Child Psychology Book Lady

Described as ‘the great rewiring of childhood’, this book outlines the devastating impact of smart-phone adoption on the mental health, cognition, and socialisation of today’s youth.

Short Take: ‘The Anxious Generation’ describes the alarming shift from a play-based to phone-based childhood over the past two decades. It highlights how children have lost opportunities for real world social interactions and become subject to bullying, ostracism, social isolation, addiction, anxiety and depression. Obvious and anxiety provoking in its messages, the book raises issues that all parents and educators should consider regarding digital safety and social media use.

Parenting Approach

• The author supports a free-range style of parenting, arguing against the culture of safety-ism that has pervaded some subsets of Western parenting since the 1990s. Indeed, Haidt explicitly states that he has collaborated and is friends with Lenore Skenazy, who coined the term ‘free-range parenting’.
• The book promotes autonomy, independence and the bestowal of age-appropriate freedoms in real world interactions, while advocating for greater supervision in the digital world.

Key Themes

• Harms of a Phone-Based Childhood. The book describes four foundational harms of a phone based childhood: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction.
• Spread of Psychogenic Illnesses. There is an interesting discussion about the spread of psychogenic illnesses as a result of social media use, particularly among girls, such as the prevalence of tics / Tourette’s and gender dysphoria. Haidt theorises about the psychological mechanisms underpinning this phenomenon.
• Increased Risks for Girls. Haidt argues that there have been larger negative consequences of social media use for girls, as social networking platforms appeal to an innate drive for social cohesion and communion, putting girls at risk of bullying, exclusion, unhelpful social comparison, and sexual violence. This is contrasted to boys, who Haidt says have a greater innate drive for agency and differentiation, and have suffered their own negative consequences in the form of gaming and pornography addictions.
• Loss of a Spiritual Dimension. The rise of social media use is said to have detracted from an important spiritual dimension in young people’s lives. Specifically, the loss of embodied interactions in physical, communal spaces is said to have taken away opportunities for bonding, shared sacredness, silence, and stillness.

Overall Impression

• ‘The Anxious Generation’ outlines the vast and devastating impact of digital technology and social media use on today’s youth, speaking of the psychological, emotional, and spiritual harms it has caused. Some of the hazardous effects discussed include attention fragmentation, social and sleep deprivation, and the loss of physical, communal spaces that allow for embodied interactions which are essential to wellbeing. Among girls, risks of bullying and ostracism are discussed, while boys are said to suffer more in the form of gaming and pornography addictions. Irrespective of gender, all children seem to fare worse in anxiety and depressive symptoms the more social media they use.
• The book makes valid and important points about the psychological safety of digital technology, particularly social media use, and the benefit of delaying introduction until as late as possible. One thing I liked was the simple, practical suggestion of implementing a “digital sabbath” as a way of moderating technology use as a family. The author makes a number of other suggestions regarding age-based rituals and milestones that relate to technology use (eg. An age where you have access to your own smart device) and more general day-to-day freedoms (eg. Travelling on public transport alone). This is followed by an insightful discussion about policy changes that could help promote safer online spaces for kids, aimed at organisations and governments.
• Haidt supports a free-range style of parenting and speaks out against the culture of safety-ism that has become common in some Western parenting circles. While I appreciate the downsides of overprotective parenting and the benefits of exploration and risky play, he seems to idealise or reminisce about some practices that are perhaps best left in the past (eg. Teenagers gathering in parks after dark).
• Overall, the book offers valuable and important insights into the potential harms of digital technology use among children and teens. Parts of the book are quite grim and anxiety provoking, in a way that seems to be using fear tactics to change  policy and behaviour. Hopefully, this does not cause readers to tune out, as the messages are worthy of consideration. Once you push past the points of worry, the book offers hope for creating safer and more nurturing digital spaces for our kids. My main advice for people who choose to read the book is to discuss the messages, and your reaction to them, with friends and other trusted members of your community.