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The anxious generation : how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness

By: Publication details: London : Penguin, 2024Edition: Paperback editionDescription: [viii], 385pISBN:
  • 9781802063271
Subject(s): NLM classification:
  • WS750.
Summary: An urgent and insightful investigation into the collapse in youth mental health, from the influential social psychologist and international bestselling author After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents in many countries around the world deteriorated suddenly in the early 2010s. Why have rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide risen so sharply, more than doubling in many cases? In this book, Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that the decline of free-play in childhood and the rise of smartphone usage among adolescents are the twin sources of increased mental distress among teenagers. Haidt delves into the latest psychological and biological research to show how, between 2010 and 2015, childhood and adolescence got rewired. As teens traded in their flip phones for smartphones packed with social media apps, time online soared while time engaging face-to-face with friends and family plummeted, and so did mental health. This profound shift took place against a backdrop of diminishing childhood freedom, as parents over-supervised every aspect of their children’s lives offline, depriving them of the experiences they most need to become strong and self-governing adults. The Anxious Generation reveals the fundamental ways in which this shift from free-play to smartphones disrupts development – from sleep deprivation to addiction – with separate in-depth analyses of the impact on girls and boys. Grounded in ancient wisdom and packed full of cutting-edge science, this eye-opening book is a life raft and a powerful call-to-arms, offering practical advice for parents, schools, governments, and teens themselves.
List(s) this item appears in: SLaM new books January 2025
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An urgent and insightful investigation into the collapse in youth mental health, from the influential social psychologist and international bestselling author

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents in many countries around the world deteriorated suddenly in the early 2010s. Why have rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide risen so sharply, more than doubling in many cases?

In this book, Social Psychologist Jonathan Haidt argues that the decline of free-play in childhood and the rise of smartphone usage among adolescents are the twin sources of increased mental distress among teenagers.
Haidt delves into the latest psychological and biological research to show how, between 2010 and 2015, childhood and adolescence got rewired. As teens traded in their flip phones for smartphones packed with social media apps, time online soared while time engaging face-to-face with friends and family plummeted, and so did mental health. This profound shift took place against a backdrop of diminishing childhood freedom, as parents over-supervised every aspect of their children’s lives offline, depriving them of the experiences they most need to become strong and self-governing adults.

The Anxious Generation reveals the fundamental ways in which this shift from free-play to smartphones disrupts development – from sleep deprivation to addiction – with separate in-depth analyses of the impact on girls and boys. Grounded in ancient wisdom and packed full of cutting-edge science, this eye-opening book is a life raft and a powerful call-to-arms, offering practical advice for parents, schools, governments, and teens themselves.

User comment on 27/01/2025

I have found the book Anxious Generation thought provoking from a parent point of view and as a practitioner. The book raises the idea that while parents have tried to keep their children safe from outdoor dangers have unknowingly allowed children to be exposed to on line dangers ( as parents assume the on line medium is regulated). It also discuss the implication of using phones and mental health, promoting ideas such as phone free schools, stricter regulations about using Social media (including raising the age of creating an account to 16 years old). As a practitioner, it made me realised the importance of having a chat with every teenager that I see about their use of mobile phones not only to promote good sleep hygiene routines but also to encourage them to go out in the real world to create positive experiences with their friends! LC Educational Wellbeing Practitioner

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