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The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
From New York Times bestselling coauthor of The Coddling of the American Mind, an essential investigation into the collapse of youth mental health—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.
“Erudite, engaging, combative, crusading.” —New York Times Book Review
“Words that chill the parental heart… thanks to Mr. Haidt, we can glimpse the true horror of what happened not only in the U.S. but also elsewhere in the English-speaking world… lucid, memorable… galvanizing.” —Wall Street Journal
"[An] important new book...The shift in kids’ energy and attention from the physical world to the virtual one, Haidt shows, has been catastrophic, especially for girls." —Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times
After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?
In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.
Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.
Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.
“Erudite, engaging, combative, crusading.” —New York Times Book Review
“Words that chill the parental heart… thanks to Mr. Haidt, we can glimpse the true horror of what happened not only in the U.S. but also elsewhere in the English-speaking world… lucid, memorable… galvanizing.” —Wall Street Journal
"[An] important new book...The shift in kids’ energy and attention from the physical world to the virtual one, Haidt shows, has been catastrophic, especially for girls." —Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times
After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?
In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.
Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.
Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published March 26, 2024
About the author
Jonathan Haidt
21 books3,585 followersJonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business. He is the author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion and The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. He lives in New York City.
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April 3, 2024
Children should not have smartphones and social media until they are 16.
As a parent of a young child, I read this book with interest and horror. This book is about the tragic great rewiring that was inflicted on Gen Z between 2010 and 2015 that completely upended them from a normal childhood and caused a generational mental health crisis. The author does a good job of explaining himself with good research and makes a compelling case against a phone-based childhood and praises the virtues of a play-based childhood. I think this book was very good and important but I didn’t agree with everything and think some of his reasoning is actually fallacious when it comes to “helicopter” parenting, which I’ll get into.
Depression, self harm and anxiety are undoubtedly higher in Gen Z and have a sharp rise in boys and girls in 2010 and thereafter. One could speculate that these children grew up after the 9/11 era and after the 2008 financial crisis but, as the author argues, every generation has socio-economic upheaval but doesn't typically result in dramatic drop in mental health. The most likely, and obvious, explanation is that their childhood became steeped in toxic self comparisons on social media (affecting girls more) and video game and pornography addiction (affecting boys more.) Social media is a strategic, asynchronous, disembodied interaction with the aims of fostering and protecting an individual's self brand. Social media platforms are the most efficient conformity machines ever invented where a user can literally gauge approval by numerical likes and views. This is really bad for everyone and basically inhumane to expose a child’s brain to this type of thinking. When a child starts doing this around the age of 10, they chase the dopamine hit of views and likes and sink the enormous opportunity of real-life social interactions and development that prepare them for adulthood. Social media doesn’t just correlate with poor mental health, it is causative. I think the author demonstrates this beyond doubt.
Children have “defend mode” and “discovery mode”, both useful but the former gets engaged more with a phone based childhood. Free and unsupervised play foster the discovery mode where children learn how to navigate not only the three dimensional space but relationships and their own feelings. A phone based childhood constantly puts a child in defend mode which spills over to real life and chronic anxiety. Social media inflicts sleep deprivation and social deprivation along with attention fragmentation and addiction. Again, these things are awful on an already socialized adult, imagine the cost on a child’s mind that has many years to go before adult brain development.
According to the author, there are real gender differences between boys and girls which are almost certainly sociogenic (culturally created) and these differences account for the disparate impact of a phone based childhood on boys and girls. Girls strive for communion and relationship building where boys strive for self autonomy and actualization. These culturally programmed desires I believe are functionally very real. Girl aggression is relational which explains why social media impacts them more than for boys. Take all the self comparison to airbrush models on magazine covers from the 70s and now put that on hyperdrive, socialize it over a screen, adding cyber bullying and dopamine addiction, and you will have a very sad, lonely and anxious girl. For boys, video games can fragment their socialization and silo it off into asynchronous relationships that then addict and hamper their growth. The easy access to pornography, while impacting both boys and girls, seems to hit boys harder who consume it at very early ages.
Here’s where I have a problem with this book: the author creates a false dilemma between a play-based childhood and phone-based childhood. These two things are not mutually exclusive and the author likes to partition them off like they are the only two options. As a parent who is very involved with my child’s life, I take umbrage with the term “helicopter parent” which the author uses. This well intentioned author asserts many times in this book that during the 1980s, parents become overprotective and stopped letting their kids have autonomy. My first response is what!?. This overt generalization is overtly speculative and laughably simplistic. In my opinion, having more parental presence, particularly when it comes to safety, is not hampering children’s socialization and growth. I’m not joking here: the author thinks kids should be able to play in junkyards and with fire, unsupervised. Without presenting much evidence, he talks about the statistic improbability of your child being really harmed or kidnapped. Okay, but what about the stakes? They are enormous. I think it's a parents responsibility to protect them from catastrophe, regardless of how unlikely because the stakes are absolutely enormous. The author creates a false dichotomy that you either must let your children roam the streets unsupervised or put a phone in front of their faces. Of course, this is not true. There is an entire spectrum of parenting, one which could involve letting children roam under freeway overpasses while also sticking a phone in front of their noses for 6 hours a day. I found his take on this bizarre and his assertions that parent’s are hampering their children’s development with over supervision mostly unsupported. “Helicopter parenting” has become a term used by parents who don’t actively engage with their children. Anyway, I digress.
The solutions the author offers are very good: no social media or smart phones before age 16 and phone free schools. He also laments the loss of spirituality and suggests we need to engage more in shared sacredness, self transcendence (the literal opposite of social media), be slow to anger and quick to forgive (never happens on social media) and to find awe in nature. Overall, I think this was a very good book that everyone should read.
As a parent of a young child, I read this book with interest and horror. This book is about the tragic great rewiring that was inflicted on Gen Z between 2010 and 2015 that completely upended them from a normal childhood and caused a generational mental health crisis. The author does a good job of explaining himself with good research and makes a compelling case against a phone-based childhood and praises the virtues of a play-based childhood. I think this book was very good and important but I didn’t agree with everything and think some of his reasoning is actually fallacious when it comes to “helicopter” parenting, which I’ll get into.
Depression, self harm and anxiety are undoubtedly higher in Gen Z and have a sharp rise in boys and girls in 2010 and thereafter. One could speculate that these children grew up after the 9/11 era and after the 2008 financial crisis but, as the author argues, every generation has socio-economic upheaval but doesn't typically result in dramatic drop in mental health. The most likely, and obvious, explanation is that their childhood became steeped in toxic self comparisons on social media (affecting girls more) and video game and pornography addiction (affecting boys more.) Social media is a strategic, asynchronous, disembodied interaction with the aims of fostering and protecting an individual's self brand. Social media platforms are the most efficient conformity machines ever invented where a user can literally gauge approval by numerical likes and views. This is really bad for everyone and basically inhumane to expose a child’s brain to this type of thinking. When a child starts doing this around the age of 10, they chase the dopamine hit of views and likes and sink the enormous opportunity of real-life social interactions and development that prepare them for adulthood. Social media doesn’t just correlate with poor mental health, it is causative. I think the author demonstrates this beyond doubt.
Children have “defend mode” and “discovery mode”, both useful but the former gets engaged more with a phone based childhood. Free and unsupervised play foster the discovery mode where children learn how to navigate not only the three dimensional space but relationships and their own feelings. A phone based childhood constantly puts a child in defend mode which spills over to real life and chronic anxiety. Social media inflicts sleep deprivation and social deprivation along with attention fragmentation and addiction. Again, these things are awful on an already socialized adult, imagine the cost on a child’s mind that has many years to go before adult brain development.
According to the author, there are real gender differences between boys and girls which are almost certainly sociogenic (culturally created) and these differences account for the disparate impact of a phone based childhood on boys and girls. Girls strive for communion and relationship building where boys strive for self autonomy and actualization. These culturally programmed desires I believe are functionally very real. Girl aggression is relational which explains why social media impacts them more than for boys. Take all the self comparison to airbrush models on magazine covers from the 70s and now put that on hyperdrive, socialize it over a screen, adding cyber bullying and dopamine addiction, and you will have a very sad, lonely and anxious girl. For boys, video games can fragment their socialization and silo it off into asynchronous relationships that then addict and hamper their growth. The easy access to pornography, while impacting both boys and girls, seems to hit boys harder who consume it at very early ages.
Here’s where I have a problem with this book: the author creates a false dilemma between a play-based childhood and phone-based childhood. These two things are not mutually exclusive and the author likes to partition them off like they are the only two options. As a parent who is very involved with my child’s life, I take umbrage with the term “helicopter parent” which the author uses. This well intentioned author asserts many times in this book that during the 1980s, parents become overprotective and stopped letting their kids have autonomy. My first response is what!?. This overt generalization is overtly speculative and laughably simplistic. In my opinion, having more parental presence, particularly when it comes to safety, is not hampering children’s socialization and growth. I’m not joking here: the author thinks kids should be able to play in junkyards and with fire, unsupervised. Without presenting much evidence, he talks about the statistic improbability of your child being really harmed or kidnapped. Okay, but what about the stakes? They are enormous. I think it's a parents responsibility to protect them from catastrophe, regardless of how unlikely because the stakes are absolutely enormous. The author creates a false dichotomy that you either must let your children roam the streets unsupervised or put a phone in front of their faces. Of course, this is not true. There is an entire spectrum of parenting, one which could involve letting children roam under freeway overpasses while also sticking a phone in front of their noses for 6 hours a day. I found his take on this bizarre and his assertions that parent’s are hampering their children’s development with over supervision mostly unsupported. “Helicopter parenting” has become a term used by parents who don’t actively engage with their children. Anyway, I digress.
The solutions the author offers are very good: no social media or smart phones before age 16 and phone free schools. He also laments the loss of spirituality and suggests we need to engage more in shared sacredness, self transcendence (the literal opposite of social media), be slow to anger and quick to forgive (never happens on social media) and to find awe in nature. Overall, I think this was a very good book that everyone should read.
March 31, 2024
I'm more eager to recommend this book than a preteen Evangelical after watching God's Not Dead.
It's hard for me to think of a single person that would not benefit from reading this book. Especially parents.
Buy and read!
It's hard for me to think of a single person that would not benefit from reading this book. Especially parents.
Buy and read!
March 26, 2024
5 stars. Extremely well researched book about why we should not give our kids smartphones due to indisputable evidence that it causes mental illness, anxiety and depression. Children are just not equipped for social media and the trade offs they will experience with addictive phone based free time. Kids need play time, outside with other children. This book was very enlightening and I will be recommending it to everyone I know.
April 28, 2024
This book is going to be my new go-to baby shower gift for new parents that I know and love well, wrapped up nicely with a Sophie Giraffe on top. I share Haidt's sense of urgency on the issue of smartphones and adolescents; parents need to figure out their take on screens before the kids are old enough to start asking. Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death helped me do that in the early 2000's, long before I was a parent myself. But Postman, writing in the mid-1980's and primarily concerned with television, could not have imagined what was coming.
I savored The Anxious Generation, and I'm so grateful to Haidt for writing it. In it, Haidt carefully unpacks with clear and engaging writing what he refers to as The Great Rewiring of Childhood: "...a profound transformation of human consciousness and relationships [that] occurred, for American teens, between 2010 and 2015. This is the birth of the phone-based childhood. It marks the definitive end of the play-based childhood" (34-35).
Haidt argues that as a society we've made two big mistakes that have contributed to an international mental health crisis among adolescents: "overprotecting children in the real world (where they need to learn from vast amounts of direct experience) and underprotecting them online (where they are particularly vulnerable during puberty)" (15). I believe down to my core that Haidt is right on this. Abigail Shrier's excellent book Bad Therapy argues the first point. But I think Haidt is right not to neglect the second point. They clearly go together.
Anyone who has read a few of my Goodreads reviews may have noticed that I have written about smartphones and children before. Out of conviction, my husband and I decided that we will not buy smartphones for our kids. This includes our teenager, who is not aware of even a single other student in her secondary school who, like her, does not own a smartphone. In our experience, many parents at our kids' schools started buying smartphones for their children in Year 5 (The UK equivalent of 4th grade in the USA). This comports with Haidt's findings, and feels absurd to us. Our sense is that, with the exception of a few fellow religious friends, both Christian and Muslim, we are largely standing alone on this issue. As Haidt points out, "an individual acting alone faces high costs, but if people can coordinate and act together, they can more easily choose actions that are better for all in the long run" (12). This book, which already seems to have won a large readership, encourages me that a good change may be on the horizon.
I have only one criticism of The Anxious Generation but it is more personal in nature, and so does not tip the scales much against this book. Unlike Haidt, an atheist, I believe as a Christian that human beings are more than just "highly sociable mammals" (70) who have evolved to thrive under certain social conditions. I want more for my children than to help them grow into "socially functional adults" (54) who will enjoy "success" in the culture I find myself in. I don't believe that videogame addiction and pornography use are harmful and wrong solely because they tamper with our "evolved desires" (196) and prevent us from having "real world exploration and adventure" (193). Unlike Haidt, I believe that the "God-shaped hole" is real, and not something that "natural selection might have carved" (215). At the end of the day, what can Haidt say to the Hikikomori who assures us that he is happy and fulfilled living his confined, nocturnal, socially withdrawn existence? It's not obvious to me that Haidt would have anything much to say to that Hikikomori. Haidt's argument is especially profound and urgent to me because I believe that we are made in God's image, to live in his world and enjoy communion with him and our fellow human beings. Anything that puts a barrier between the chief end for which we are made and my kids is something that I will take pains to avoid.
That said, The Anxious Generation is a book for everyone, not just parents. I sincerely hope that my kids' school administrators will read it. This is where I think this book could have the biggest impact.
I savored The Anxious Generation, and I'm so grateful to Haidt for writing it. In it, Haidt carefully unpacks with clear and engaging writing what he refers to as The Great Rewiring of Childhood: "...a profound transformation of human consciousness and relationships [that] occurred, for American teens, between 2010 and 2015. This is the birth of the phone-based childhood. It marks the definitive end of the play-based childhood" (34-35).
Haidt argues that as a society we've made two big mistakes that have contributed to an international mental health crisis among adolescents: "overprotecting children in the real world (where they need to learn from vast amounts of direct experience) and underprotecting them online (where they are particularly vulnerable during puberty)" (15). I believe down to my core that Haidt is right on this. Abigail Shrier's excellent book Bad Therapy argues the first point. But I think Haidt is right not to neglect the second point. They clearly go together.
Anyone who has read a few of my Goodreads reviews may have noticed that I have written about smartphones and children before. Out of conviction, my husband and I decided that we will not buy smartphones for our kids. This includes our teenager, who is not aware of even a single other student in her secondary school who, like her, does not own a smartphone. In our experience, many parents at our kids' schools started buying smartphones for their children in Year 5 (The UK equivalent of 4th grade in the USA). This comports with Haidt's findings, and feels absurd to us. Our sense is that, with the exception of a few fellow religious friends, both Christian and Muslim, we are largely standing alone on this issue. As Haidt points out, "an individual acting alone faces high costs, but if people can coordinate and act together, they can more easily choose actions that are better for all in the long run" (12). This book, which already seems to have won a large readership, encourages me that a good change may be on the horizon.
I have only one criticism of The Anxious Generation but it is more personal in nature, and so does not tip the scales much against this book. Unlike Haidt, an atheist, I believe as a Christian that human beings are more than just "highly sociable mammals" (70) who have evolved to thrive under certain social conditions. I want more for my children than to help them grow into "socially functional adults" (54) who will enjoy "success" in the culture I find myself in. I don't believe that videogame addiction and pornography use are harmful and wrong solely because they tamper with our "evolved desires" (196) and prevent us from having "real world exploration and adventure" (193). Unlike Haidt, I believe that the "God-shaped hole" is real, and not something that "natural selection might have carved" (215). At the end of the day, what can Haidt say to the Hikikomori who assures us that he is happy and fulfilled living his confined, nocturnal, socially withdrawn existence? It's not obvious to me that Haidt would have anything much to say to that Hikikomori. Haidt's argument is especially profound and urgent to me because I believe that we are made in God's image, to live in his world and enjoy communion with him and our fellow human beings. Anything that puts a barrier between the chief end for which we are made and my kids is something that I will take pains to avoid.
That said, The Anxious Generation is a book for everyone, not just parents. I sincerely hope that my kids' school administrators will read it. This is where I think this book could have the biggest impact.
April 3, 2024
Some people are out here saying that Haidt is fear mongering when it comes to the link between social media and poor mental health outcomes. And to those people I say...you've got to be joking. The link is clear. If you doubted it, you won't after reading this book.
This book is a mixture of science, research, tips for parents, and suggested policy changes. If you are just wanting some guidance on what limits to set with your kid's tech use, I think you'd find this cumbersome. You could get a lot of the main points by looking him up on YouTube and listening to some of his interviews. But if you are interested in psychology, sociology, etc., I think you'll appreciate how thorough he is.
I love liberty, but I am totally in support of Haidt's policy suggestions to limit minors' access to social media and place more accountability in the hands of Big Tech. As smart as we parents may be, we are no match for AI and sophisticated algorithms. Y'all, they could stop this nonsense if they wanted to. But they don't because they're making too much money off exploiting our kids. We as parents must protect our children using every tool available to us. (I am apalled at how many of my peers treat schools with derision when they try to set phone limits during school hours.)
We've got to be in lock step on this.
This book is a mixture of science, research, tips for parents, and suggested policy changes. If you are just wanting some guidance on what limits to set with your kid's tech use, I think you'd find this cumbersome. You could get a lot of the main points by looking him up on YouTube and listening to some of his interviews. But if you are interested in psychology, sociology, etc., I think you'll appreciate how thorough he is.
I love liberty, but I am totally in support of Haidt's policy suggestions to limit minors' access to social media and place more accountability in the hands of Big Tech. As smart as we parents may be, we are no match for AI and sophisticated algorithms. Y'all, they could stop this nonsense if they wanted to. But they don't because they're making too much money off exploiting our kids. We as parents must protect our children using every tool available to us. (I am apalled at how many of my peers treat schools with derision when they try to set phone limits during school hours.)
We've got to be in lock step on this.
Read
April 12, 2024I learned that all social media is bad (except goodreads, of course)
April 12, 2024
This book is very good and I would encourage everyone, but especially those with children, to read it. However it's also frustrating because the evidence seems so clear that we are headed towards a bad result and we will just not course correct in any sort of meaningful way. I hope this book inspires A) a small amount of parents to be more intentional with their kid's level of screens, B) a small amount of people to be more intentional with their own level of screens, and C) more research and books into this topic which will hopefully result in D) some actual change on a societal level.
But we'll see.
But we'll see.
April 1, 2024
Mandatory reading for any parent…Haidt’s thesis is that social media and smart phones are damaging kids…he’s right and he’s got the receipts…
Huge upticks in depression, anxiety etc as these tech items come on line…add to that the safety culture that parents have embraced and you’ve got a lot of kids that are in a Peter Pan land that exists only on screens but encompasses their lives…
The world isn’t little house on the prairie and our access to ginormous amounts of info has created a catastrophism where we are all too aware of the really bad outcome…humans aren’t good at calculating black swan events so we over protect our kids…guilty as charged…
I’d disagree with his more free play time at school in that yes give kids more free range time but keep it outside of school…otherwise, his prescription seems clear and irrefutable…
Huge upticks in depression, anxiety etc as these tech items come on line…add to that the safety culture that parents have embraced and you’ve got a lot of kids that are in a Peter Pan land that exists only on screens but encompasses their lives…
The world isn’t little house on the prairie and our access to ginormous amounts of info has created a catastrophism where we are all too aware of the really bad outcome…humans aren’t good at calculating black swan events so we over protect our kids…guilty as charged…
I’d disagree with his more free play time at school in that yes give kids more free range time but keep it outside of school…otherwise, his prescription seems clear and irrefutable…
April 6, 2024
The Anxious Generation defines and analyzes an extremely pressing and pervasive problem that seems to have been overlooked and, if not ignored then at least, underestimated up to this point. Most of the book is dedicated to the presentation of mental health data and, in a lot of ways, a kind of expansion upon Haidt's previous book, The Coddling of the American Mind. This, in my opinion, is a good thing. I admire Haidt's stance on these issues, and he has proven to be a powerful voice and advocate for appropriate levels of adversity and freedom in childhood and adolescence.
The previous book focuses entirely on the real world though. Online, things are very different. The internet can fuck you up if you aren't careful. This fact is even more likely if you happen to be an impressionable child/adolescent. Society seems to have vastly over sheltered young people IRL, and largely left them completely vulnerable and exposed online. Contributing, to insane rises in mental health problems across the board for adolescents. I hope this book reaches a wide audience, because I think it has the power to inspire people towards tangible change. A change that we desperately seem to need if the future generations stand any chance of not being a bunch of cynical balls of anxiety and existential dread.
I can't say that I think anyone will be surprised by the findings of this research. Nor do I think the books proposed solutions to the issue are unreasonable or objectionable in any way. The only problem I can find, is that the proposed 'collective action' propositions, I think, will be extremely difficult given that the generational problems at hand are, by nature, predicated upon a general skepticism and cynicism of their fellow humans. Actionable change on a large scale is fuckin hard. We can do it, and this book makes an incredible case for its necessity. Maybe my own cynicism is shining through with this sentiment, but it seems to me like it's gonna be damn difficult process. But nothing worth doing is ever easy.
The previous book focuses entirely on the real world though. Online, things are very different. The internet can fuck you up if you aren't careful. This fact is even more likely if you happen to be an impressionable child/adolescent. Society seems to have vastly over sheltered young people IRL, and largely left them completely vulnerable and exposed online. Contributing, to insane rises in mental health problems across the board for adolescents. I hope this book reaches a wide audience, because I think it has the power to inspire people towards tangible change. A change that we desperately seem to need if the future generations stand any chance of not being a bunch of cynical balls of anxiety and existential dread.
I can't say that I think anyone will be surprised by the findings of this research. Nor do I think the books proposed solutions to the issue are unreasonable or objectionable in any way. The only problem I can find, is that the proposed 'collective action' propositions, I think, will be extremely difficult given that the generational problems at hand are, by nature, predicated upon a general skepticism and cynicism of their fellow humans. Actionable change on a large scale is fuckin hard. We can do it, and this book makes an incredible case for its necessity. Maybe my own cynicism is shining through with this sentiment, but it seems to me like it's gonna be damn difficult process. But nothing worth doing is ever easy.
Currently reading
April 9, 2024As recommended here: https://www.nature.com/articles/d4158...
Want to read
March 30, 2024“Today I pre-ordered, "The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness" by @JonHaidt. It's out in March. I'm recommending it already. The entire country should read it together!!” - Anthony Bradley
April 30, 2024
A great book that addresses some serious problems with “kids these days,” and actually proposes several very reasonable action points. I’d venture to say this book is going to be discussed a lot over the next few years, so I’d recommend that you just go ahead and read it now.
His thesis can be summarized as this: American parents are overprotecting their children in the real world, while providing virtually no protection from the dangers in the online world. And this leads to increased rates of anxiety and depression in girls, and withdrawal and “failure to launch” problems in boys.
The scientific data showing the psychological harms caused by social media use for young girls is solid and convincing. Haidt admits that the studies are not nearly as conclusive when evaluating the potential harms of video game use & etc in young boys.
I also think he makes some excellent points about how our protective parenting styles and our fear of potential physical harms stunt the normal growths of our kids. We just don’t let our kids play with each other in real life anymore, but play is necessary for the proper development of children. These points seem intuitively correct but he doesn’t supply as much research to back up these claims as he does for the technology side of his thesis. Nevertheless, I suspect he’s right.
I’d like to find a nice summary to save here but I haven’t found a great one yet.
Wick’s review is helpful, but he disagrees with Haidt about the parenting side of the argument. I think Haidt is right though.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
His thesis can be summarized as this: American parents are overprotecting their children in the real world, while providing virtually no protection from the dangers in the online world. And this leads to increased rates of anxiety and depression in girls, and withdrawal and “failure to launch” problems in boys.
The scientific data showing the psychological harms caused by social media use for young girls is solid and convincing. Haidt admits that the studies are not nearly as conclusive when evaluating the potential harms of video game use & etc in young boys.
I also think he makes some excellent points about how our protective parenting styles and our fear of potential physical harms stunt the normal growths of our kids. We just don’t let our kids play with each other in real life anymore, but play is necessary for the proper development of children. These points seem intuitively correct but he doesn’t supply as much research to back up these claims as he does for the technology side of his thesis. Nevertheless, I suspect he’s right.
I’d like to find a nice summary to save here but I haven’t found a great one yet.
Wick’s review is helpful, but he disagrees with Haidt about the parenting side of the argument. I think Haidt is right though.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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April 23, 2024
Really good stuff here. Especially for parents. It’s given me a lot to think about as the parent of a young child. And that’s despite the fact that I find most of his propositions to be obvious and self evident. Smartphones and social media are doing very weird/bad things to our brains and social interactions. And it’s especially bad for adolescents and younger children. I don’t personally know anyone my age who would disagree with that. But the data to make the case are laid out nicely in this book and solutions for what to do about it sound very reasonable to me.
All parents and gen Z/ younger millennials would get a lot out of this book
All parents and gen Z/ younger millennials would get a lot out of this book
April 24, 2024
Everyone needs to read this book! It’s as important as it is timely. It discusses how we’ve gone from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood and it’s completely rewiring our children’s brains. I appreciated the recent data to indicate what a drastic effect social media has had on young minds. There is lot of hope and a real call to action in this book—I especially liked the evidence-based guidelines for when to get a phone and when to get social media (14 and 16 at the earliest, respectively). Nice to have actual data to guide our decisions with our kids.
April 28, 2024
My hope is that this book is the beginning of a sea change in how we, as a culture, treat social media specifically, and technology more broadly, especially as it relates to children. We are living through a technological revolution, and as we have navigated the last couple of decades, we have inevitably made mistakes.
In The Anxious Generation, professor Haidt makes a two-fold recommendation to attempt to reverse the trend of declining mental health among Western youth. First, kids should be encouraged to play without screens and relatively on their own. Attempting to completely eliminate physical risks from childhood comes with a cost, and learning to play with others with minimal adult intervention is key to childhood development. Second, Haidt recommends restricting private, unrestrained internet access and delaying social media access until at least 16.
I’m not sure what age kids are getting smart phones today, but I suspect it is much too early. Part of the issue is cultural. If all our kids friends have a smartphone, socially it will be challenging for our kids if they don’t. Haidt recommends finding like minded parents and banding together to develop a sub-culture where tech healthy habits like these are common values.
Overall, this was a very good book. I view most of the conclusions and recommendations as common sense, yet counter cultural. I pray that as my daughters move from tots to teens, the overall culture around technology improves, but if not that I have the courage and conviction to stand up for what I believe to be true and ultimately best for my daughters.
In The Anxious Generation, professor Haidt makes a two-fold recommendation to attempt to reverse the trend of declining mental health among Western youth. First, kids should be encouraged to play without screens and relatively on their own. Attempting to completely eliminate physical risks from childhood comes with a cost, and learning to play with others with minimal adult intervention is key to childhood development. Second, Haidt recommends restricting private, unrestrained internet access and delaying social media access until at least 16.
I’m not sure what age kids are getting smart phones today, but I suspect it is much too early. Part of the issue is cultural. If all our kids friends have a smartphone, socially it will be challenging for our kids if they don’t. Haidt recommends finding like minded parents and banding together to develop a sub-culture where tech healthy habits like these are common values.
Overall, this was a very good book. I view most of the conclusions and recommendations as common sense, yet counter cultural. I pray that as my daughters move from tots to teens, the overall culture around technology improves, but if not that I have the courage and conviction to stand up for what I believe to be true and ultimately best for my daughters.
May 3, 2024
I’m always open to hear Haidt’s thoughts and research on social psychology. Much of this wasn’t new for me as a watchful and research-aware parent, but I feel hopeful that having the data gathered into a single book from a respected secular figure will open up the wider conversation in popular culture and create true momentum. I am grateful for books like this that speak directly to the immediate issues of our time with clarity and precision.
March 27, 2024
wow this is excellent and made me want to throw my phone out of a window
I am older Gen Z which I think is an interesting demographic because there is clearly a shift (as Haidt describes) that happens in the early 2010s and my age group experienced both - a childhood largely free of social media / screens and an adolescence / teenage years very heavily influenced by social media
this is I think both meticulous and thorough as well as honest about what it is like to grow up with these technologies and platforms (at least honest to my experiences), I have often found writing about social media and youth mental health to veer into the sanctimonious / defensive and this book avoids it
the example of the girl on the Webkinz - Instagram pipeline really got me
I am going to make all of my friends read this
I am older Gen Z which I think is an interesting demographic because there is clearly a shift (as Haidt describes) that happens in the early 2010s and my age group experienced both - a childhood largely free of social media / screens and an adolescence / teenage years very heavily influenced by social media
this is I think both meticulous and thorough as well as honest about what it is like to grow up with these technologies and platforms (at least honest to my experiences), I have often found writing about social media and youth mental health to veer into the sanctimonious / defensive and this book avoids it
the example of the girl on the Webkinz - Instagram pipeline really got me
I am going to make all of my friends read this
April 19, 2024
Really compelling and now impossible to ignore. The question has moved from is there causation between smart phones/social media and bad mental health outcomes for kids/teenagers to what are we actually going to do to fix this. While Haidt often gets called a “doomer” over this topic, if the data backs up his conclusions and no one has been able to give a better answer, is he not an alarm-ringer rather than an alarmist (to quote an interview of Haidt)? He makes his point succinctly and elegantly in part one, covers the effects of a loss of play-based childhood/social media as applied to both girls and boys in parts 2 & 3, and then gives realistic, practical solutions to the problems in part 4. A really great deep dive into the topic and well-written and well-researched as usual. As an older-Gen Z, I could definitely find myself relating to some parts as well as seeing how it has affected those around me. I have certainly changed habits based on this read.
March 25, 2024
I am familiar with the author from his previous book "The Righteous Mind," which revolutionized my understanding of meta-ethics and political psychology. I was aware that in the past few years he had been an important advocate for mutual respect and spirited discussion in a polarized political climate. So when I saw his new work on the shelf I was eager to read it. I ended up finishing the book in less than a day; it is extremely well written, chock full of information (this is unlike most books on current events which are better off as an article), humble in its prescriptions, and most of all, extremely important both for those of us with kids but also the general public. You need only have spent hours on Twitter despite your best intentions to realize the power of our new social media. Haidt shows how especially corrosive this technology is to developing brains. He makes what I think is an airtight case for a CAUSAL connection between smartphone usage and rising mental health issues, particularly in females, and proposes several suggestions for reform. Highly recommended.
April 27, 2024
REQUIRED READING.
Read
April 18, 2024Having read The Coddling of the American Mind and listened to a podcast about The Anxious Generation, I feel like I got the gist prior to reading this book, but I read it anyways. It mostly confirms what I already believe about phones and social media, but I’m thankful that he is an advocate for kids in this area. He provides helpful structure to parents wanting to make a change. His chapter on spirituality was frustrating because it appears he wants the benefits of God without acknowledging God, but that’s my only major critique of his book.
April 28, 2024
To the surprise of no one, Haidt masterfully crafted another book addressing dominant issues related to modern technology and teens (though one would do well to implement the advice regardless of age). Technology benefits society in many ways; yet more and more we see the detrimental impacts on people and society. Aside from presenting compelling research through an accessible and engaging narrative, the book also provides clear steps applicable at micro and macro levels. A must read for anyone who has or wants children… and anyone who has a brain.
April 7, 2024
My criteria for giving a book a 5 star rating is that is has to have changed me in some way. This book did. I have an intellectual crush on Jonathon Haidt and if he writes it I read it. Although the book is data heavy and even a little cumbersome at times, it’s worth getting through. Everyone should probably read this book, especially if you are a parent. I wish this book had existed 10 years ago. I would have done many things differently. My poor little 17 year old daughter is going to be the reluctant beneficiary of the knowledge and insights gained from this book. Everyone pray for her.
March 31, 2024
Maybe the most important book I’ve read in the past six months. Evidence-based analysis of the mistakes we’ve made with technology and over protection in the real world during adolescence with practical suggestions on how to improve. A must read for parents, teachers or anyone concerned with our youth.
April 4, 2024
This might be the most important thing you read today (or maybe not, but make that judgment after you read this). Take a second to slow down and consider what I'm about to say: your phone and social media accounts are hurting you and your loved ones. No need to panic or point fingers of blame; we're all in the same boat. But it's time to row this boat safely to shore and re-examine what went wrong and what needs to be done to fix it.
TL;DR: "The Anxious Generation" is a sobering autopsy of an ongoing problem. In it, Dr. Jon Haidt states that phones and social media are "a cause of anxiety, depression, and other ailments; not just a correlate." He then tells us--in detail--what happened to the rising generation, why, and how to fix it. This book is academic in its rigor, but not its style. (If you, like me, want to dive into the statistics behind his conclusions, he provides pages of them in the appendix and in online supplements.) He also lays out four new norms that we can adopt as a society to solve the collective action problem:
1. No smartphones before high school
2. No social media before 16
3. Phone-free schools
4. More independence, free play, and responsibility for children in the real world
This is not just a book for good parenting. It is a treasure for everyone older than 16--worldwide.
--------------------------------------------
I won't rehash the substance of Dr. Haidt's book here except to say that I almost unreservedly endorse it (I have some minor quibbles not worth mentioning here). We must undo the end of the play-based childhood its migration to a phone-based childhood. Putting screens in front of our children (and ourselves) has catastrophically weakened us. While describing the effects of social media and phones on girls, Dr. Haidt writes, "girls who use social media are three times more likely to suffer from depression than those who do not." The effects are not limited to females, either. Young men are less likely to suffer from addiction to social media, but more likely to become addicted to video games and pornography. Both sexes experienced steep climbs in mental illness (bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, etc.) after the dawn of social media and smartphones, regardless of race, education, socioeconomic status, or nationality. It is a universal problem.
Universal problems like this are called "collective action problems." Nobody is likely to act unless everybody acts. Dr. Haidt alleviates this problem by suggesting several fixes that the government, schools, and parents can implement. (Once again, this book is not just for parents. You should read it regardless of your marital, parental, or societal roles.)
To learn more about the book, order a copy, or join the movement, go here: https://www.anxiousgeneration.com
If you're a parent or adult who wants to get involved in resurrecting the play-based childhood, go here: https://letgrow.org
TL;DR: "The Anxious Generation" is a sobering autopsy of an ongoing problem. In it, Dr. Jon Haidt states that phones and social media are "a cause of anxiety, depression, and other ailments; not just a correlate." He then tells us--in detail--what happened to the rising generation, why, and how to fix it. This book is academic in its rigor, but not its style. (If you, like me, want to dive into the statistics behind his conclusions, he provides pages of them in the appendix and in online supplements.) He also lays out four new norms that we can adopt as a society to solve the collective action problem:
1. No smartphones before high school
2. No social media before 16
3. Phone-free schools
4. More independence, free play, and responsibility for children in the real world
This is not just a book for good parenting. It is a treasure for everyone older than 16--worldwide.
--------------------------------------------
I won't rehash the substance of Dr. Haidt's book here except to say that I almost unreservedly endorse it (I have some minor quibbles not worth mentioning here). We must undo the end of the play-based childhood its migration to a phone-based childhood. Putting screens in front of our children (and ourselves) has catastrophically weakened us. While describing the effects of social media and phones on girls, Dr. Haidt writes, "girls who use social media are three times more likely to suffer from depression than those who do not." The effects are not limited to females, either. Young men are less likely to suffer from addiction to social media, but more likely to become addicted to video games and pornography. Both sexes experienced steep climbs in mental illness (bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, etc.) after the dawn of social media and smartphones, regardless of race, education, socioeconomic status, or nationality. It is a universal problem.
Universal problems like this are called "collective action problems." Nobody is likely to act unless everybody acts. Dr. Haidt alleviates this problem by suggesting several fixes that the government, schools, and parents can implement. (Once again, this book is not just for parents. You should read it regardless of your marital, parental, or societal roles.)
To learn more about the book, order a copy, or join the movement, go here: https://www.anxiousgeneration.com
If you're a parent or adult who wants to get involved in resurrecting the play-based childhood, go here: https://letgrow.org
April 16, 2024
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (2024) by Jonthan Haidt is a book that every parent should read. Haidt is a professor of psychology at NYU.
There is an interesting and somewhat confrontational interview with Haidt on the Conversations with Tyler podcast.
The book’s thesis is that the rapid rise in mental illness that has been seen in most of the Anglosphere and Scandinavia and particularly in the US is substantially caused by the increase in screen time for kids and in particular by smartphones and girls using social media. The mental health of boys is also being impacted by more by playing games too much.
Haidt makes his case pretty well. It is just too big a coincidence that just as smartphones and social media appear so do rates of mental illness. It could be causation, but it’s pretty unlikely. There is something interesting in that smartphones have affected kids in the Anglosphere and Scandinavia more than in other countries. Perhaps social and family ties have been better maintained in other countries.
The book makes pretty strong recommendations about how kids need more free play without adult supervision and how screen time should be limited and kids shouldn’t have accounts on social media until they are 16. Schools should also have phones locked away for the duration of the day. Where I live in Australia this has just become the policy.
The Anxious Generation is definitely worth a read for anyone with kids. The impact of screens on adults is probably the next thing that is worth writing about. That might be Haidt’s next book. Of course, the impact of screens should only be explored after I’ve finished writing this review and you’ve finished reading it.
There is an interesting and somewhat confrontational interview with Haidt on the Conversations with Tyler podcast.
The book’s thesis is that the rapid rise in mental illness that has been seen in most of the Anglosphere and Scandinavia and particularly in the US is substantially caused by the increase in screen time for kids and in particular by smartphones and girls using social media. The mental health of boys is also being impacted by more by playing games too much.
Haidt makes his case pretty well. It is just too big a coincidence that just as smartphones and social media appear so do rates of mental illness. It could be causation, but it’s pretty unlikely. There is something interesting in that smartphones have affected kids in the Anglosphere and Scandinavia more than in other countries. Perhaps social and family ties have been better maintained in other countries.
The book makes pretty strong recommendations about how kids need more free play without adult supervision and how screen time should be limited and kids shouldn’t have accounts on social media until they are 16. Schools should also have phones locked away for the duration of the day. Where I live in Australia this has just become the policy.
The Anxious Generation is definitely worth a read for anyone with kids. The impact of screens on adults is probably the next thing that is worth writing about. That might be Haidt’s next book. Of course, the impact of screens should only be explored after I’ve finished writing this review and you’ve finished reading it.
April 24, 2024
An excellent book from one of the US’s most important thinkers. Any parent, educator, or leader would do well to read. I did find some of his occasional positive remarks regarding pornography, psychedelic drugs, and progressive ideologies regarding gender to be naive and misguided. However, they are not central to the substance of the book. Highly recommend!
May 5, 2024
Rainn Wilson tweeted a selfie with this book urging all parents (and GenZers) to read this book - I’ll add educators to the audience. Loaded with research and exhaustive data, this analysis of the “great rewiring” as cause for negative impact on the mental health of today’s adolescents provides profound insights and a clear call to action. Very strongly recommend giving it your time.
April 10, 2024
Thought-provoking. Many of the ideas presented could have a large impact on our kids and communities. I wish this book could spark change or at least conversations locally, if not on a larger scale.
His basic suggestions:
1) No smartphones before high school (cost of time spent on devices vs. real world)
2) No social media before age 16
3) Strict phone free schools (not just "no phone use during class")
4) More unstructured or unsupervised play and childhood independence (give kids opportunities to gain confidence and social experience)
My mind is stuck on the idea that parents have made things too safe overall in the real world, while allowing the internet to be the wild west.
If you have kids under 18, may have kids someday, or are just curious about the probable impact of less free play/independence and more screens (particularly smart phones and social media) on kids, this book is worth a read. If reading it is too much to ask, consider listening to one of the many podcasts featuring the author talking about the ideas in this book.
His basic suggestions:
1) No smartphones before high school (cost of time spent on devices vs. real world)
2) No social media before age 16
3) Strict phone free schools (not just "no phone use during class")
4) More unstructured or unsupervised play and childhood independence (give kids opportunities to gain confidence and social experience)
My mind is stuck on the idea that parents have made things too safe overall in the real world, while allowing the internet to be the wild west.
If you have kids under 18, may have kids someday, or are just curious about the probable impact of less free play/independence and more screens (particularly smart phones and social media) on kids, this book is worth a read. If reading it is too much to ask, consider listening to one of the many podcasts featuring the author talking about the ideas in this book.
April 2, 2024
Clear, persuasive, and substantive. Jonathan Haidt is one of the best writers on the impact of the “phone-based childhood” today. His recommendations are pragmatic.
1. No smart phones until age 13.
2. No social media before 16.
3. No phones in school.
4. Increase unstructured playtime.
Everyone should read this book, regardless of your opinion of your opinion of smart phones / social media and children. If you disagree, at least you’ll understand the strongest arguments on the other side.
While he focuses on children, I found myself wanting to implement these recommendations in my life. I sometimes wonder the degree to which I still exercise free will when it comes to smart phones and some other technology (though I have placed barriers to my use of social media to limit its effect on me).
One phrase that I kept thinking about from the book (quoting another researcher), “Addiction is the wearing of a path smooth in the brain..”
1. No smart phones until age 13.
2. No social media before 16.
3. No phones in school.
4. Increase unstructured playtime.
Everyone should read this book, regardless of your opinion of your opinion of smart phones / social media and children. If you disagree, at least you’ll understand the strongest arguments on the other side.
While he focuses on children, I found myself wanting to implement these recommendations in my life. I sometimes wonder the degree to which I still exercise free will when it comes to smart phones and some other technology (though I have placed barriers to my use of social media to limit its effect on me).
One phrase that I kept thinking about from the book (quoting another researcher), “Addiction is the wearing of a path smooth in the brain..”
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