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

Authors: Jonathan Haidt

Overview

This book investigates the alarming rise of depression, anxiety, and self-harm among young people, a trend I call the mental health crisis. While acknowledging multiple factors, I focus on one major force: the shift from a ‘play-based childhood’ to a ‘phone-based childhood,’ starting in the early 2010s. My central argument is that children are being deprived of the kinds of real-world experiences essential for healthy psychological development, as they spend increasing amounts of time on smartphones and social media. This book is written for parents, educators, policymakers, and anyone concerned about the well-being of young people. It highlights the urgency of the crisis and offers actionable solutions. It’s a call to reclaim childhood for children, and human life for all of us, from the grip of our digital devices. I delve into the evolutionary basis of childhood, emphasizing the importance of free play, social interaction, and risk-taking for developing resilience and social competence. Then I examine the four foundational harms of a phone-based childhood: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. I pay special attention to the unique vulnerabilities of girls in this new environment, highlighting the dangers of social comparison and relational aggression online. I offer a clear-eyed analysis of the ways that the tech industry has exploited human psychology for profit, using behaviorist techniques to create products that are highly addictive, especially for children. The book culminates in a call to action, offering a roadmap for reversing course. I propose specific actions that governments, tech companies, schools, and parents can take to reduce the harms of a phone-based childhood. My recommendations are grounded in scientific research and informed by wisdom from ancient spiritual traditions. The book’s urgency is amplified by the recognition that artificial intelligence, social media, and immersive technologies are likely to make the problem much worse in the coming years, unless we change course.

Book Outline

1. The Surge of Suffering

This chapter presents the concerning surge in rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm among adolescents in the 21st century. These rates rose sharply across many countries, beginning in the early 2010s, affecting Gen Z (those born after 1995) more dramatically than previous generations. This increase in suffering can’t be explained solely by economic or political events. The timing suggests a link to the rise of the ‘phone-based childhood’ that emerged during this period.

Key concept: The rise of mental illness among young people is not primarily due to what’s happening in the outside world; it’s due to changes in childhood itself. We’ve made childhood less playful and more fearful in the real world, while opening up an addictive and harmful virtual world to children at ever-younger ages. In this book, I call these two intersecting trends the ‘Great Rewiring of Childhood’.

2. What Children Need to Do in Childhood

Human children have an extended childhood compared to other primates, which is an evolutionary adaptation for cultural learning. This period is crucial for developing the social, emotional, and cognitive abilities needed to thrive in a complex social world. Childhood is a kind of ‘cultural apprenticeship’ during which children learn from adults and from each other through observation, imitation, and play.

Key concept: Human childhood is unlike that of any other animal. While chimpanzees grow at a steady pace and reach sexual maturity quickly, human children experience a period of slow growth during late childhood, during which their brains are busily making and losing synaptic connections in response to their experiences. This slow-growth childhood is an adaptation for ‘cultural learning’ – it gives children time to learn the accumulated knowledge and skills of their society, preparing them for life as adults.

3. Discover Mode and the Need for Risky Play

Free play is the primary way that children develop the skills they’ll need to navigate the physical and social world. Risky play is essential for developing antifragility, allowing children to test their limits, overcome fears, and become resilient. The modern decline in free play due to ‘safetyism’ and overprotective parenting is harming children by depriving them of crucial learning opportunities.

Key concept: Play is the work of childhood. Through play, children develop social skills, learn to manage risks, and overcome their fears. ‘Risky play’, in particular, which involves a degree of physical danger, is essential for healthy development because it teaches children how to navigate risk and overcome their fear of it, preparing them for the challenges of adult life.

4. Puberty and the Blocked Transition to Adulthood

Puberty is not only a time of major physical changes but also a ‘sensitive period’ for brain development, particularly in areas related to social and emotional processing. This makes adolescents particularly vulnerable to the influence of social media, as their brains are rapidly rewiring in response to social rewards and status cues.

Key concept: Puberty marks a period of accelerated brain rewiring, making this a ‘sensitive period’ for cultural learning. The brain is more malleable during these years, and the experiences adolescents have during this time will have a larger and more lasting effect than experiences they have earlier or later in life.

5. The Four Foundational Harms: Social Deprivation, Sleep Deprivation, Attention Fragmentation, and Addiction

This chapter introduces the four foundational harms of a phone-based childhood: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. It explains that these harms are not limited to heavy users of social media or video games; they are opportunity costs that affect everyone who spends a significant portion of their time on screens.

Key concept: The opportunity cost of a phone-based childhood refers to all of the things that children are missing out on when they spend hours each day on their devices. This includes face-to-face interaction with friends and family, sleep, physical activity, and exposure to the kinds of real-world challenges that their brains need to wire up properly. Smartphones have become ‘experience blockers’ for many children.

6. Why Social Media Harms Girls More Than Boys

This chapter explores the reasons why social media has been particularly harmful to girls, leading to increased rates of anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and self-harm. Girls are more vulnerable to the negative effects of social media because they use it more, they use more visually oriented platforms (like Instagram), and they are more sensitive to social comparison.

Key concept: Social comparison is worse on Instagram, and it focuses more heavily on the body and lifestyle… Girls are also more likely to develop ‘socially prescribed perfectionism,’ in which a person tries to live up to very high expectations prescribed by others, or by society at large.

7. What Is Happening to Boys?

This chapter examines how the Great Rewiring has affected boys differently from girls. While girls’ mental health declined more rapidly, boys’ struggles manifest as a gradual disengagement from the real world and a retreat into the virtual world, particularly through video games and pornography. This has led to a decline in educational outcomes, career success, and overall well-being among boys.

Key concept: Boys have long been more likely to develop ‘internet gaming disorder,’ whereas girls have been more likely to develop ‘social media addiction.’ But while there is abundant evidence showing that social media use is directly harmful to girls, there is less evidence showing that playing video games is directly harmful to boys.

8. Spiritual Elevation and Degradation

Modern life, particularly the phone-based lifestyle, leads to spiritual degradation by undermining traditional spiritual practices that promote well-being and connection. These practices include: shared sacredness, embodiment, stillness, silence, and focus, self-transcendence, being slow to anger and quick to forgive, and finding awe in nature.

Key concept: The struggle between ‘for’ and ‘against’ is the mind’s worst disease.

9. Preparing for Collective Action

Addressing the harms of the phone-based childhood requires collective action. Individuals acting alone are often powerless to change the environment, as the incentives favor the status quo. But by working together, we can change norms, create new tools, and enact laws that will protect children and adolescents, and create a healthier childhood for the next generation.

Key concept: To solve collective action problems, we need collective responses. These can include: voluntary coordination (such as agreements among parents about screen time), social norms and moralization (changing the way society views certain behaviors), technological solutions (such as better age verification tools), and laws and rules (such as government regulations of tech companies or school policies on phone use).

10. What Governments and Tech Companies Can Do Now

The design choices of tech companies are often driven by a ‘race to the bottom of the brainstem’ in which they compete to capture and hold users’ attention. Governments can intervene to protect children by asserting a ‘duty of care’, raising the age of internet adulthood, and facilitating age verification.

Key concept: In an attention economy, there’s only so much attention and the advertising business model always wants more. So, it becomes a race to the bottom of the brainstem… This helped fuel a mental health crisis for teenagers.

11. What Schools Can Do Now

Schools can take immediate steps to improve the mental health and well-being of their students by going completely ‘phone-free’, making more time for unstructured free play (especially outdoors), and creating ‘Play Clubs’ as after-school options where kids can engage in mixed-age, unstructured play.

Key concept: Schools should go ‘phone-free for the entirety of the school day’. This would mean that students put their phones in lockers or locked pouches when they arrive at school, and retrieve them at the end of the day. This simple change can reduce attention fragmentation, social deprivation, and addiction. It can also improve academic performance.

12. What Parents Can Do Now

Parents can play a major role in counteracting the harms of a phone-based childhood by embracing a ‘gardener’ mentality, creating a nurturing environment where their children can explore and develop their own interests and abilities. This includes giving children more independence and opportunities for free play in the real world, while carefully limiting their exposure to screens and social media.

Key concept: Our job as parents is not to make a particular kind of child. Instead, our job is to provide a protected space of love, safety, and stability in which children of many unpredictable kinds can flourish.

Essential Questions

1. What is the primary cause of the rising rates of anxiety and depression among young people?

The rise in adolescent mental health problems, particularly anxiety and depression, cannot be solely attributed to external factors like economic downturns or global events. The timing of the surge, beginning in the early 2010s, coincides with the widespread adoption of smartphones and the rise of social media, suggesting a causal link. This increase is observed across many countries with varying socio-political contexts, further strengthening the argument that internal factors related to childhood itself have changed.

2. How does human childhood differ from that of other animals, and why is this difference crucial for understanding the mental health crisis?

Human childhood, characterized by slow growth and extended dependency, is a unique adaptation for cultural learning. This period allows children to acquire the complex skills and knowledge necessary to thrive in their specific cultural environment. Play, especially unstructured free play, is crucial for this learning process, as it allows children to develop social skills, manage risks, and build resilience. A phone-based childhood disrupts this natural process by reducing opportunities for real-world interaction and replacing them with curated and often addictive digital experiences.

3. What are the foundational harms of a phone-based childhood, and how do they impact adolescent development?

The ‘phone-based childhood,’ characterized by unlimited access to smartphones and internet-connected devices, has resulted in four foundational harms: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. These harms are not limited to heavy users; they are opportunity costs that affect everyone who spends a significant portion of their time on screens. Social interaction, sleep, physical activity, and real-world challenges are essential for healthy brain development and are being displaced by digital experiences, especially during the critical period of puberty.

4. Why is social media particularly harmful to girls, and how does it contribute to the mental health crisis?

Social media platforms have successfully hijacked the human desire for connection and belonging. While they offer a sense of community and social validation, this connection is often shallow and superficial. The constant social comparison and the pressure to present a perfect online self can lead to anxiety, depression, and loneliness, especially for girls who are more vulnerable to these pressures. Furthermore, the addictive design of these platforms, fueled by sophisticated algorithms and behaviorist techniques, reduces the time and motivation for real-world interaction, further exacerbating social deprivation.

5. What is happening to boys in the era of the phone-based childhood, and how do their challenges differ from those of girls?

Boys are being pushed away from the real world due to factors such as the decline of traditionally masculine roles and the rise of safetyism, which restricts opportunities for risk-taking and free play. Simultaneously, they are being pulled into the virtual world by increasingly sophisticated and engaging technologies, particularly video games and pornography. This has led to a decline in educational outcomes, career success, and social connection among boys. While video games offer some social interaction, it’s often within limited, virtual communities that may not provide the same benefits as real-world friendships.

Key Takeaways

1. The way we raise children shapes their development, and the current approach is failing many of them.

The way children are raised, the experiences they have, and the social environments they inhabit have a profound impact on their development. The overprotected, digitally saturated childhood is producing a generation that is less resilient, less socially competent, and more prone to mental health problems. This has implications for how we design technologies and raise the next generation in the digital age.

Practical Application:

An AI product engineer could use this understanding to advocate for the development of AI assistants that encourage and facilitate real-world interactions, for example, suggesting outdoor activities or facilitating group events, rather than just keeping users glued to their screens.

2. The developing brains of children are particularly vulnerable to the addictive design of smartphones and social media.

The developing brains of children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the addictive qualities of smartphones and social media. The constant stream of notifications, rewards, and social comparisons can hijack the brain’s reward system, leading to addiction and other harmful consequences. It is essential to protect children from these harms by carefully regulating their access to these technologies.

Practical Application:

An AI product engineer could use this understanding to advocate for the development of AI assistants for children that incorporate age-appropriate content filters, time limits, and features that promote healthy sleep habits, rather than relying solely on parental controls.

3. Boys are facing a unique set of challenges in the digital age, characterized by a disconnect from the real world and an increasing retreat into the virtual world.

Boys are experiencing a unique set of challenges in the digital age. They are being pulled away from the real world, where opportunities for traditionally masculine roles and activities are declining, and into the virtual world, where they can find a sense of agency, mastery, and belonging. This retreat into the virtual world can lead to social isolation, delayed development, and mental health problems. It is essential to find ways to re-engage boys in the real world and offer them healthier paths to adulthood.

Practical Application:

An AI product engineer could design AI assistants that encourage and guide users to engage in real-world activities, such as suggesting hikes in nearby parks, volunteer opportunities, or local community events, to counterbalance the pull of the virtual world.

4. The phone-based lifestyle undermines traditional spiritual practices and can lead to spiritual degradation.

Modern life, and the phone-based lifestyle in particular, can lead to spiritual degradation by disrupting traditional spiritual practices and fostering a constant state of distraction and fragmentation. Practices such as shared sacredness, embodiment, stillness, silence, and focus, self-transcendence, forgiveness, and awe in nature can counteract these negative effects and promote well-being and connection.

Practical Application:

An AI product engineer could consider incorporating mindfulness exercises, breathing techniques, or other features that promote stillness and focus into AI assistants to help users counteract the constant stimulation of the digital world.

5. Solving the mental health crisis requires collective action from all stakeholders.

Solving the mental health crisis requires collective action. Governments, tech companies, schools, and parents must work together to create a healthier environment for children and adolescents. This includes enacting laws to protect children, developing safer technologies, changing school policies, and empowering parents to make better choices.

Practical Application:

AI product engineers can advocate for the development of AI assistants that promote ethical data collection practices, robust age verification, and user-centered design principles that prioritize well-being and safety, especially for children and adolescents.

Suggested Deep Dive

Chapter: Chapter 10: What Governments and Tech Companies Can Do Now

This chapter delves into the specific ways that technology companies exploit human psychology for profit and offers concrete suggestions for policy reforms that could mitigate these harms. This is particularly relevant for AI product engineers as they grapple with ethical considerations in product design.

Memorable Quotes

Introduction. 9

It’s as if they became the first generation to grow up on Mars.

Chapter 2. 58

Play is the work of childhood.

Chapter 3. 90

Children are intrinsically antifragile, which is why overprotected children are more likely to become adolescents who are stuck in defend mode.

Chapter 5. 123

The one impulse, out of many accidental ones, which leads to pleasure, becomes strengthened and stamped in. He said that animal learning is ‘the wearing smooth of a path in the brain, not the decisions of a rational consciousness.’

Chapter 7. 204

The smartphone is the modern-day hypodermic needle, delivering digital dopamine 24/7 for a wired generation.

Comparative Analysis

This book complements and builds upon Twenge’s iGen, offering a deeper analysis of the causes and consequences of the adolescent mental health crisis. While Twenge focuses primarily on the psychological effects of smartphones and social media, Haidt expands the scope to include the broader context of childhood and human development, drawing on evolutionary psychology, anthropology, and even religious and philosophical traditions. Haidt’s focus on the decline of free play and the rise of safetyism aligns with the work of Peter Gray, author of ‘Free to Learn’, who has also argued that children need more autonomy and risk-taking in their lives. The book’s emphasis on the social and emotional harms of a phone-based childhood also resonates with the work of Sherry Turkle, author of ‘Reclaiming Conversation’, who has documented the ways that digital devices can interfere with real-world relationships and human connection.

Reflection

Haidt’s book offers a timely and important critique of the ways in which our relationship with technology is reshaping childhood and adolescence. While his focus on the negative impacts of smartphones and social media is well-supported by research, it’s important to acknowledge that these technologies also offer benefits, especially for marginalized communities and those with limited access to real-world resources. A balanced perspective that recognizes both the potential benefits and harms of digital technologies is essential for developing responsible policies and practices. The book’s strength lies in its integration of diverse perspectives, drawing on evolutionary psychology, anthropology, and spiritual traditions to provide a comprehensive understanding of the challenges facing young people in the digital age. However, it’s important to note that some of the proposed solutions, particularly those involving government regulation of the internet, may face challenges related to freedom of speech and privacy concerns. Despite these challenges, this book serves as a crucial starting point for a much-needed conversation about how to create a healthier and more humane digital environment for children and adolescents.

Flashcards

What are the four foundational harms of the phone-based childhood?

Social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction

Why is puberty a crucial time to consider in relation to the phone-based childhood?

A ‘sensitive period’ for cultural learning, making adolescents particularly vulnerable to the influence of social media.

What is ‘risky play,’ and why is it important for child development?

Activities that involve some degree of physical danger, which are essential for developing resilience and overcoming fears.

What is ‘opportunity cost’ and how does it apply to the phone-based childhood?

The loss of other potential gains when one alternative is chosen, for example, the lost time for social interaction due to excessive screen use.

What is the ‘default mode network’ (DMN), and how is it relevant to the discussion of spirituality?

The network of brain structures that is more active when we are processing events from an egocentric point of view, often quieter during spiritual experiences.

What is ‘biophilia’?

The urge to affiliate with other forms of life, which explains our attraction to nature and the benefits of spending time outdoors.

What is ‘safetyism’?

The cultural trend of prioritizing safety above all else, often to the detriment of children’s development and well-being.

What is ‘anomie’?

The feeling of disconnect and meaninglessness that can arise when individuals are not integrated into meaningful communities with shared norms and values.