Jonathan Haidt
Social psychologist, author of The Anxious Generation (2024). Named by cal-newport in 2026-11-02-youtube-newport-techno-selectionism as the engine of the Complaining C in action: parents went to school boards saying “I read Jonathan Haidt’s book. The data is compelling,” and 2025 became the year of bell-to-bell school phone bans (22:02-22:26).
The mechanism checks out against reporting independent of Newport: by September 2025, 18 states and Washington, D.C. had bell-to-bell restrictions and 39 states had some school phone limits, with the parent-driven turn and Haidt’s book named in the account https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2025/09/02/school-cellphone-ban-jonathan-haidt-00539004.
In the vault’s terms he is the case study that the four C’s can escalate from individual choice to institutional rule, the step techno-selectionism otherwise leaves implicit.