The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness

by Jonathan Haidt

There is just no way to pin the surge of adolescent anxiety and depression on any economic event or trend that I can find. Also, it’s hard to see why an economic crisis would have harmed girls more than boys, and preteen girls more than everyone else.

There was no wave of mental health and happiness breaking out around the world in 2013, as young people embraced Instagram. Teens are certainly right when they say that social media gives them a connection with their friends, but as we’ve seen in their reports of increasing loneliness and isolation, that connection does not seem to be as good as what it replaced.

but the reality is that girls are plunged into a strange new world in which our ancient evolved programming for real-world communities misfires continuously.