The Anxious Generation: A Book Review, Part 1
Can following 4 action steps laid out in a popular new book by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt really solve the mental health crisis plaguing today's teens? What, if anything, can Christians learn?
Today’s post was intended to be a full review of Haidt’s four recommendations plus a synopsis of his chapter on spirituality. Instead, I’ve split it into two stand alone articles. The second will release to Dear Christian Parent e-newsletter subscribers next week.
Have you heard of Jonathan Haidt and his latest book The Anxious Generation? As someone who has been writing, speaking and advocating in the kids & screens space for years now, I had been looking forward to the book for sometime and quickly devoured it, with pencil in hand.
Maybe, like many of my friends, you are wondering what all the fuss is about. Why are so many people quoting Haidt? Who is this guy? Why should any of us care?
The quick answer is in the subtitle: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Haidt addresses when this epidemic skyrocketed, how it has taken shape, and what we ought to do next. The book is extremely well organized, well researched, and well publicized. It includes a myriad of charts and graphs which help the reader comprehend the points he makes, such as this one:
Canaries in the Coal Mine
The data Haidt presents overwhelmingly supports that when smartphones and social media became ubiquitous for teenagers (around 2012), anxiety and depression among teenagers quickly increased. Parents of young 20-somethings who allowed smartphones and social media in the early 2010’s often tell me, “I wish I had known then what I know now.” If only parents had this information, things would have been different. Right? The thing is, and I mean this with no arrogance, the bulk of what Haidt wrote about was not new to me. The depth and breadth of his research far surpasses mine, but over the years I’ve referenced some of the same data in my talks or articles. I was speaking with a family counselor recently who told me he has been aware of this information for close to a decade. And we aren’t the only ones.
Melanie Hempe and Dr. Adriana Stacy with Screen Strong have been sounding the alarm for close to 10 years. Victoria Dunckley published Reset You Child’s Brain on Electronic Screen Syndrome (ESS) in 2015. Dr. Richard Freed wrote Wired Child in 2015. Dr. Nicholas Kardaras wrote Glow Kids in 2016. Dr. Leonard Sax has been writing on this topic since at least 2016. Teachers and co-authors, Joe Clement and Matt Miles wrote Screen Schooled in 2018. Jean Twenge published iGen in 2018.
These experts have been the canaries in the coal mine. Haidt references many of them in his book. Forty years ago, Neil Postman wrote Amusing Ourselves to Death about the dangers screen time poses to communication, entertainment, religion, education and government. What, and how, children learn and grow is integral to who they will become and therefore how our society will function as children move into adulthood. It is this wisdom, in part, that Haidt is drawing upon.
What’s To Be Done in 2024
Haidt makes four seemingly simple recommendations, but even by his own admission, when you look at the data, these recommendations are lacking. Brad Littlejohn, with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, said it best when he told me,
Haidt is, "actually pretty modest in what he recommends, given his own data. It seems like he underestimated just how big of a tidal wave of changing public opinion he would be able to ride."
What did Haidt get right in his action steps and where could he have nudged a little harder? Let’s dive in.
1. No Smartphones before High School
Haidt recommends age 14 (essentially the start of high school) should be the minimum age a child gets a smartphone. Communicating in the virtual world (texting or messaging apps) is defined by Haidt as being disembodied, asynchronous, one-to-many communication, and having a low bar for entry and exit. He makes a strong case that this type of communication does not allow for children and teens to learn the skills of successfully managing themselves, their emotions, or their relationships. Teenagers are not using smartphones to check their email and keep track of their next dentist appointment. With a smartphone, you can call your mom, but you can also play games, have access to pornography, get lost in the never ending vortex of data on web browsers all while missing out on vital social skill development. Haidt writes that the mental health of teenagers who grew up with flip phones is healthier than that of kids who were given iPads and smartphones. He also makes a case that using apps to track your kids in the real world is detrimental to their growth, development, and independence. (I’ll have a full post on this in the coming months.) There are zero compelling, or data backed reasons, why a 14 year old needs the internet in their pocket. When I ask for reasons why smartphones are good for teenagers, no one seems to have an answer. I’d prefer he say no smartphones for teenagers, but it’s clear to me he’s trying to thread the needle between what is right and what he thought was palatable. Talk/text phones are more than sufficient through high school.
2. No social media before 16
Longitudinal studies showing benefits of social media for teenagers are virtually non-existent. As Haidt says, “Social media is a cause of anxiety, depression, and other ailments, not just a correlate.” He goes on to say, “This is the great irony of social media: the more you immerse yourself in it, the more lonely and depressed you become. This is true both at the individual level and at the collective level.” There is nothing “social” about social media in the sense that it is asynchronous and doesn’t necessitate an interpersonal commitment to friendships such as is required in the real world. “Teens are certainly right when they say that social media gives them a connection with their friends, but as we’ve seen in their reports of increasing loneliness and isolation, that connection does not seem to be as a good as what it replaced,” writes Haidt.
So why the suggestion of 16 as the minimum age? He was looking for a win. “I’m just saying that if we’re going to write a minimum age into law and make it an enforceable national standard, then 13 is way too low and 16 is a more reasonable and achievable compromise. It would gain more political and social support than an effort to raise the age to 18.” He may be correct on the political side of things, but the government setting standards lower than what is prudent, shouldn’t be the standard we use for our families. Let’s not forget, using social media is an option, not a requirement. If Haidt had recommended 18, the legal age of adulthood in the United State, as the minimum age for smartphones much of the debate about age restrictions for social media would also disapate.
3. Phone Free Schools
Haidt says phones and smartwatches should be entirely banned from elementary and middle schools. High schoolers should not have access to personal devices during the school day. The Phone Free Schools Movement has laid out the most comprehensive plan for how to remove phones from schools. (I serve as an Ambassador for PFSM and Haidt is a member of the advisory board.) Why remove phones from schools? Socially, students are suffering from cyberbullying, lack of social interaction, and are not learning how to interact face-to-face with their peers. Time spent in hallways and lunchrooms is the training ground for navigating peer relationships, establishing yourself in community and developing friendships. Educationally, phone use during class time leads to fragmented or all out lack of attention given to teachers, lower test scores, and can contribute to media addiction. Many school districts are now putting such bans into place, thanks in large part to Haidt’s recommendation. In The Anxious Generation, Haidt cites much research on this topic, but the August 2023 UNESCO report really stands out. He says, “there is surprisingly little evidence that digital technologies enhance learning in the typical classroom.” Getting phones out of schools is vital, and hopefully imminent. Every school in the country could do this. I wish Haidt had gone a bit further and made the push for physical books, not tablets, to be the standard on student desks. I’ve written more about that here.
4. More independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world
The work of childhood is play and our youth aren’t doing enough of it. Kids and teens, “need a lot of time to play with each other, face to face, to foster social development,” Haidt says. The “phone-based childhood” is the opposite from the “play-based childhood.” The transition from play to phone began around the late 1980s with internet connected devices. The return to play is the most important of all of Haidt’s recommendations and the one that is getting the least press. If it were implemented well, there would be no time in the day for smartphones, video games and social media. School days and weekends would be full, challenging, and rewarding. Boys and girls would get better sleep. Instead of moving only their thumbs behind a blue-lit screen, they’d be exhausting their bodies by running, jumping, climbing or playing sports. Kids would grow in confidence as they experienced the joy of successfully navigating peer-to-peer relationships. Teenagers would develop a healthy sense of self-reliance and ability to solve real world problems instead of calling or texting their mom at the first sign of hardship. Instead of the algorithm driven life children have grown accustom to, they would be free to grow up in the real world and become confident, capable adult members of society. Haidt pushes parents’ comfort zones here in a really great way. If we start with the end in mind, giving kids smartphones and social media is compromising our standards with the potential for causing great harm as well.
Collective Action
Haidt correctly points out in that we can’t solve all of these problems on our own but if we come together in community, we can rapidly address the mental health crisis of teens. Dear Christian Parent, imagine if churches become the place moms and dads go to find “phone-free” zones for kids? Can the church become the leader in bucking societal norms and doing what is best for kids and teen? Do we even want to? Isn’t this part of loving our neighbor as ourself? We have had this data for a decade. We’ve tried conversations, filters and time limits. They haven’t worked. It’s time to do something new.
Part 2
Interested in Part 2 of my review of Haidt’s book? Check it out here:
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Thanks so much for mentioning the other authors who wrote books before Haidt's book. I appreciated Haidt's book of course but back in 2017, I read Dunckley's book first and it was eye opening. Then I went on to read other books about screens and children and screens and adults. I hardly hear those books mentioned in these newer books so I greatly appreciate you mentioning them!!