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

by Jonathan Haidt

Jefferson’s use of the word “elevate” captures for all of us the feeling that we are lifted “up” in some way. Conversely, witnessing people behaving in petty, nasty ways, or doing physically disgusting things, triggers revulsion. We feel pulled “down” in some way. We close off and turn away. Such actions are incompatible with our elevated nature.

The phone-based life makes it difficult for people to be fully present with others when they are with others, and to sit silently with themselves when they are alone.

In my 35 years of studying moral psychology, I have come to see this as one of humanity’s greatest problems: We are too quick to anger and too slow to forgive. We are also hypocrites who judge others harshly while automatically justifying our own bad behavior.

As Buddha put it: In this world, hate never yet dispelled hate. Only love dispels hate. This is the law, Ancient and inexhaustible. You too shall pass away. Knowing this, how can you quarrel?[28]

Yet one of the hallmarks of the Great Rewiring is that children and adolescents now spend far less time outside, and when they are outside, they are often looking at or thinking about their phones. If they encounter something beautiful, such as sunlight reflected on water, or cherry blossoms wafting on gentle spring breezes, their first instinct is to take a photograph or video, perhaps to post somewhere. Few are open to losing themselves in the moment as Yi-Mei did.

When people see morally beautiful actions, they feel as though they have been lifted up—elevated on a vertical dimension that can be labeled divinity. When people see morally repulsive actions, they feel as though they have been pulled downward, or degraded.

A phone-based life generally pulls people downward. It changes the way we think, feel, judge, and relate to others. It is incompatible with many of the behaviors that religious and spiritual communities practice, some of which have been shown to improve happiness, well-being, trust, and group cohesion, according to researchers such as David DeSteno.

Sixth, the grandeur of nature is among the most universal and easily accessible routes to experiencing awe, an emotion that is closely linked to spiritual practices and progress. A simple walk in a natural setting can cause self-transcendence, especially if one pays close attention and is not attending to a phone. Awe in nature may be especially valuable for Gen Z because it counteracts the anxiety and self-consciousness caused by a phone-based childhood.

Please consult the online supplement at AnxiousGeneration.com, where I will do my best to correct any errors I have made, and will add additional suggestions. I will also continue to publish essays on my Substack—After Babel[4]—where I will present new research and ideas related to this book.

Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Systrom (cofounder of Instagram), and others “understood this consciously. And we did it anyway.” He also said, “God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains.”

Documents brought out by the whistleblower Frances Haugen show that Meta has long been trying to study and attract preteens, and has even considered how to reach children as young as 4.[8] (The same race to the bottom occurred with tobacco companies targeting their ads to adolescents, and denying it.)

A phone “ban” limited to class time is nearly useless. This is why schools should go phone-free for the entirety of the school day.

The evidence that phones in pockets interfere with learning is now so clear that in August 2023, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) issued a report that addressed the adverse effects that digital technologies, and phones in particular, are having on education around the world.[7]

This suggests that smartphones are exacerbating educational inequality by both social class and race. The “digital divide” is no longer that poor kids and racial minorities have less access to the internet, as was feared in the early 2000s; it is now that they have less protection from it.

Those are the two whales: going phone-free and giving a lot more unstructured free play. A school that is phone-free and play-full is investing in prevention. It is reducing overprotection in the real world, which helps kids to cultivate antifragility. At the same time, it is loosening the grip of the virtual world, thereby fostering better learning and relationships in the real world.

As one progressive education analyst wrote, “Having both male and female teachers is likely good for students for many of the same reasons that they benefit from a racially and ethnically diverse teacher workforce.”[38]

Reeves thinks that schools can and should steer boys into the “HEAL” professions, which stands for health, education, administration, and literacy.[39]

Most schools say they ban phones, but that typically means only that students must not use their phones during class. This is an ineffective policy because it incentivizes students to hide their phone use during class and increase their phone use after class, which makes it harder for them to form friendships with the kids around them.

A better policy is to go phone-free for the entire school day. When students arrive, they should put their phones into a dedicated phone locker or into a lockable phone pouch.

If you’re a teacher and you’re fed up with the social chaos and learning disruption caused by smartphones and social media, link up. Talk to your fellow teachers and urge your school’s leadership to reconsider not just the policy on phones, but on all devices that let students text each other or check social media while they are sitting in your class. You shouldn’t have to compete for your students’ attention with the entire internet. See if your school can coordinate a message to parents asking them to support change. If teachers speak with a unified voice and ask parents for help educating their children, the odds of success are high.

Research note: In previous decades, the digital divide has resulted in socioeconomic disparities, with wealthier families having quicker adoption and greater access to technology such as computers, laptops, and televisions. Although the digital divide still exists, it often plays out in unexpected ways in the United States. For example, despite 57% of U.S. adults with an income less than $30,000 having high-speed broadband, compared with 83% of those earning between $30,000 and $100,000, lower-income families increasingly rely on smartphones for internet, leading to heavier smartphone usage. Notably, smartphone ownership among tweens (8-to-12-year-olds) and teens (13-to-18-year-olds) doesn’t vary significantly across social classes, though time spent on screens does. Tweens from lower-income families (who make less than $35,000 a year) spend about three hours more per day on screens than their wealthier peers, while lower-income teens spend about two hours more. Moreover, many tech executives, including those from Silicon Valley, send their children to private schools like the Waldorf School of the Peninsula where screen use is prohibited. This is in contrast with many public schools that are advancing 1:1 technology programs, trying to give every child their own device. Additionally, many lower-income parents work multiple jobs, and they are more likely to raise a child in a single-parent household, leaving less time and energy to invest in monitoring the quantity and con...