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The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
Author: Jonathan Haidt
ISBN: 9780593655030
APA Style Citation
Haidt, J. (2024). The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Penguin Press.
Buy this Book
https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036
Book Description
Jonathan Haidt makes a case that changes in childhood since the early 2000s are creating a generation of children who are not able to disconnect and not able to engage in an authentic and carefree childhood, which in turn is causing increases in disorders such as depression and anxiety. Haidt cites overprotective and overburdened parents as co-collaborators in this phenomenon. For those who are overprotective, they plan their children to the minute and track their every move on their devices. Haidt contends that children are so overscheduled that they are losing the ability to think creatively and take risks as children many generations ago did. The overburdened parent is one who may be overdependent on giving their child access to devices because it occupies them and keeps them busy without taking too much of the parent’s attention. Haidt also indicates that parents are missing out on many important events in their children’s lives because the parents are so engrossed by their cell phones. They are together without communicating or making connections.
Haidt explores the increases in teens mental health issues, such as dramatic increases in anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation or actual suicide attempts. As indicated in the charts above, these increases are most prevalent in 18-25-year-olds. By 2021, rates of anxiety and depression were reported at 150% of the 2011 numbers. These increases are well documented, and there may be multiple factors for the increase, including that the stigma around mental illness has been reduced by increasing levels of reporting. Dramatic increases also occurred during and shortly after the COVID pandemic and are slowly decreasing but have yet to return to pre-2011 rates. Haidt contends that these issues are not simply correlational with cell phone usage but are, in fact, caused by this increase in personal devices.
Haidt believes that cell phones have sucked interpersonal relationships dry and that one of the reasons children feel lonelier is that they are connecting less in real-life encounters. Even if teens are connecting on social media, it is often to portray a life that is scrubbed, filtered, and devoid of any real personal connection. Even during the school day students are often together without communicating with one another. In addition to limiting personal real-life relationships, Haidt notes that cell phones are causing sleep deprivation, which is documented for causing emotional dysregulation. The constant barrage of incoming information on cell phones has created a fragmentation of attention and impacted the ability to focus for extended time or to persevere at challenging tasks. Teens report spending between 3 and 8 hours each day on their personal devices, and Haidt contends this is taking away from the interpersonal connections that filled this time in the pre-cell phone era. Haidt proposes that social media companies are winning the battle for children’s attention and are finding new ways to monetize this while taking little accountability for the havoc this is causing. Haidt believes that parents and schools should be working together to significantly decrease middle and high-schoolers screen time.
Haidt makes a case for more free-play that is self-directed without parental involvement and that is self-selected. He contends that this interaction with peers helps children to regulate their emotions, take reasonable risks, learn the tools of cooperation with others, and to learn to deal with low-stakes failures. Haidt believes that children learn best when they learn from one another, they learn turn-taking and social norms, they begin to understand reciprocity in relationships, and they see the benefits of belonging and interacting in a group setting without adults setting parameters or determining the activities in which the children will engage. Haidt believes that these interactions give children a sense of agency and self-sufficiency, which can improve mental health and reported feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Haidt has deeply considered how to return to free-play and cell-free areas despite the prominence and accessibility of phones in nearly all areas. He calls on schools to ban cell phone use during the day (not just during academic classes) by placing cell phones in lockers or locked bags. He also calls on parents to restrict cell phone use at home, especially in the evening when cell phone use may inhibit good sleep. He challenges parents to hold off as long as possible in purchasing the first cell phone for their children. Haidt’s recommendation is to wait until high school for a simple flip phone. Even after young people have phones, he advocates that they not have access to social media until their mid-teens (age 16). He believes that this can be accomplished by teachers and parents working together to reduce the expectation that when a child turns 10, they must have a cell phone with internet access. Additionally, Haidt expresses the need to pressure tech companies to increase their enforcement of age limits on certain internet sites. Haidt speaks to the numerous young to mid adolescents using social media sites without oversight and porn sites, which claim to place age limits on access but do little to enforce this.
In response to those who claim that it is too late to return to a time when teenagers do not have continual access to the Internet and social media sites, Haidt acknowledges that this will be a challenging move but points to the many schools and parent groups that are trying to work together to reclaim children’s childhood and personal connections. The resources below reflect some of these efforts.
Resources
The Anxious Generation Resource Library
https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/resources
NPR Clip
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/18/1196979740/nprs-book-of-the-day-anxious-generation-kids-internet
Axios States of State cell phone bans
Map of Cell Phone Ban policies
Pew Research Center
Most Americans Back Cellphone Bans During Class, but Fewer Support All-Day Restrictions
Johns Hopkins University
What’s Behind the Ban on Cell Phones in K-12 Schools?
K-12 Dive
Parents Push Back on School Cellphone Bans
Washington Post
Cellphone Bans Spread in Schools Amid Growing Mental Health Worries
Psychological Concepts and Figures
Bibb Latane and John Darley
Konrad Lorenz
Edward Thorndike
ADHD
Anxiety
Basal ganglia
Critical periods
Depression
Internalizing disorders
Loss aversion
Mental health
Phobias
Puzzle boxes
Self-harm
Stress
Tourette’s syndrome
Variable reinforcement
Author: Jonathan Haidt
ISBN: 9780593655030
APA Style Citation
Haidt, J. (2024). The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Penguin Press.
Buy this Book
https://www.amazon.com/Anxious-Generation-Rewiring-Childhood-Epidemic/dp/0593655036
Book Description
Jonathan Haidt makes a case that changes in childhood since the early 2000s are creating a generation of children who are not able to disconnect and not able to engage in an authentic and carefree childhood, which in turn is causing increases in disorders such as depression and anxiety. Haidt cites overprotective and overburdened parents as co-collaborators in this phenomenon. For those who are overprotective, they plan their children to the minute and track their every move on their devices. Haidt contends that children are so overscheduled that they are losing the ability to think creatively and take risks as children many generations ago did. The overburdened parent is one who may be overdependent on giving their child access to devices because it occupies them and keeps them busy without taking too much of the parent’s attention. Haidt also indicates that parents are missing out on many important events in their children’s lives because the parents are so engrossed by their cell phones. They are together without communicating or making connections.
Haidt explores the increases in teens mental health issues, such as dramatic increases in anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation or actual suicide attempts. As indicated in the charts above, these increases are most prevalent in 18-25-year-olds. By 2021, rates of anxiety and depression were reported at 150% of the 2011 numbers. These increases are well documented, and there may be multiple factors for the increase, including that the stigma around mental illness has been reduced by increasing levels of reporting. Dramatic increases also occurred during and shortly after the COVID pandemic and are slowly decreasing but have yet to return to pre-2011 rates. Haidt contends that these issues are not simply correlational with cell phone usage but are, in fact, caused by this increase in personal devices.
Haidt believes that cell phones have sucked interpersonal relationships dry and that one of the reasons children feel lonelier is that they are connecting less in real-life encounters. Even if teens are connecting on social media, it is often to portray a life that is scrubbed, filtered, and devoid of any real personal connection. Even during the school day students are often together without communicating with one another. In addition to limiting personal real-life relationships, Haidt notes that cell phones are causing sleep deprivation, which is documented for causing emotional dysregulation. The constant barrage of incoming information on cell phones has created a fragmentation of attention and impacted the ability to focus for extended time or to persevere at challenging tasks. Teens report spending between 3 and 8 hours each day on their personal devices, and Haidt contends this is taking away from the interpersonal connections that filled this time in the pre-cell phone era. Haidt proposes that social media companies are winning the battle for children’s attention and are finding new ways to monetize this while taking little accountability for the havoc this is causing. Haidt believes that parents and schools should be working together to significantly decrease middle and high-schoolers screen time.
Haidt makes a case for more free-play that is self-directed without parental involvement and that is self-selected. He contends that this interaction with peers helps children to regulate their emotions, take reasonable risks, learn the tools of cooperation with others, and to learn to deal with low-stakes failures. Haidt believes that children learn best when they learn from one another, they learn turn-taking and social norms, they begin to understand reciprocity in relationships, and they see the benefits of belonging and interacting in a group setting without adults setting parameters or determining the activities in which the children will engage. Haidt believes that these interactions give children a sense of agency and self-sufficiency, which can improve mental health and reported feelings of loneliness and isolation.
Haidt has deeply considered how to return to free-play and cell-free areas despite the prominence and accessibility of phones in nearly all areas. He calls on schools to ban cell phone use during the day (not just during academic classes) by placing cell phones in lockers or locked bags. He also calls on parents to restrict cell phone use at home, especially in the evening when cell phone use may inhibit good sleep. He challenges parents to hold off as long as possible in purchasing the first cell phone for their children. Haidt’s recommendation is to wait until high school for a simple flip phone. Even after young people have phones, he advocates that they not have access to social media until their mid-teens (age 16). He believes that this can be accomplished by teachers and parents working together to reduce the expectation that when a child turns 10, they must have a cell phone with internet access. Additionally, Haidt expresses the need to pressure tech companies to increase their enforcement of age limits on certain internet sites. Haidt speaks to the numerous young to mid adolescents using social media sites without oversight and porn sites, which claim to place age limits on access but do little to enforce this.
In response to those who claim that it is too late to return to a time when teenagers do not have continual access to the Internet and social media sites, Haidt acknowledges that this will be a challenging move but points to the many schools and parent groups that are trying to work together to reclaim children’s childhood and personal connections. The resources below reflect some of these efforts.
Resources
The Anxious Generation Resource Library
https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/resources
NPR Clip
https://www.npr.org/2024/04/18/1196979740/nprs-book-of-the-day-anxious-generation-kids-internet
Axios States of State cell phone bans
Map of Cell Phone Ban policies
Pew Research Center
Most Americans Back Cellphone Bans During Class, but Fewer Support All-Day Restrictions
Johns Hopkins University
What’s Behind the Ban on Cell Phones in K-12 Schools?
K-12 Dive
Parents Push Back on School Cellphone Bans
Washington Post
Cellphone Bans Spread in Schools Amid Growing Mental Health Worries
Psychological Concepts and Figures
Bibb Latane and John Darley
Konrad Lorenz
Edward Thorndike
ADHD
Anxiety
Basal ganglia
Critical periods
Depression
Internalizing disorders
Loss aversion
Mental health
Phobias
Puzzle boxes
Self-harm
Stress
Tourette’s syndrome
Variable reinforcement
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