My Take On "The Anxious Generation."

Oh yes. I have thoughts.

Many of you have reached out in recent weeks asking me to share my thoughts on Jonathan Haidt’s new book The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. The book is #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and I have been seeing Haidt’s face everywhere — just yesterday, he was smiling in an Instagram reel next to Oprah, who was holding the book and singing its praises.

I want to start with some big picture thoughts. I agree with many of Haidt’s recommendations. He talks about the benefits of free play and the importance of granting kids autonomy. I concur. I also agree with him that the explosion in access to phones and social media over the past few decades has likely contributed to the overall decline in mental health among teens. I think it’s important for parents to think about safety and structure when they are considering their kids’ access to devices and social media, as he suggests.

But there are elements of the book that do not sit right with me and, frankly, make me mad. Haidt argues that it’s clear based on the science that phones and social media are a key driver of the recent rise in teen mental health problems. I do not agree. And I think in over-stating the research the way he does, he undermines faith and trust in science in worrying ways.

I also think he relies on fear tactics to make parents — mostly mothers, because mothers are typically the ones who read parenting books — feel terrified and guilty in ways that are both unproductive and unfair. I recently ran into several moms on the school playground who were totally panicked about the book, wondering if they should steal their kids’ phones and throw them into the Hudson river. Maybe they were half-kidding, but there’s no question they were freaked out.

I’m not unique in having concerns about the book. In a recent newsletter, Haidt claimed that The Anxious Generation “has gotten uniformly rave reviews in the U.S. and UK, from outlets on the left and the right.” Perhaps that was true when he wrote it, but since then, plenty of critiques have appeared, including in Nature, Romper, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, Reason, Platformer, and here on Substack (like this one by Dr. Jacqueline Nesi, who studies teens and social media at Brown University, and this one by clinical psychologist Emily Edlynn). Some of these pieces raise concerns that I’m not going to address here, so I encourage you to read them, too.

First I’ll dig into the science and explain my concerns with how Haidt interprets it, and then I’ll talk about why his overall communication style and framing may be more harmful for parents than helpful. This is one of my longer newsletters, but I think the topic deserves it, so please bear with me.

Why The Research Isn’t As Damning As Haidt Claims

In my 20 years as a science journalist, I have thrown myself headfirst into a bunch of convoluted scientific controversies (I used to joke that controversies were my beat). Usually, with enough time and effort, I’ve been able to come out the other side with a clear sense of what the science suggests. But the research on the impacts of technology is especially gnarly.