Book review: The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt
A young person, a parent and a psychotherapist give their views on Jonathan Haidt's book 'The Anxious Generation', subtitled 'How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental illness.''
A parent's view
As a parent of post-teens, I have witnessed firsthand how the rise of smartphones and social media has deeply affected the mental health of children and young people.
For the past 13 years, I have also been a director of two community interest companies: PACT, which supports parents and carers in Suffolk who care for a child or young person experiencing mental health issues, and Define Fine for parents of children experiencing school attendance issues.
I’ve supported those who have seen their once confident and social children become increasingly anxious, overwhelmed and emotionally distant. What started as harmless screen time became endless scrolling, self-comparison and withdrawal from real-life interactions. Research, like that presented in Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation, confirms what many parents like me have painfully realised—our children’s mental wellbeing has been eroded by a digital world designed to keep them hooked.
Complete change of opinion
The alarming rise in anxiety, depression and social disconnection among young people is not just a statistic; it’s a reality many families are struggling with. As parents, we can no longer afford to ignore the impact of unrestricted digital exposure. It is our responsibility to understand the research (and there is much of it), set boundaries, and push for societal changes that prioritise our children’s mental health over corporate profits and digital addiction.
When I purchased this book, I believed I would enjoy it, learn something new and hopefully find some resources or ideas to share with the families we support, which I most certainly have. But what I didn’t expect was to have my core opinion on social media and access to smartphones completely reversed.
'Gen X guinea pigs'!
Being classic ‘Gen X’ parents, we found ourselves the guinea pigs raising our children in the period which is highlighted throughout the book (from the early 2010s onwards) when young people’s mental health outcomes changed drastically. I wanted to believe that the positive aspects of having access to the online world far outweighed the negatives.
However, having read this book it seems obvious that the combination of increasingly overprotective behaviour by parents since the 1970s and under-protection in the virtual world has hampered children’s development in many ways. It has evolved into being less based on play and face-to-face interaction, and more on fulfilling needs via different routes in a virtual world.
To be fair, we weren’t as aware of the risks 10 years ago as we are today, but the research is stark and Haidt makes his case in an easy to read and digest style which leaves no room for doubt.
Actionable steps
There are clear, actionable steps proposed by Haidt, including a delay in smartphone ownership which sees ‘different stages for different ages’, a reduction in time spent accessing social media, and implementation of phone-free zones (particularly in schools to encourage more time for active socialising and development). He also suggests a return to more unsupervised play time, to enable growth and learning from real life interaction, problem solving and risk taking.
I would recommend this book (also available on Audible) to any parent, teacher, youth club leader or anyone with an interest in the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people.
Bec Jasper, Charlie Waller Parent Carer Peer Support (PCPS) Lived Experience Partner, and Co-Founder, PACT
A young person's view
The Anxious Generation opens our eyes to the dangers of the ever-expanding digital world, highlighting the risks of social media use for children and young people, and its links to a range of mental health issues.
Throughout the book, the writer builds and presents a compelling evidence base, demonstrating the links between excessive social media use and mental health issues like depression and anxiety. Haidt writes in a highly persuasive way, drawing on empirical evidence, case studies, reports and analysis, presented in an accessible and easy-to-read manner.
A significant premise of the book reveals that since the early 2010s, we have been facing the ‘great rewiring’ of childhood. This shift has been fuelled and aided by the increase in social media use and technology which have hooked and exploited children during critical developmental stages.
Overprotection and underprotection
Haidt emphasises that overprotection in the real world and under-protection in the digital world is why children born after 2005 are termed ‘the Anxious Generation’. He argues we have moved away from a play-based childhood and that this has proven disastrous – the writer argues children need opportunities to play, to make mistakes freely, and be exposed to risk and stressors to build resilience. This loss of synchronous, real-world interactions is why children and young people are struggling, and the book demonstrates how this is reflected globally.
A striking revelation in the book particularly relates to the vulnerability of girls, who are seen to be disproportionally impacted by mental health challenges in recent years – facing additional pressures online with perfectionism and comparison, bullying and even predation. As a young woman who was a child in the era of the ‘great rewiring’, much of this resonates with my own experiences. Simultaneously, the book highlights the impact on young men becoming disconnected from the world and ‘falling behind’ – socially and intellectually.
Call to action
This book serves as a call to action for parents, carers, educators and even policy makers, with a section of the book dedicated to ‘Collective Action For Healthier Childhood’, featuring chapters dedicated to action points for schools, governments and parents.
Throughout the piece, the writer nurtures a space for us to reflect on the current discourse surrounding social media, to examine the evidence and consider the impact of its use on our lives. This offers key recommendations and a roadmap for us to follow to create change for young people – which includes calls for phone-free schools, unsupervised social media use, all to protect the wellbeing of young people.
Overall, Haidt provides an enlightening and captivating account of the drastic and dangerous impacts of social media on children and young people. The book is informative yet empathetic on the challenges and societal barriers young people face, and the tone of the book offers a sense of urgency and concern. This is reinforced by gripping calls to action for parents and carers to consider and enact in our day-to-day engagement with children and young people.
Fatima Ishaq, Charlie Waller youth ambassador
A clinician’s view
Jonathan Haidt argues that social media algorithms and constant smartphone usage are having negative mental and emotional impacts on young people. I was excited to read this book as I personally agree strongly with this, and it promised to back up the arguments with sound evidence. It argues that children growing up in the second decade of the 21st century have been experiencing a phone-based childhood rather than a play-based childhood; that they have been under-protected by parents and carers in the virtual world and overprotected in the real world, leading to a generational mental health crisis.
The author describes what children need to do in childhood, how a phone-based childhood causes harm, and the need for a collective action for a healthier childhood.
Personal anecdotes
I found the style a bit alien. As a clinical academic it did not read as a textbook as it is quite ‘chatty’ and contains lots of personal anecdotes mixed in with tables and graphs. It is easy to read but information is repeated a great deal which I found a bit tedious. The introduction explains how the book is set out which is helpful but feels like you are in for a long haul. The author claims that what you do is more important than what you say, but then admits he does not follow his own advice in practice.
More evidence could have been presented about enabling access to technology, devices and services, the age limits imposed on these products by third parties, and the lack of parental control. There is little space given to transgender people and the author’s claims regarding this group are not backed by reputable evidence. Also, this group was not included in the author’s interviews.
Some of the studies referenced in the book were a bit old. The research cited is mainly correlational, i.e. data has been gathered from natural settings to find out if there is an association between two variables, but a causal relationship is not proved.
Common sense solutions
Is the book useful for parents, carers and others concerned about children's anxiety? Yes, it could be. It was cheap to buy on Amazon, I paid £5.49 for my copy. The solutions offered by the author are good (though common sense): no social media or smartphones before age 16, phone-free schools, engage more in shared sacredness and self-transcendence, be slow to anger and quick to forgive, and find awe in nature.
Parents merely wanting some guidance on what limits to set with their child’s tech use might find this book burdensome. I wondered whether they could get to the main points by looking up the author on YouTube and listening to some of his interviews, but most of these are quite long too. It would be helpful to have a short, easy to read, user friendly version for busy people who might not find the thought of reading a nearly 400-page book appealing.
Coming from a primary care background, I questioned whether this book may help clinicians working there; but unless someone can condense the main points into an A4 document, I think it is unlikely!
Dr Sheila Hardy, Charlie Waller Educator for Nurses and Allied Healthcare Professionals
