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're conflating correlation with causation. Gen Alpha has unprecedented access to knowledge, creative tools, and global connection at their fingertips, yet you blame smartphones for ruining childhood without accounting for economic instability, climate anxiety, and educational pressure, which existed long before TikTok. The real question isn't whether screens are bad, it's whether you can name a single generation that didn't face criticism for their technology. Boomers had TV, Gen X had video games, Millennials had the internet. All turned out fine. So what specific, measurable harm are we talking about here that wasn't already present in previous childhoods? Because "screens bad" is lazy analysis.