generation of anxiety

Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt has spent his career speaking truth and wisdom in some of the most difficult environments—politically and religiously polarized communities, universities grappling with cultural conflicts, and now the mental health crisis afflicting adolescents today in many countries around the world.

In Generation Anxiety, Haidt shows how childhood and adolescence were reprogrammed between 2010 and 2015. As teens replaced their traditional phones with smartphones loaded with social media apps, their internet time increased dramatically, including the time spent comparing themselves to a large group of others. Teens' time spent connecting face-to-face with friends and family declined, and so did their mental health. But this isn't just a story about technology; this profound transformation occurred against a backdrop of diminishing childhood freedom and free play, with parents overly supervising every aspect of their children's offline lives, depriving them of the experiences they desperately needed to grow into strong, self-sufficient adults. In this book, Haidt makes a compelling case that the loss of a playful childhood and its replacement with a phone-based one unsuited for human development is the source of the increase in psychological distress among teens. The Anxious Generation delves into the latest psychological and biological research to demonstrate the four fundamental ways that a phone-based childhood disrupts development—sleep deprivation, social deprivation, cognitive fragmentation, and addiction. Haidt provides in-depth, separate analyses of what happened to girls and what happened to boys, offering practical advice for parents, schools, governments, and teens themselves. Drawing on ancient wisdom and cutting-edge research, this eye-opening book is both a lifeline and a powerful call to arms.