American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, is a compelling read which speaks passionately to parents, teachers and politicians about the serious issues confronting our young people today. Haidt argues that the loss of a play-based childhood and its replacement with a phone-based childhood is the source of increased mental distress among teenagers. He contends that children thrive when they are immersed in real-world communities, not in disembodied virtual networks characterised by anxiety, isolation, and loneliness. 

Haidt began writing The Anxious Generation with the intention of focusing on social media’s damaging impact on American democracy. His intention was to begin with a chapter on the impact of social media on Gen Z, showing how it disrupted their social lives and caused a surge in mental illness. The remainder of the book would then analyse how social media had disrupted society more broadly, by fragmenting public conversation, government, journalism, universities, and other democratic institutions. When Haidt had finished writing the first chapter of his book, he realised that the adolescent mental health story was so much bigger than he had anticipated. He also realised that it wasn’t simply an American story. It was a story prevalent in many Western nations. And it wasn’t just about social media. It was about the radical transformation of childhood into ‘something inhuman: a phone-based existence’.

As a social scientist, a teacher, and a father of two teenagers, Haidt suggests four foundational reforms to combat the negative effects of a phone-based childhood. These include no smartphones before high school, no social media before the age of sixteen, phone-free schools and far more unsupervised play and childhood independence. These reforms are said to be foundational because they solve multiple collective action problems. Each parent who acts makes it easier for other parents in the community to do the same. Each school that goes truly phone-free liberates all students to be more present with each other. Haidt believes that if a community enacts all four reforms, they are likely to see substantial improvements in child and adolescent mental health. This is certainly food for thought for parents, educators and administrators.

Clare Murphy

English Coordinator and Literacy Instructional Coach