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

A must-listen 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.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©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 must read

deep dive into how we've screwed up a couple of Denerations with smartphones, causing massive mental health problems. Depressing, but solutions offered if folks listen.

Must read

The analysis and conclusions must be read by parents, schools and government officials. Explains what I saw in my middle school students.

Should be required reading for every parent

Childhood ends when you put a smartphone in a kid’s hands. This book gave me the empirical evidence for so many of the ideas of parenting that felt like gut instinct. Such important research consolidated in one book. I wish every parent would read it.

A Must Read

Incredibly well researched and convincing— I want to share with every parent I know. I appreciate that it’s heavy on the what-should-I/we-do-now? suggestions— many of these books offer little in the way of practical next steps. Also has me wanting to seriously restrict my own phone usage. Highly recommend.

Followed this book from the beginning.

I followed this book from Day 1 of Dr. Haidt's After Babel substack. I have read every article written there and still continue to do so. This book covers so much of what is in that outlet.

Social Media is a cancer to young children, especially prepubescent girls. Unfettered access granted to a minor to the online word is destroying the mental well-being of our future generations. We need to course correct. This book beautifully articulates this and much more. Something needs to be done otherwise there us a better-than-ever chance that we may slip into an era of utter disaster.

Critical Call to Action for the future of America and our children!

This book addresses the causes of the mental health crisis involving ALL of our children, which threatens to plunge our nation and possibly even all of Western society into a dark age.

Sound logical presentation from strict research based facts, Haidt puts forth an essentially unassailable argument for the root cause of the crisis—the “phone based childhood.”

He doesn’t stop there. UNLIKE most authors who are happy to expose and explain, Haidt outlines and promotes ACTUAL SOLUTIONS that are reasonably achievable (in some cases may actually SAVE cost vs. the status quo).

We need more people to read this book, that we can gain momentum to enact the plan herein. Some very simple legislative changes and a slight culture shift in schools could change the forecast of our nations future and our children’s wellbeing.

Essential reading for parents and clinicians!

Jonathan Haidt has bravely engaged a subject (smartphones and digital media) that has negatively impacted children for some time. He provides data and clear and persuasive arguments for why the downturn in children’s mental health, e.g., anxiety, is attributable to smartphones and social media. Better still, he offers a way forward—a path where children can be offered a chance to engage the world in a way that builds confidence and competence.

Eye opener

Loved all the info…. I’m working hard at implementing some of these practices with my children. Can’t wait for more updates

Very sharp insight into the concerns of social media

Author explores the problem with logical and in-depth accuracy.
He develops potential solutions for discussion

Most Important Book of its Year

This book articulates a deep running problem that smartphones have facilitated. This should be read by every parent and educator.