Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Non Fiction Winner



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

A must-read for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.” —Shannon Carlin, ,i>TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

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.

It stayed!! :)

HURRAH!

I'm hoping to join this discussion this month, but it depends when I can get the book. There was a surprisingly long hold on it through my library. I placed the hold December 5th and my library estimates it will be another 6 weeks. I'm hopeful that it may become available sooner.

My hold now says it will be available in about 5 weeks. Looking at my last update, it seems it is moving slower than expected. I'm still semi-hopeful though. I did go from #248 on the waitlist to #80, so I guess at least there's progress.

Is anyone else reading this one? Or planning to read it? I'm really curious to see what other people think of it.

Kristie, I am interested in it. I see my library does have 1 copy. With my library Libby accounts, noticed my wait is about the same 5 weeks, book or audio. I may get a copy from my library, but not sure I will be able to finish it in 2 weeks. It does seem like an interesting read and so many young people being affected.

I agree, Kristine. I think it sounds really interesting. Even if I am able to get a copy before the end of the month, which seems unlikely right now, I won't be able to read it that quickly either. I am hoping for March right now.