Anxious Generation

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt:

Jonathan Haidt argues that beginning around 2010, the rapid rise of smartphones and social media coupled with overprotective parenting radically altered childhood—creating a “phone‑based” generation in place of a once more resilient, play‑based one. According to global data, rates of adolescent anxiety, depression, self‑harm, and suicide sharply increased in parallel with that shift—especially among teenage girls. He identifies four foundational harms caused by this rewiring: social isolation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction, all eroding emotional development and resilience. Predicting that over‑parenting (“safetyism”) also stunts growth by denying children necessary risk and independence, Haidt ties emotional fragility to declining opportunities for unsupervised play and peer interaction. Finally, Haidt offers a roadmap of collective actions—for parents, schools, tech companies, and governments—including delaying smartphone and social media access until teenage years, expanding recess, banning phones in school, and empowering unstructured play to reclaim a healthier, more connected childhood.