# The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness

[View on juvoni.com](https://juvoni.com/book/the-anxious-generation-how-the-great-rewiring-of-childhood-caused-an-epidemic-of-mental-illness)

Book author: Jonathan Haidt

Review and notes by Juvoni Beckford.

Rating: 8/10

Posted: 2026-10-29T00:49:38.718Z

Read: 2025-03-07

## Review

An important societal commentary in the rise of mental health issues among kids especially teenagers. It talks about the transition from play-based childhoods, which allowed for unstructured, independent play among kids to phone-based childhoods where smartphone and social media led to increased screentime and less unplugged time.

There is a lot of evidence to suggest that social media use among kids has been a net negative and has harmed their physical and mental wellbeing.

## Why I read it

As someone working in technology, it's always been eye opening how a number of technologists who have kids don't let their kids use much technology. I've also been seeing more people talk about the rise in mental health issues among the young, right around when social media became popular.

## Reasons to read

1. Explore research on what's been causing the mental health collapse in the youth.
2. Why social media damages girls more than boys.
3. How screens and social media is increasing our anxiety.

## Quotes — Jonathan Haidt

> “Experience, not information, is the key to emotional development.”

> “People don’t get depressed when they face threats collectively; they get depressed when they feel isolated, lonely, or useless.”

> “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.”

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