The Anxious Generation

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

By: Jonathan Haidt

Narrated by: 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

Critic reviews

“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

A Parenting Book for the 2020's

Jonathan Haidt strikes again, this time lifting the lid on the havoc wrecked on children by a smartphone-facilitated transition away from play-based childhood. Haidt packs in the science and a few stories to deliver a pursuasive argument for why we need to not give kids phones till 14, not allow them to use social media until 16, have phone-free schools (all day, not just during class), and why we need to increase children's unsupervised risky play. If you are a parent, read this book.

That said, I have a few small critiques: Haidt lists the dangers of p*rn use, but then stops short of recommending it not be used. An odd conclusion given the data. He is also an atheist, which as a Christian I'm fine with, but the perspective on human desires is seen as purely evolutionary and misses out on seeing the mental health benefits of believing in Christ. No biggie, you can still get great info from the book.

Haidt's writing style as a man of science is void of many rhetorical flourishes that make other non-fiction books engaging, but the writing style was perfectly serviceable and I was never bored.

Haidt is a very good reader if his past books, unfortunately he has had challenges with his vocal chords and could not record the whole book. While I missed his voice in this recording, the new narrator was fantastic.

A must read!

As a high school teacher and new parent, this book spoke volumes to me on what I’ve witnessed with Gen Z and some crossover in the Millennials on the effects of social media on all aspects of life. Mr. Haidt proposes (in my opinion) a lot of doable and reasonable changes that our society can implement to help curb these negative effects that our young people are experiencing today. I agree it’s going to take community effort in doing so, and that’s why I believe this book a a great step in the right direction to help start these changes in our societal norms.

Great book. Great Data. Great insight.

The data presented in this book is scary. Change needs to happen. As a high school math teacher and parent of three boys, I couldn’t agree more with the suggestions to solve the problem. I hope this book causes the change it suggests.

Good book, not great

I’ve read several of Haidt’s books and I think that the majority of this book’s substance is covered in the synopsis. Beyond the general notion that tech companies are incentivized to pollute our kids’ minds and thus cell phone usage should be dramatically curtailed amongst those under 14, I don’t think there is a lot to take away from it. But it’s still a good read, as are all of his books.

A must read

Cogent and concise throughout… this is a work of enormous import that should be read by anyone with a child or who cares about children

Necessary for all to read

We all need to read this. To be aware of what is happening all around us. We need to share it with others. And we need to act. We cannot simply continue to be permissive when it comes to technology and our kids or ourselves.

Highly recommend every parent, school administrator, and teacher read this.

Important, must-read for parents, educators, everyone.

This is a book I've truly been waiting years for someone to write. Haidt draws heavily on the research of Peter Gray (❤️ hero) and the work (and parenting ideology) of Lenore Skenazy, and speaks in practical terms about the evidence--a phone-based childhood and a lack of free, child-led play is destroying the mental health of our children. This book is chock-full of data and solid advice for parents, educators, and policy makers alike. Highly recommend. Would be an amazing bookclub read as there is so much for parents to be challenged by and to discuss.

Truth!

This was a great read! Things I already knew but to hear the science and research behind it were amazing.

Call to Action

As a parent who loves and wants the best for my children, their cousins, their friends, and their future acquaintances, I will make a pledge to work with my neighbors to establish an unstructured play environment for our children. We must teach children to fish, let them experience and the wonderful world we experienced as children. Cutting the cord and giving our children a sense of doing things for themselves will enhance their abilities to expand the wonderful side of technology, and know when to take a break to smell the roses. Thank you Jonathan Haidt for your insights.

If you have kids, this is a must read

Every book he has is a hit
He speaks the truth
So you need to listen to what he’s saying
Take away the phone from your kids
Get them outside playing with other kids