Review of The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Jonathan Haidt's examination of the power of smartphones and social media may feel logical and disturbingly unsurprising, but he offers valuable points for discussion and practical measures that could benefit our children.

The subtitle of Jonathan Haidt's nonfiction title The Anxious Generation is How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Haidt explores the explosion of smartphones and social media along with the decline of play-based childhood, and he links this combination to the current mental health epidemic in young people.

Haidt's book offers parents an opportunity to examine their own and their children's screentime and social media habits. He points to the harmful effects of excessive screentime, such as distraction and harmed attention spans as well as social comparison and perfectionism, and he offers suggestions of widespread measures and family-based changes that can help push back the control smartphones and social media have on our kids.

I recently heard the author speak online at the Tennessee Symposium for Online Health and Safety. I was able to do so courtesy of The Goldfinch Foundation, which was formed in honor and in memory of Owen Willers, and which shines a light on the importance of mental wellness and invites young people to lead efforts toward change.

The content of the book is interesting and valid, and while it doesn't feel revolutionary, for me its greatest worth is in providing a framework for community discussion--and through that, hopefully, the adoption of some of the proposed measures. I'm in weekly discussions of The Anxious Generation with a group of parents and youth leaders at church.

More nonfiction inspiration

Jonathan Haidt is also the author of The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion.

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