The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

 

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

Author:  Jonathan Haidt

Narrated by:  Sean Pratt, Jonathan Haidt

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Length: Approximately 10 hours and 32 minutes

Source: Audiobook checked out from Libby through the Kewaunee Public Library.  Physical book purchased from Amazon.com

What book is a “must read” that you would recommend?

We are in a public health crisis right now as youth mental health has collapsed.  My own small town has been rocked by teen suicide.  How did we get to this point in our society?  Author Jonathan Haidt digs into the numbers and details.  At the same time that we as society started to overprotect our kids, we allowed them no protection to the online world.  The online world responded by using methods to get kids addicted to apps, video games, and p&^n.  This book details what happened and how we can try to change this trajectory.

My thoughts on this book:

·       A friend highly recommend this nonfiction book to me last year and I finally got to reading it in July. 

·       I highly recommend that all parents of teenage or younger children read this book.  It’s important information on how teens today have a much different experience growing up than we did, which is impacting their mental health.

·       I listened to this on audiobook which was great and kept me fully engaged.  I did end up purchasing the physical copy so that I could see the graphs that were referenced in the audiobook.

·       I was hoping for tips on what to do if your child is already swept into the anxiety caused by social media and having their own phone, but there wasn’t much there.  Pandora’s box has been opened and there is no shutting it.

·       The book did have good tips for schools, society planners, etc. and good tips if you have not yet given your child a phone.

·       The book goes into the throw away line of “well parents shouldn’t let their kids have phones” which I often hear grandparent aged adults say. Not letting kids have phones indefinitely can caused them to be shamed at school for not having one.  It’s more about what is the appropriate age and that they should not be being used in schools.  It’s also easy for kids to work around limits set by adults. 

·       The author and his research have been in the news this summer with court cases against social media.

·       This book has inspired me in several ways.

Overall, The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt is a must read and the book I have been recommending to other since I have read it.