The Anxious Generation

How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

De: Jonathan Haidt

Narrado por: Sean Pratt, Jonathan Haidt

THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A Wall Street Journal Top 10 Book of 2024 • A New York Times and Washington Post Notable Book • One of Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2024 • A TIME 100 Must-Read Book of 2024 • Named a Best Book of 2024 by the Economist, the New York Post, and Town & Country • The Goodreads Choice Award Nonfiction Book of the Year • Finalist for the PEN Literary Awards

A must-hear for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and big tech—and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.

“With tenacity and candor, Haidt lays out the consequences that have come with allowing kids to drift further into the virtual world . . . While also offering suggestions and solutions that could help protect a new generation of kids.” —Shannon Carlin, TIME, 100 Must-Read Books of 2024

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures. Why?

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

Most important, Haidt issues a clear call to action. He diagnoses the “collective action problems” that trap us, and then proposes four simple rules that might set us free. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood.

Haidt has spent his career speaking truth backed by data in the most difficult landscapes—communities polarized by politics and religion, campuses battling culture wars, and now the public health emergency faced by Gen Z. We cannot afford to ignore his findings about protecting our children—and ourselves—from the psychological damage of a phone-based life.

©2024 Jonathan Haidt (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“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.”—Meghan Cox Gurdon, 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

Stunning & Unsurprising

This book is an absolute must read for any parent or educator working with young people in today's world. It was stunning (yet unsurprising) to hear the statistics and outline of how smartphone and social media companies hijacked young brains capitalize on vulnerabilities to maximize their own profits and agenda. The author explains exactly how this is done in a very clear way, and provides many examples and much detail about how young minds work and how we can foster better environments for them. I really appreciate how he gave several concrete steps that parents and educators can take to protect their kids and help repair their floundering mental health. There are tons of resources at the end of the book and I'm sure at the website as well, to point people in the right direction as far as getting more information about this issue.

Everyone should read this book!

So much useful information in this book. Even if you dont fully agree with it all, this book can be very helpful. There’s so many important topics discussed. Everyone should read this and talk about it and take actions to improve. We can’t do it good enough individually; it’s going to take collaborative efforts.

Important, Relevant, Accurate

Great to see Professors Haidt and Twenge shedding light on social media's impacts on today’s youth. A must-read for everyone. Thank you for this accurate, big data research. Please continue the excellent work!

Rewiring of society.

Great book! Would recommend to anyone with children or a smartphone. Much like The Social Dilemma on Netflix this pulls back a curtain of joy programming that is in our hands at almost all times.

Great parenting manual for 21st century

This is a book that has changed my daily habits as a parent and as an individual. Thank you!

From a Gen Z reader’s perspective…. 10/10!!!!!!!! AMAZING

I grew up in the 2000s and reading this book was like reliving all those years! It focuses on why Generation Z is anxious, mainly due to the increased use of technology, and I truly think every chapter in this book was flawless. From the chapter on how religious practices positively effect our lives, to how smartphones and technology use does just the opposite. Great read, and even though I went into this read thinking I knew everything about why my generation is so anxious and obsessed with the internet, I certainly learned more than I thought I could!!

Highly recommend, especially for parents of kids who were born in the early 2000s.

Save our upcoming generation!

This may save your kids life. Be informed. Be empowered with knowledge about the impact of smart phones on your kids. Be courageous to be a trend setter. Help others around you not fall for the new “norm” of giving kids smart phones and increased screen time … because “everyone” is doing it. You will find the strength and the very good reasons to put your phone down…much more, and realize you are better off than you think when you stop judging yourself by others “best.”

Not beating up parents

I found lots of ideas of how to be a better parent here, but I never felt like I was being attacked or called a bad parent. Rather he focuses on the sociological basis of technology problems, while still giving ideas of how to buck the trend.

Rethinking social media and adolescence

This book provoked a lot of conversations with fellow parents on topics is social media and phone use. Significant research cited and many practical suggestions for change.

Informative and love the end chapter reviews!

This is a must listen for all of us. There’s no doubt we all struggle with varying degrees of addiction to social media and our phone as well as our kids. Cannot recommend this book high enough.