The Anxious Generation

[Rabbit&Blackberry]

Has anyone else read The Anxious Generation? It's a book about how overprotective parenting and big tech has caused an 'epidemic of mental illness' in gen Z.

If you haven't read it I would definitely recommend it. Theres a free audiobook on Spotify.

Pretty scary read. I had to take a break at one point, because it's so tragic and so big. A lot of the points in the book map onto my life perfectly.

One chapter he talks about how gaming and porn basically fries boys brains and sucks up time that should be used for developing into an adult. Here's a quote from a young man in the book.

'I missed out on a lot of stuff in life— a lot of socialization. I feel the effects now: meeting new people, talking to people. I feel that my interactions are not as smooth and fluid as I want. My knowledge of the world (geography, politics, etc.) is lacking. I didn't spend time having conversations or learning about sports. I often feel like a hollow operating system.'

I'm sure lots of people here can relate to this stuff.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

But as the University of California, Irvine, psychology professor Candice Odgers asked in her critique of The Anxious Generation in, "Is social media really behind an epidemic of teenage mental illness?"
The answer, per Odgers, is no. Blisteringly, she accuses Haidt of "making up stories by simply looking at trend lines" and says his book's core argument "is not supported by science". Haidt makes the basic error of mistaking correlation with causation, she says.
In a review of 40 previous studies published in 2020, Odgers found no cause-effect relationship between smartphone ownership, social media usage and adolescents' mental health. A 2023 analysis of wellbeing and Facebook adoption in 72 countries cited by Odgers delivered no evidence connecting the spread of social media with mental illness. (Those researchers even found that Facebook adoption predicted some positive trends in wellbeing among young people.) Another survey of more than 500 teens and over 1,000 undergraduates conducted over two and six years, respectively, found that increased social media use did not precede the onset of depression.

"Overall, as has been the case for previous media such as video games, concerns about screen time and mental health are not based in reliable data," Ferguson noted in a 2021meta-analysis of more than 30 studies that found no link between smartphone or social media use and poor mental health or suicidal ideation.

The Anxious Generation wants to save teens. But the bestseller’s anti-tech logic is skewed

There’s no doubt about the mental health crisis facing young people. Jonathan Haidt blames our devices – which oversimplifies the problem

www.theguardian.com

From the sounds of it, this book comes off as something written by someone with a very narrow view of the mental health crisis going on within our generation, putting a large amount of blame on things like phone usage and social media and ignoring other factors.

A part of me actually questions if there is even a mental health crisis going on amongst our generation or if the issue is just that there are more psychiatric diagnoses nowadays due to increased awareness and lessening stigma surrounding mental health. This isn't to say that there aren't major issues revolving around mental health going on today, because there are, but rather I sometimes feel like we might be blowing things out of proportion, acting as though this is some huge new thing when it really isn't.

 

[Rabbit&Blackberry]

the mental health crisis can also be seen in non-self report data, like hospitalisations for ED and self harm. It's undeniable. He has a whole chapter in his book where he debunks alternate theories like this.

Basically he argues in the book that a child's job is to play unsupervised with other kids, because that's how you learn to be a sociable confident adult. Overprotective parenting and big tech removed a lot of the free play that kids need. Nobody tells their kids things like 'go out and play till the street lights are on' anymore, which is detrimental to their development.

Please read his book or listen to a podcast with Jonathan Haidt as a guest. I really think it checks out.

 

[EvisceratedJester]

the mental health crisis can also be seen in non-self report data, like hospitalisations for ED and self harm. It's undeniable. He has a whole chapter in his book where he debunks alternate theories like this.

Basically he argues in the book that a child's job is to play unsupervised with other kids, because that's how you learn to be a sociable confident adult. Overprotective parenting and big tech removed a lot of the free play that kids need. Nobody tells their kids things like 'go out and play till the street lights are on' anymore, which is detrimental to their development.

Please read his book or listen to a podcast with Jonathan Haidt as a guest. I really think it checks out.

Yeah, no. Even other psychologists are critiquing the book and pointing out clear biases in it, along with it oversimplifying what is a very complex subject.

 

[Rabbit&Blackberry]

He's got a great reputation and a lot of politicians, doctors, teachers and psychologists are on his side too. Theres been a huge movement across the world in the last year to implement some of his recommendations.

The way children are raised has changed massively in the last 30 years with helicopter parents and big tech. To think that this has no effect on childrens development is crazy.

Please listen to The Centre For Human Technology's episode with him as a guest, where he outlines his argument and responds to criticisms episode. I think he's completely right.

 

[pretentioussuika]

The way children are raised has changed massively in the last 30 years with helicopter parents and big tech. To think that this has no effect on childrens development is crazy.

Personally the big red flag to me here is how this is being framed and presented as cultural/social issues, rather than the results of economic issues. Most obviously: nobody has money and going out is more expensive than ever, of course we socialize less.

Parents have always been protective, that's why your parents have stories of sneaking out of the house or lying about what they were doing. Big tech doesn't change that; parents have more tools to track you, but that's been true of every generation, and every generation of teenagers finds workarounds, including ours. But what are we gonna try to do behind our parents' backs, when all the grass fields have been paved over for parking lots and the starry skies have been choked with pollution? Are we supposed to jump the weird kids in our class and steal their lunch money on their way home from school, like has long been popular in older generations?

I dunno, the other poster had it bang on the money when they said this is a really complex subject.

 

[Rabbit&Blackberry]

He basically says kids not getting what they need to develop (ie play, education, exercise), and that exposing kids to the harms of the internet (ie porn, addictive algorithms, strange social settings etc) is widespread and harmful.

He approaches this topic with nuance, and identifies big tech and an overprotective culture as the two biggest causes

He teaches at NYU, has a phd in psychology, and is a reputable writer. The movement he's created with this book has global support and is leading to lots of changes. I promise he knows his shit.

You're right that urban design is inhuman. He mentions that in the book.

Better to hear the arguments from him than me. If you're interested, watch this: