The Anxious Generation
By Jonathan Haidt
- Genre
- Psychology, Philosophy & Personal Development
- Publisher
- Penguin Press (Penguin Random House)
- Publication year
- 2024
- ISBN
- 9780593655030
The Anxious Generation is a work of nonfiction by the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, published by Penguin Press in March 2024. It argues that smartphones and social media have harmed adolescent mental health. An instant #1 New York Times bestseller, it won the 2024 Goodreads Choice Award...
Since around 2012, rates of anxiety, depression and self-harm among adolescents have climbed sharply, and Jonathan Haidt believes he knows why. The Anxious Generation argues that the 'great rewiring of childhood' - the shift from a play-based upbringing to a phone-based one - has produced a mental-health crisis, as smartphones and social media displaced the free, risky, in-person play that children need to develop. Haidt marshals data and proposes concrete norms: no smartphones before high school, no social media before sixteen, phone-free schools, more independence offline. intendle recommends it as one of the most consequential and debated books of the decade, whether or not you accept every causal claim; some researchers contest the evidence. An instant #1 bestseller, a Goodreads Choice Award winner and an Obama favorite of 2024, it has reshaped how parents and schools think about screens. A book that has already changed policy conversations worldwide.