The Anxious Generation

By Jonathan Haidt

Incidences of mental health are continuing to increase. But the mental health of many countries deteriorated in the 2010s, and Haidt argues that the structure of childhood, with the advent of social media and smartphones, the reduced in-person contact and, for children, playtime, has had a hugely negative impact. With people from an early age spending ever increasing amounts of time online, and not in real contact with people, Haidt makes the case that these factors have led to a deterioration in mental health.

The book is divided up into several clear parts. The decline of the ‘play-based childhood’ is explored, the rise of the phone-based childhood analysed and then Haidt’s recommendations for returning to a healthier childhood raised. The angles within these, such as looking at why social media harms girls more than boys, or what schools or parents can do also make sense. Of course, there is a plethora of angles an author could take on mental health, and Haidt, having researched in depth, clearly knows the literature. Perhaps the last section is the weakest, about what parents and schools could do. It is a set of suggestions to improve things by Haidt based on the rest of the book. This is arguably harder to write convincingly, and although for the most part the ideas seemed reasonable and well thought out, I did find it less compelling than the earlier sections.

Clearly we should do something?

What’s important for the general reader is how clear and well the book is presented. Chapters have a clear summary of the main points, many of which are supported by easy to understand graphs. It is refreshing to see such a well thought out structure throughout for a popular science book, as they can often fall pray to tangents and/or arguments that seem to be built in response to what evidence is to the author’s hand rather than challenging the questions that need to be asked.

The book investigates interesting threads too – how usage of phones has adversely influenced sleep for example, is symptomatic of my wider interpretation of the book as a whole: many of the ideas might be ones you are familiar with but will be able to use this book to both know the why and some of the evidence as to what’s going on. So, not all of it is groundbreaking, especially if you’ve read around a bit on the topics, but you will still be glad you’ve read it as it has been concisely and convincingly presented here.

After considering the four reasons that girls are particularly vulnerable, we can see why social media is a trap that ensnares more girls than boys. The lure is the promise of connecting with friends – enticing for girls who have strong needs for communion – but the reality is that girls are plunged into a strange new world in which our ancient evolved programming for real-world communities misfires continuously. Girls in virtual networks are subjected to hundreds of times more social comparison than girls had experienced for all human evolution. They are exposed to more cruelty and bullying because social media platforms incentivize and facilitate relational aggression. Their openness and willingness to share emotions with other girls exposes them to depression and other disorders. (Pp.170)

The general thrust of the book is that phone-based and social media-based childhoods lead to a host of negative outcomes: less familial time, less time engaging with what is in front of you, proxies for community that aren’t as good as real social (in-person) contact, less time with friends, less time spent playing, less resilient children.

The latter example is particularly important I think, but one which has become unfortunately somewhat politicised. It now seems to be taken as a conservative view that children need to 'toughen up,' or a progressive view that they should be respected and given greater acknowledgement of their mental health. Neither are necessarily wrong, but writers such as Haidt or Abigail Shrier in her book Bad Therapy point out that if children don’t believe they can deal with problems, they’re likely to experience poor mental health later in life when things go awry. Here, Haidt mentions Taleb’s concept of antifragile, where some adverse events help create a resilient person.

Unfortunately, the societal trends Haidt outlines are clearly having a detrimental impact. I think we all know it instinctively too, which of course is not scientific rigour, but means that once more attention comes to social media and smartphone usage, maybe individuals will begin to take action to increasing extents. Books that clearly lay a case out are much needed, and this one tries to draw attention to a trend we know isn’t good and present the evidence that it needs to be dealt with.

Final score

It is too simplistic and reductionist to argue that there is one single cause for the deterioration of mental health, but community has always been crucial for well-being, and Haidt makes a compelling case that in childhood, changes have been wrought that have had a devastating impact. The book is clear, well supported and easy to read or listen to, and hopefully actions will be taken by governments and society in response to books like this before it’s too late.

8/10