The title of Jonathan Haidt’s new book is not remotely controversial or debatable. That Gen Z is a uniquely anxious generation is demonstrated time and time again both in anecdotal experiences and in survey data. And this book has plenty of both. In fact, one of the most helpful things about The Anxious Generation was the amount of data Haidt assembled to demonstrate this generation’s troubling trends. I would put this book side-by-side with Jean Twenge’s book, Generations, as an essential reference on generational trends. In just one example toward the beginning of the book, Haidt points out,
“A 2022 study of more than 37,000 high school students in Wisconsin found an increase in the prevalence of anxiety from 34% in 2012 to 44% in 2018, with larger increases among girls and LGBTQ teens. A 2023 study of American college students found that 37% reported feeling anxious ‘always’ or ‘most of the time,’ while an additional 31% felt this way ‘about half the time.’ This means that only one-third of college students said they feel anxiety less than half the time or never.”
Additionally, the book is full of helpful charts summarizing the research on trends in this anxious generation.
Why So Anxious?
If the title of the book is beyond any doubt, the same can’t be said about diagnosing the reason(s) why this generation is so anxious. Writing anything about a generation of people is a daunting task.
First of all, a generation is a big and complex thing consisting of millions of individuals, some who nicely fit the trends and many who don’t. A generation also never comes from nowhere, as Twenge highlights in her book. Every generation is the product of currents that started flowing decades before they ever arrived on the scene.
At the same time, generations are often defined by sudden perturbations—catastrophes, inventions, or imagination-shaping spectacles. So, given these complexities, is it possible to confidently identify a cause for the anxiety that we are witnessing in Gen Z? Jonathan Haidt thinks so, and he makes a pretty compelling case.
Toward the beginning of the book, Haidt offers a clear thesis:
“My central claim in this book is that these two trends—overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world—are the major reasons why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.”
“Generations are often defined by sudden perturbations—catastrophes, inventions, or imagination-shaping spectacles.”
Tweaking the Thesis?
Some have argued with Haidt’s thesis claiming that there are other, better explanations for the anxiety of this generation.
For instance, some argue that this generation is anxious because of over-diagnoses. Abigail Shrier released a compelling book last year called Bad Therapy in which she proposes that at least some of the mental health challenges being faced by this generation are the result of a social obsession with mental health paired with therapy that in many cases is doing more harm than good. By talking incessantly about the mental health crisis, we have helped to create a generation of mental health hypochondriacs. And, like the hypochondriac who spends all day fueling his fear by surfing WebMD, these mental health hypochondriacs are made worse by bad therapists (or, quite often, people who aren’t even credentialed therapists but are happy to play the part) who add fuel to their anxiety rather than helping them to overcome it.
Other thinkers like Carl Trueman would go much deeper in their analysis. Trueman, whose book The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self is one of my favorites from the past ten years, would argue that this generation’s anxiety stems from a general loss of meaning that has been building in the Western world for decades, maybe even centuries. This generation is merely demonstrating the ugly consequences of what happens when we fully embrace expressive individualism as “the good life.” When we are told that we are isolated individuals cut off from institutions and traditions, when we are told that we live in a world emptied of meaning and purpose and that our only possible hope is to “follow our hearts,” is it any wonder that we would create an anxious and depressed generation? We’ve basically thrust an entire generation into the story of Ecclesiastes, and we are surprised when they discover that life is vanity.
“We’ve basically thrust an entire generation into the story of Ecclesiastes, and we are surprised when they discover that life is vanity.”
The Great Rewiring
Even though it might be possible to identify other causes for the anxious generation, it would be unwise to completely dismiss Haidt’s thesis. In fact, I think his analysis of the data is spot on. Haidt demonstrates convincingly that there was an undeniable spike in virtually every single indicator of mental illness that started during the years where smart phones and social media became pervasive among adolescents. This spike was especially noticeable among young women. (Jean Twenge made the exact same observation in her research.)
To put it bluntly, as screen time and social media engagement increased among teenagers, so did clear indicators of mental illness like depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. We have submitted our children to a grand social experiment which Haidt calls “the great rewiring” of childhood, and the results of that experiment are becoming impossible to ignore.
Now, we know that correlation does not always equal causation, but it is hard to justify skepticism in the face of such a mountain of consistent data. Think of it this way: if a person gets an upset stomach every time they eat dairy, would you be more justified in claiming that “correlation doesn’t equal causation” or in claiming that this person is likely lactose intolerant?
“As screen time and social media engagement increased among teenagers, so did clear indicators of mental illness like depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.”
Effects of Digital Technologies
Haidt does not merely assert that smart phones and social media are largely responsible for the anxious generation. He demonstrates why these things are responsible. In chapter 5, he discusses “four foundational harms” introduced and encouraged by these technologies: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction.
Marshall McLuhan and others argued a generation ago that no technology is neutral. As you use any technology, it will inevitably mold you into its image. Haidt picks up on that idea and shows how digital technology molds people—especially adolescents—into isolated, tired, distracted, and addicted people.
In the next two chapters, Haidt talks about the different effects of these digital technologies on girls and boys. One of the most pleasant surprises of the book was the next chapter where Haidt, an agnostic, points out how these technologies are suffocating our spiritual development. A phone-based life blocks or even counteracts six essential spiritual practices: shared sacredness; embodiment; stillness, silence, and focus; self-transcendence; being slow to anger, quick to forgive; and finding awe in nature.
It is sobering to realize that we may have helped to facilitate the spiritual stagnation of an entire generation by the mere act of putting phones in their hands. We shouldn’t be surprised that a generation that has replaced spirituality with scrolling is struggling to find a sense of wholeness and meaning.
“It is sobering to realize that we may have helped to facilitate the spiritual stagnation of an entire generation by the mere act of putting phones in their hands.”
Underprotected & Overprotected
Haidt is careful not to wag his finger at Gen Z. Much of what ails any generation has its roots in the generations that raised them, and so it is with Gen Z. Gen Z has been largely “underprotected” from the consequences of a phone-based childhood. Parents and policy-makers have been all to happy to plug children into digital technologies at younger and younger ages without careful reflection on the dangers. Some of this is because of a lack of awareness of those dangers, but much of this is because of the enormous social pressure to put unmonitored phones in the hands of children. Many parents and teachers, understandably, feel overwhelmed by this pressure. It’s easier to give in to the digital monster than to fight it.
Ironically, Gen Z is also the most overprotected generation when it comes to their physical and emotional safety. They are the generation where play is carefully coordinated and monitored by adults. They are the generation where risk-taking freedom is squelched out of fear and paranoia.
In a previous book, The Coddling of the American Mind, Haidt and his co-author Greg Lukianoff talk about the pervasive “safetyism” that characterizes the upbringing of this generation. They have been conditioned to see safety—emotional and physical—as among their most important, guiding values. As a result, they are delaying or avoiding altogether critical steps toward maturity and adulthood. This obsessive safetyism mixed with a permissive, underprotected life in the virtual world is the perfect recipe to create an anxious generation.
“This obsessive safetyism mixed with a permissive, underprotected life in the virtual world is the perfect recipe to create an anxious generation.”
What We Can Do
Haidt’s suggestion for helping this anxious generation is straightforward. Start doing the opposite of what we’ve been doing. Reject safetyism and embrace “anti-fragility” in parenting and teaching. Rather than putting kids in bubble wrap, encourage them to achieve benchmarks of maturity throughout their childhood. Trust them with freedom. Give them time for unmonitored play. Allow them to take risks—some of which might even lead them to get injured.
At the same time, create appropriate barriers to the phone-based childhood. Parents should adopt counter-cultural rules to when and how much their children use phones and social media. Schools should enforce phone-free campuses, and policy makers need to rewrite laws to limit the exposure of children to the digital world.
Haidt has been at the forefront of organized efforts to do these very things. He is a strong advocate of KOSA (Kids Online Safety Act) which is legislation aimed at protecting children from harmful online content. He also is helping to lead a campaign to convince schools to adopt phone-free policies, which is already experiencing great success.
“Reject safetyism and embrace “anti-fragility” in parenting and teaching.”
Let me make this as simple as I can. If you are a parent, a grandparent, a teacher, an administrator, a pastor, or just a person who cares about the well being of this generation, this book is essential reading.
