Leftists Cry About NYU Commencement Speaker Because He Suggested Social Media Isn’t Good For Kids

Activists and students reacted with outrage when a university chose a scholar on social media’s harms for a commencement speech.

New York University (NYU) picking social psychologist Dr. Jonathan Haidt for the talk “cheapens the accomplishments of the Class of 2026” and “misunderstands the political moment,” leftist group Fight for the Future said in a Wednesday statement, cheering NYU’s student government for denouncing the planned Thursday speech. Fight for the Future called Haidt a “fearmonger” for his research, which has found causal links between young people’s social media use and a generational mental health crisis.

Haidt did not respond to the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.

“Why might Haidt’s appearance lead to protest?” Fight for the Future Campaign Director Sarah Philips said. “Well, because he one of the leading figures of a contemporary moral panic which leverages contested science to promote policies that strip young people of their autonomy.”

Philips attacked the NYU professor’s “right-wing talking points” expressed in his books on mental health. “Haidt, 62, is a consummate grifter whose scolding treatises about American youth include ‘The Coddling of the American Mind’ and ‘The Anxious Generation’: fact-lite airport bestsellers which right-wing groups deploy in support of a nationwide effort to ban young people from the Internet.”