The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

Michael Gurion once said, “We only fail if we fail the children.” That’s why we all need to understand what is in this book. I (James) use it as a sociology of youth textbook. It shares two stories and a plan to change the narrative – together. Story #1 is about how all Western countries started experiencing the same rise in adolescent mental illness around 2010, when middle schoolers en masse exchanged flip phones for smart ones. Story #2 is about what happens to kids’ brains when a play-based childhood of real human connection and unstructured play is replaced with a screen-based one.

Haidt sees five main harms that have resulted from these stories: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, addiction and spiritual degradation. He then gives sensible, doable suggestions about how the adults and institutions connected to our children can flip this narrative and restore a healthy play-based childhood that leads to far better mental outcomes for kids. A restored childhood of human flourishing is on its way – if we do it together!