things I have read about trees in a very long time.
In Jonathan Haidt’s latest book, The Anxious Generation he lays out the enormous, detrimental effect smartphones and social media generally have on our younger generations. He describes how smartphones and social media platforms take children and young adults away from the “real world”, real-life experiences, and interactions with other children to the virtual world where they operate alone, denying themselves essential learning experiences.
He makes the comparison between young children and adolescents growing up over-using their smartphones to the trees which were planted as part of an experiment carried out during the 80s in the Arizona desert.
The project was called, Biosphere 2. This project aimed to create an artificial, self-sustaining ecosystem on Earth that could one day be duplicated for the moon and beyond.
SPOILER ALERT – the experiment failed
They did however learn many lessons and one of them was about trees. They discovered the trees they planted, within their artificial ecosystem, grew fast and straight, but fell over when reaching maturity. They were unable to support their weight, so discovered the importance of Wind-stress.
Without wind, the trees became mechanically weak. They lacked the strength required to support their size.
In normal conditions, when the wind blows it stresses and bends the tree pulling at the root system on the windward side and compressing the trunk on the other side. In response, the tree’s root system, on the prevailing wind side, enlarge to “grip” the earth more securely. Meanwhile, on the other side where the wood is being compressed due to the bending of the trunk, the compressed wood cells change their structure to become stronger.
Jonathan Haidt’s message is; that young children, like young trees, need to be subjected to natural “weather conditions” like face-to-face interactions and a play-based childhood to grow into rounded resilient adults. Spending too much time on smartphones is denying them the opportunity to grow.
It’s a great book and I would strongly recommend it to parents (and grandparents of which I am one)
