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Our reviews of current trends, books, or topics will focus on what we can learn, how what is “new” might connect to what is “old”, and how to find out more about the topic that is featured.

Haidt, Jonathan. The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. New York: Penguin Press, 2024. $30

Review by: Dr. Brittney Schrick, Ph.D., CFLE

In this popular book, Jonathan Haidt argues that children’s lack of freedom to physically explore, learn, fail, and get hurt leads to consequences that are as unsafe and potentially risky as social media. He focuses on three problems: the decline in free play; increase in adult supervision and adult-led activity; and the increase in time spent on individual screens. His book is filled with interesting and thoughtful commentary backed by decades of research. Unfortunately, Haidt attempts to force the data into his main message that all of the outcomes we are seeing today are the result of smartphone access in 2010. Despite his own argument that the data are nuanced, vast, and illustrative of a complex issue, his main point aims at a simple answer. The attempt to cover a decade of research and changing conditions with a simple solution is a hem-haw approach that feels like whiplash. He shouts: “BEWARE OF THIS REALLY HORRIBLE THING THAT IS CAUSED BY THIS VERY SPECIFIC SET OF CIRCUMSTANCES IN THIS VERY SPECIFIC TIMEFRAME!! WE MUST FIX THE CIRCUMSTANCES!!” but this is followed by; “But also, even though the circumstances can be specific, they are also very general and might be caused by lots of other factors that aren’t what I said a minute ago. We should probably fix those too, but that would be hard, and they didn’t happen in the timeframe I’m talking about.” Even though the book gets bogged down in the middle with too much detail, the main message is important, but not so simple. Parents might be interested to explore how more fee play stimulates creativity that is the foundation of learning; how the solution is not as simple as banning social media use; and how delaying smart phone accounts and work with your children might be wise.

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