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 bit longer than needed

Interesting information, however if you are feeling pinched for time all you really need to listen to are the first few chapters and last chapter as much of the information is shared and then repackaged for a slightly different vantage. (Government, school, parents, community at large)

If you want a thorough explanation, then every chapter has something informative to share but by and large the message is the same. “Encourage kids to play in the real world with other kids instead of being on screens/social media.”

Eye opening

This was one of the most impactful books I have ever consumed. This changed the way that I see my children, and helped me understand my wife better (We are both in gen Z). This also helped me evaluate my own use of a smartphone and deliberately spend more time present with my kids.

This book outlines mankind’s erosion or morals…WHAT HAPPENED TO US!!!

If every human would listen to this book and realize wherein our ‘challenges’ began with the Thumb-based childhood and how our morality has been adversely affected!!!
Are we too late to turn things around??? What can we do?

If you care about society, read this book.

As a mom of teens, this author’s work is truly invaluable. Society as a whole, is changing right before our very eyes. We can DO something about this. There are many practical ways we can bring about healing change to our youth, and this book does a great job at explaining how and why.

If you don’t agree, you’re part of the problem.

I challenge anyone to look at the the current cultural landscape and not heartbreakingly agree with the analysis and the advice and suggestions brought forward in this book. A must listen for all.

Important for our children

Exceptional look at how social media has distorted our children, and what we can do about it. As a father of two boys, I believe we should do everything in this book.

Worth reading

Definitely worth reading, particularly if you have young kids and haven’t thought through your strategy for handling smartphones and social media.

A must read by all

Finally a book with current research giving us the in depth look to why we all need to set our phones down and let children be children so they can be given the chance to grow into competent adults who belong to a community.

Must read!

This book contained essential information for all people, with or without children. It provides clear instructions on what individuals and groups can do to reverse and stop the damage.

Great Resource for Parents and Practitioners

This book does such a great job of taking an extremely complex issue, the rise of anxiety and depression in the younger generation, and provides some plausible contributing factors about how this situation arose. While I don't agree with everything, this book honestly reinforces many of the observations I have made in both my clinical practice and as a parent of a tween. The evidence put forth is compelling and the book provides some very practical steps that could be taken by both parents, communities, and professionals.