Anxious Generation: Childhood Rewired by Jonathan Haidt

By BAS


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Cover of The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt. A young girl in a yellow hoodie stands at the center of the frame, absorbed in her smartphone as she is surrounded by hundreds of oversized, glossy yellow spheres that fill the background—evoking the all-encompassing digital world enveloping today’s youth. The book’s title and subtitle appear in bold white and teal type across the middle, with the author’s name in uppercase white at the top.

The book posits that a significant shift in childhood, termed the "Great Rewiring of Childhood," is the primary driver behind the alarming rise in mental health issues among young people. This rewiring consists of two interconnected trends:

overprotection in the physical world, limiting free play and risk-taking,

and under-protection in the virtual world, characterized by excessive and unsupervised smartphone and social media use.

Haidt argues that the transition from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood around 2010 correlates directly with the surge in anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide rates in adolescents.

The book further explores the distinct impacts of this shift on girls and boys and proposes practical solutions, including delaying smartphone access and promoting free play.




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