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

 

The Anxious Generation: A #1 New York Times Bestseller

A must-read for parents: an in-depth investigation into the decline of youth mental health in the age of smartphones, social media, and big tech. Discover a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“Erudite, engaging, combative, crusading.” —New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

“Words that chill the parental heart… thanks to Mr. Haidt, we can glimpse the true horror of what happened not only in the U.S. but also elsewhere in the English-speaking world… lucid, memorable… galvanizing.” —Wall Street Journal

“[An] important new book... The shift in kids’ energy and attention from the physical world to the virtual one, Haidt shows, has been catastrophic, especially for girls.” —Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times

In the early 2010s, adolescent mental health saw a dramatic decline after years of stability or improvement. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide surged. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt presents the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness affecting multiple countries. He explores the essential need for play and independent exploration in childhood, necessary for developing competent and thriving adults. Haidt details how the "play-based childhood" began to decline in the 1980s, leading to the "phone-based childhood" of the early 2010s. He identifies over a dozen mechanisms by which this shift has disrupted children's social and neurological development, including sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. Haidt highlights the greater impact of social media on girls and the retreat of boys into the virtual world, with severe consequences for individuals and society.

Haidt’s call to action includes diagnosing the “collective action problems” and proposing four simple rules to break free. He outlines practical steps for parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments to end the mental health crisis and restore a more humane childhood.

Drawing from his extensive experience in polarized communities and campuses, Haidt presents data-backed truths on the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. Protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life is imperative.