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

Author:
Jonathan Haidt
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Ratings
Book
70
Narrator
24
Release Date
March 26, 2024
Duration
10 hours 32 minutes
Summary
THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of 2024 • A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book • One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2024 • A TIME 100 Must-Read Book of 2024 • Named a Best Book of 2024 by the Economist, the New York Post, and Town & Country • The Goodreads Choice Award Nonfiction Book of the Year • Finalist for the PEN Literary Awards

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, 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.
Reviews
Profile Avatar Anonymous May 2024

Amazingly researched and presented data! This book needs to be read by anyone and everyone to help push for positive change for humanity. This book clearly identifies one of the biggest issues society, particularly western society, is facing. Hollywood and fiction writers have had much success in portraying "A Zombie Apocalypse's" of a human created, world/human ending nature, yet humans are literally living a zombie like world, constantly 'connected' and blissfully unaware of the destruction this is causing not only to the planet as a whole, but to every individuals health and well being. Its time to unplug, wake up and literally smell the roses, get back to the basics of living in harmony with nature, instead of becoming a Cybernetic organism or Bot.

Profile Avatar Jack B. Jun 2024

Absolute must read for parents with children 18 and under. A slap in the face about how we’re abusing our own children.

Profile Avatar Diane L. Mar 2025

Thought provoking and action oriented

Profile Avatar ShariJC Mar 2025

Every parent should read this and help our children and the future generations

Profile Avatar Lupi M. Jan 2025

Such great information for everyone! I purchased hard copy books for all my family.

Profile Avatar Anonymous Nov 2024

Not only for parents or teens, I used to be an influencer, also, a social media addict, I was cyber-bullied and publicly shamed, even having my family by my side I felt like my like at that moment was over. At almost 40 years old I found myself reflected in every single part of the book, all my struggles and how I put on the side dish my real life without knowing it, also made me understand the hard mental process I had leaving it was something not only happened to me; very enlightening and accurate, I’d absolutely recommend it

Profile Avatar Olivia H. Sep 2024

As a School Counselor, I am very interested in how to reduce anxiety and what has been causing such high rates of anxiety. This book addressed both concerns of mine and gave me hope that the answers to improving youth mental health do not cost a large sum of money and are not unrealistic time suckers either. I strongly recommend this resource to any parents who have concerns with their children being addicted to their smart phones. It is a must read. It provides tangible things you can do today to improve your child's mental health and what can be done as a community to set new healthier standards for what the new normal should be.

Profile Avatar Anonymous Jul 2024

Great research and sensible solutions.

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

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

Author: Jonathan Haidt
Read by: Jonathan Haidt
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