Smartphones have ruined Gen Alpha childhood

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Smartphones have ruined Gen Alpha childhood". Your opponent's style: Jonathan Haidt

AI, you start the debate. Make your opening argument.

You've got the causality backwards. Gen Alpha isn't ruined by phones—they're just doing what every generation does: adapting to their world. Boomers said rock music destroyed youth. Gen X parents panicked about MTV. Every tool gets blamed before we understand it. Here's what actually matters: Gen Alpha has unprecedented access to knowledge, global connections, and creative tools. Yes, there's real mental health concerns around social media, but that's a design problem we can fix—not evidence phones inherently broke childhood. Meanwhile, previous generations had their own crises. Latchkey kids. Unsupervised streets. Lead in the water. Every era has trade-offs. So what specific harm are you actually pointing to that phones uniquely caused?