The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness – Haidt Jonathan (2024)

This English-language book examines the sharp deterioration in adolescent mental health that began in many countries in the early 2010s after more than a decade of stability or improvement. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks why rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide have risen so steeply, arguing that the decline of free play in childhood and the rise of smartphone use among adolescents are the two main sources of increasing mental distress. Drawing on recent psychological and biological research, he describes how childhood and adolescence were rewired between 2010 and 2015, as teenagers replaced flip phones with smartphones and social media, spending more time online and less time face to face with friends and family. He also examines the parallel loss of childhood freedom, as parents increasingly supervised their children’s offline lives and deprived them of experiences needed to become strong, self-governing adults. The book explores how this shift from free play to smartphones disrupts development through sleep deprivation, addiction, and other effects, with separate analyses of its impact on girls and boys. Combining ancient wisdom with current science, it offers practical advice for parents, schools, governments, and teenagers themselves.