About:
The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt addresses the mental health decline in Gen Z and Millennials since 2010 all over the world where cellphones were introduced. Mr. Haidt is a social psychologist, author and university professor.
- 400 pages
- Publisher : Penguin Press
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0593655036
My rating for The Anxious Generation – 5
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More books by Jonathan Haidt*
Thoughts:
I wish I read this book 15 years ago. Even though we gave our kids cellphones relatively late, and we are very proud of how they grew up, we could have used the information in it and fought a good fight against thousands of engineers vying for their attention and focus.
The book has two main points it’s trying to take, which the author calls the “Great Rewiring”. The first point is that we don’t protect our children enough in the virtual world, the second one is that we protect them too much in the real world.
Many parents have seen how smartphones and social media has been affecting teenagers. They become addicted, uninterested, lack sleep, unable to focus, anxious and depressed. Protecting them, even for IT professionals, is an impossible task to do alone without backing from government and/or technology companies.
On the other hand, kids’ freedom in the real-world also comes with challenges to adults. A litigious society is certainly one, but also urban planning prioritizing cars of society, and the feeling that if you’re not putting a layer of bubble wrap around your kid you’re a “band parent”
The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt is not an opinion piece, mainly. The author uses extensive studies to show the decline in youth mental health that aligns perfectly with the use of smartphones and social media. While the crisis mainly affected girls, boys are also in crisis but in different ways.
Mr. Haidt doesn’t just talk about the problems; he proposes recommendations for both parents as well as legislators to implement in the future. In fact, as I was reading this book Australia implemented one of his suggestions by restricting social-media use to persons below16, and Israel banned cell phones in elementary schools.
This is a well written, data-driven book which keeps its narrative simple so even a schmo like me is able to understand it. The author frames this issue as technology driven public health emergency and I happen to agree, and for the record, have thought this to be the case before reading this book.
Buy The Anxious Generation from Amazon.com*
More books by Jonathan Haidt*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I bought this book
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