The Anxious Generation Book Summary

In this episode, the New Hope Solebury School District’s secondary school counselors and social workers discuss their thoughts on the book, The Anxious Generation, by Dr. Jonathan Haidt.  The Anxious Generation examines the growing mental health crisis among today’s youth. Dr. Haidt highlights how a decline in play through overprotective parenting and a culture of safety reduces the opportunities for young people to develop resilience. Dr. Haidt then explains how the increased phone use among children, especially due to the impact of social media, has significantly and directly increased their level of anxiety and depression and shows how boys and girls are impacted very differently.  Finally, the author urges collective actions that governments, schools, and parents can incorporate to promote critical thinking in kids to combat their increasing levels of anxiety and depression.  

Transcript

Intro: Welcome to The School Social Worker Spotlight episode 5: The Anxious Generation 

Music

Hello and welcome to The School Social Worker Spotlight!  I am your host Doug Olszewski, and I am a School Social Worker at NHSD. As a licensed social worker, I have provided over 20 years of counseling supports to students in grades K-12, with the majority of my time being spent in the high school. 

Before we get started, I would like to mention that there has been a change in the format for this podcast series formally known as Mr. O’s podcast. Due to circumstances with accessibility, we needed to rebrand and allow for broader distribution, so thank you for your understanding.    

Introduction: 

So, in today’s episode, the New Hope Solebury School District’s secondary school counselors and social workers will be talking about the book The Anxious Generation by Dr. Jonathan Haidt.  Many of you may have heard about this book since it has received a significant amount of attention when it was released last year.  The Anxious Generation has been featured on many news and social media outlets, studied in both academic and mental health settings and has been a huge topic of conversation and discussion in book clubs across the county.  

Dr. Haidt is a professor and social psychologist at NYU and wrote the book The Anxious Generation which examines the growing mental health crisis among today’s youth. The book highlights how a decline in play through overprotective parenting and a culture of safety reduces the opportunities for young people to develop resilience. Dr. Haidt then explains how the increased phone use among children, especially due to the impact of social media, has significantly and directly increased their level of anxiety and depression.  Through constant comparison and cyberbullying, boys and girls are shown to be impacted very differently. Finally, the author urges collective actions that governments, schools, and parents can incorporate to promote critical thinking in kids to combat their increasing levels of anxiety and depression.  

Given the relevance and impact on the mental health of school ages students, we thought it would be a great opportunity to present a summary of The Anxious Generation to help raise awareness in the school community. 

Introductions:

So, at this time, I would like to introduce my special guests who will be discussing the details presented in the book. First, we have Kate McGinniss, school counselor in the HS. Welcome Kate, thanks for being here. (Allow Kate to respond) Kate, you will be discussing part 1 of the book correct?  Kate brief response: (yes, I will be focusing on the what’s referred to as the Tidal Wave and the Surge of Suffering.)

Next we have Sarah Reeder, College and Career Readiness Counselor. Welcome back Sarah, it’s good to see you again. (Allow Sarah to respond) Sarah, I believe you will be presenting on Part 2 of the book, correct? Sarah brief response: (Yes… titled The Decline of Play-Based Childhood.)

Next we have Christyn Golden, School Social Worker in the MS. Welcome Christyn, thanks for joining us. (Allow Christyn to respond) Christyn, I believe you will be reviewing Part 3 of the book. Can you tell us what this section is about? Christyn brief response: (which focuses on what’s called The Great Rewiring: The Rise of Phone-Based Play.)  

And finally, we have Susan Schimpf, School Counselor in the MS.  Welcome Susan, I’m glad you were able to join us. (allow Susan to respond) Susan, you will be summarizing the last section in the book which is Part 4.  What will you be discussing about Part 4? Susan brief response: (Collective Action for Healthier Childhood.) 

I want to thank you all for being here today. I appreciate your willingness to participate in this discussion and provide your insight about the book The Anxious Generation.  So, with that said, I’m excited to start this conversation and hear what you have to say.  

Part 1 of the book called A Tidal Wave and the Surge of Suffering which Kate is going to summarize for us.  Kate, what can you tell us about the tidal wave and surge of suffering?

Kate responds:

For most parents Jonathan Haidt speaks with they don't center on any specific diagnosis but instead worry their kids are missing something and then some more specific cases parents feel they've lost their child. He came to realize most parents don't want their child to have a phone-based childhood. When the wave began there was little sign in the early 2000s that an impending mental illness crisis among adolescents was coming. Jonathan Haidt focuses has been on why rates of mental illness went up in so many countries between 2010 and 2015 for Gen Z and why was there a synchronized increase in rates of adolescent anxiety and depression. Using graphs Jonathan shows a sudden and very large upturn in depressive episodes starting in 2012.  He calls this period between 2010 and 2015 as The Great Rewiring. The increases in mental health were similar for both sexes. In other words, anxiety and depression became more prevalent and this increase was seen across all social classes and races.

Jonathan found some important clues to this mystery by digging into more data about adolescent mental health. The first clue was with externalizing versus internalizing behaviors. Internalizing behaviors are when a person feels strong distress and experiences inwardly, this type of person feels emotions such as anxiety, fear, sadness and hopelessness - it is seen more in females. Externalizing is when a person feels distress and has symptoms and responses outwardly aiming it at other people, such as anger and risk-taking. What he found was that both sexes suffer from experiencing more internalizing disorders and fewer externalizing disorders since the early 2010s. Nearly all the increases in mental illness on college campuses in the 2010s came from increases in anxiety and or depression.

Anxiety is the anticipation of future threats and it is related to fear but not the same. Fear is arguably the most important emotion for survival across the animal kingdom, so while fear triggers the full response system at the moment of danger, anxiety triggers parts of the same system when a threat is merely perceived as possible. When that alarm trigger activates the brain by situation we perceive as threatening, it keeps us in a perpetual state of distress. Haidt discusses how evolutionary advantages came from our large brains and our capacity to form strong social groups making us attune to social threats of being shunned or shamed. Adolescents are often concerned more about the threat of social death than they are of physical death. Haidt discusses how anxiety and major depressive episodes affect the mind and body. He knows people are more likely to become depressed when they feel more socially disconnected. He pays close attention to friendships and social relationships throughout his research and shows that play-based childhood strengthens relationships while phone-based childhoods weakens them.

Anxiety and depressive disorders aren't a choice and you can't just snap out of it. It is a mixture of genetic predisposition, thought patterns and environmental conditions. These did not change during 2010 and 2015. We must figure out what thought patterns and social environmental conditions changed that caused a tidal wave of anxiety and depression. Haidt shows data on how self-harm or non-suicidal self-injury nearly tripled from 2010 to 2020. The rate for older girls between the ages of 15 and 19 doubled during this time. He points out how different smartphones are from traditional cell phones which connect you to the internet 24/7. Apps and social media pull the user to check what everyone else is saying and doing constantly. For too many young people this is poisonous. By 2016 79% of teens owned a smartphone and 28% of children between the ages of 8 and 12 did as well.

In a 2015 study showed that teens with social media accounts reported spending about 2 hours a day on average using them. Teens reported spending an average of nearly 7 hours a day on screens and media including video games Netflix YouTube or on pornography sites. Between 2010 and 2015 is the birth of the phone base childhood and the definite end of the play-based childhood. Over the next few years social media ecosystems became even more enticing with the introduction of powerful filters and editing software in programs such as Instagram.  As girls social lives moved on to social media, boys borrowed deeper into the virtual world as they connected with online multiplayer video games, YouTube, Reddit and pornography sites.

Haidt refers to the period between 2010 and 2015 as the great rewiring of childhood social patterns. Role models, emotions, physical activity and even sleep patterns were fundamentally recast over the course of just a few years. The last part of this introduction Haidt shows there is no way to pin the surge of adolescent anxiety and depression on any economic event or trend that he could find. He compared adolescent mental health cases to other countries and saw American current events weren't the trigger. Psychiatric emergency department visits for self-harm for Canadian teens were almost identical to US teens, as was the same for the UK. Similar trends in anglosphere nations such as Ireland New Zealand and Australia were also present.

Lastly children born in the late 1990s were the first generation in history to have to go through puberty in the virtual world. It's as if we sent Gen Z to grow up on Mars. In summary, handing smartphones to teens in the early 2010s was the largest uncontrolled experiment humanity has ever performed on its own children. 

Thank you, Kate, for that summary on the Surge of Suffering. 

Next we are going to discuss: 

Part 2: which is called The Decline of Play-Based Childhood. 

Sarah, you’re going to provide a review this section of the book for us. What can you tell us about this so-called decline in play-based childhood? 

Sarah responds:

In Part 2, The Decline of the Play-Based Childhood, Haidt explains that children are primed for learning by three major factors: free play, attunement, and social learning. 

Free play is any activity that is chosen and directed by the participants for its own sake rather than to achieve specific results. In other words…without adult interference. Haidt says that the best type of play is physical, outdoors, with children of mixed ages, and with some degree of physical risk because children can only learn how not to get hurt in situations where getting hurt is an actual possibility. That being said, the risks should not be too severe in free play. Children need to have opportunities to make mistakes, get direct feedback from peers, learn to resolve conflicts, and become more resilient. These opportunities are all provided through free play. 

On the other hand, smartphones and tablets are experience blockers. The apps and endless scrolling are the exact opposite of the play-based experiences that help children learn. A phone-based childhood is mostly passive, indoors, asynchronous, and anonymous - so they don’t learn any of the same critical life skills about managing their emotions or working with others.

Attunement is the next hallmark of learning. Haidt explains that “human children are wired to connect, in part by tuning and synchronizing their movements and emotions with others.” Babies learn to express emotion by mimicking the people around them. As children grow, attunement forms the foundation for emotional self-regulation. But this critical face-to-face interaction has decreased dramatically as parents find themselves frequently distracted by their smartphones. Anthropologists point out that collective rituals and synchronous, face-to-face interactions are a deep part of the human experience across time and space, yet most social media platforms lure children into hours of asynchronous interaction. Anyone who has mindlessly scrolled through YouTube shorts or their Instagram feed knows that it’s a never-ending abyss of videos that are consumed alone. 

Social learning is the final hallmark of childhood learning, and social media has a huge impact on two specific elements of social learning: conformist bias and prestige bias. Conformist bias encourages children to copy whatever is most common, while prestige bias motivates children to copy whoever seems to be most powerful or popular. In a play-based world, children model themselves after the people around them. In a social media-based world, children model themselves after total strangers in the form of influencers - many of whom may have questionable values but are viewed as “prestigious” by children based purely on the number of likes their videos receive.

Chapter 3 of The Anxious Generation is titled Discover Mode and The Need for Risky Play. In this chapter, Haidt states that “we are overprotecting our children in the real world while under protecting them online.” This is one of my favorite chapters in the book, because I love his description of Discover Mode versus Defend Mode. Ideally, we want children’s brains to operate mostly in Discover Mode, where kids are confident that they can face challenges because they have experienced physical, psychological, and social competence through free play and social interactions. However, when there is society-wide pressure on parents to practice overprotective parenting, it causes children’s brains to default to Defend Mode, where they are made to feel that they aren’t capable of handling challenges or risks. They are on constant alert for threats, as opposed to seeking out new and exciting experiences. This leads to anxiety. Shifting children to Discover Mode would help them thrive instead of just survive. 

In 2012, Nassim Taleb wrote a book titled “Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder,” and Haidt uses this concept to explain that, in the same way that our immune system needs exposure to germs to grow resilient, and trees need exposure to wind to grow strong, children also need to be exposed to failure, setbacks, and mistakes in order to develop independence and confidence. 

Because of our society’s intense focus on keeping them safe at all costs, children are being prevented from having the types of experiences they need to grow and thrive. 

In Chapter 4, Haidt moves on to Puberty and the Blocked Transition to Adulthood. Puberty is a period of very rapid brain rewiring, similar to the first few years of life. The experiences that an adolescent has during that time impact the processes of neural pruning and myelination, both of which have lasting impacts on the brain’s structure and, as a result, on the child’s mental health and well-being.  

The problem with smartphones and social media is that they offer so much enticement that they reduce interest in all non-screen-based forms of experience. If you have ever tried to get your child’s attention when they are lost in the world of Fortnight or YouTube videos, you know that the outside world is temporarily on hold when a child is glued to the screen. What type of experiences are being sacrificed as a result? Rites of passage such as getting a driver’s license, dating, or having a part-time job. 

Haidt suggests that the most effective way to combat this loss of communal ritual would be for our society to adopt milestones on even-year birthdays from ages 6 to 18. Each of these birthdays would be linked to new responsibilities and increases in allowance to allow students to feel that they’re climbing a ladder towards adulthood. 

He calls Age 6 the “age of family responsibility” and says that children can be given a small list of a chores and a small allowance that is contingent on those chores. 

Age 8 can be “the age of local freedom,” where children can run local errands and play in groups without adult supervision. They could also be given a watch or a non-smart phone that would allow them to call a small number of people such as their parents. 

Age 10 is “the age of roaming,” where preteens are allowed to roam more widely and be given a basic phone with no internet access. Haidt encourages parents to allow 10 year olds to hang out with their friends in person more than having every moment filled with adult-led enrichment activities.

Age 12 is “the age of apprenticeship,” where adolescents should begin to find adult role models beyond their parents. Adolescents should be encouraged to earn their own money by doing chores for neighbors or relatives. 

Age 14 is around the time that high school begins for most adolescents, so Haidt feels this is a reasonable target for a national norm about the minimum age for teens to get their first smartphone. 

Age 16 could be “the beginning of internet adulthood.” Haidt feels that the United States Congress made a huge error back in 1998 when it determined that children could sign contracts with corporations to create accounts and provide their data without parent consent at age 13. Haidt believes that this age should be raised to 16, which would mean that social media accounts wait until that age as well. 

Age 18 would remain largely as it exists now, as the beginning of legal adulthood. However, with Haidt’s ladder proposal, this birthday would feel more like a separation from childhood and the beginning of a transition into adulthood because of the gradual increases to independence that adolescents have been exposed to since age 6. 

Although some of these proposed ages for new independence might be initially jarring for parents (I’m thinking specifically of allowing children to run local errands by themselves at age 8), what would make his ladder to independence successful is if it truly became a national norm. Right now, parents are left to determine the “right” age to give their child a smartphone or allow them to walk around town with friends alone. Since this currently varies so much from family to family, it sets up a sense of competition between children (with children saying, “Mom, I’m the only 5th grader without a phone!”) and inherent judgment from parents (with parents saying, “Can you believe they allow Timmy to wander around town by himself? It’s not safe!”) Adopting national norms would be a huge step towards resetting childhood for generations to come

Thank you, Sarah, for your summary of the Decline of Play Based Childhood.

Moving on, we are now going to focus on:

Part 3: which is called The Great Rewiring: The Rise of Phone-Based Play.

Christyn, you’re prepared to talk about Part 3 of the book. What can you share about what the author describes as the great rewiring and the rise in phone-based play? 

Christyn responds:

Part 3 is titled: The Great Rewiring: The Rise of the Phone-Based Childhood.  

• The overarching theme or goal of this section is to examine the evidence of harm from what Haidt calls “The Great Rewiring” across a wide spectrum of outcomes.  
• Within this section the profound effects that constant smartphone use has had on young people's social, emotional, and cognitive development is what he references as the “The Great Rewiring”. 
• He cites the rapid switch from “flip phones” to “smartphones” with high speed internet and social media apps as a contributor to what Haidt this “phone-based” childhood
• He also outlines the many ramifications to this generation.
• The original “smartphone” introduced in 2007 was much simpler and was not designed with as many of the addictive features of future smartphones.  
• Haidt also weaves factors related to child/adolescent development throughout this section and stresses how this has made them the most vulnerable population to these technological advances.  Children and adolescents have an underdeveloped frontal cortex (which is responsible for planning, prioritizing and making good decisions), therefore giving them the least amount of willpower and most vulnerable to manipulation. 
• Throughout this section, Haidt illustrates how the transformation of social media has contributed to the “Great Rewiring” and made it more harmful.  Around the 2010’s, a few critical changes were made:
• addition of the “like” feature (2009)
• Push notifications (2009)
• Facebook began using algorithms to which motivated other platforms to follow suit and curate content that would “hook” the users
• Front facing camera made it easier to take “selfies” and videos on oneself
• High Speed Internet (reaching 61% of homes by 2010)- making it easier to consume information quicker

Within Part 3 “The Great Rewiring”, there are four chapters that I will review, which are the following:

1. The Four Foundational Harms
2. Why Social Media Harms Girls more than Boys
3. What’s Happening to Boys?
4. Spiritual Elevation and Degradation

The Four Harms of a Phone-Based Childhood

Haidt identifies four primary harms resulting from the widespread use of smartphones and social media during childhood.  

1. Social Deprivation:  Constant engagement with phones has led to a decline in face-to-face interactions, which are essential for developing critical social skills such as empathy, reading body language, taking social/emotional risks, and conflict resolution. 

·         Haidt highlights the growing inability of young people to engage in real-world social settings, relying instead on text-based communication, which lacks the nuance and emotional depth of in-person exchanges.  

·         How many times have we observed a group of teens hanging out together, yet they are all on their phones, not really engaged in conversations or interaction?

·         How many times have we observed children at very young ages (toddlers) with their parents’ phone in their hand or some other device at restaurants and other public settings to keep them occupied?  

·         A few important takeaways noted that support this point of reduced face to face or in person interactions:

o    In the early 2000’s there was a large gap between the older age groups (35-64 year old’s) and the younger generation (15-24 year olds) in the amount of minutes per day spent with friends.  However, since 2003 this gap has drastically closed.  Friend time for the youngest age group has decreased from 122 minutes per day in 2012 to 67 minutes per day in 2019.

o    This decline in face to face “friend time” actually began prior to the COVID epidemic and accelerated after 2013.

o    However, during the epidemic it may have been thought that friendships were not being lost, but just moving to a virtual setting like snapchat, tik tok, Instagram, and online video games.  Which we now know is not as good as face to face, synchronous interactions.

o    For example, talking on the phone with a friend or family member is far more meaningful than sitting alone in your bedroom, scrolling endlessly through Instagram or waiting for someone to “like” your picture/post. Similarly, playing video games with a constantly changing group of friends or strangers doesn’t offer the same connection as a real conversation.

o    The healthiest form of play is being outdoors, taking risks, exerting energy and being physical. 

o    It's shocking to learn that the average teen spends over 7 hours a day on their phone. The real concern is that this amount of screen time takes away from valuable opportunities to engage in other social face to face/in person activities.

2.                  Sleep deprivation: 

·         Puberty is a time of many changes for adolescents which includes sleeping patterns.  Many teens experience poor sleep due to a natural shift to a later bedtime and an earlier start time in middle and high school. 

·         The brain goes through a period of rapid growth and rewiring during puberty making sleep even more important.  

·         It is recommended that teens sleep at least 8 hrs. a night and preteens 9 hours a night.

·         Although there is a natural disruption during this time period for teens, smartphones have exacerbated this disruption. 

·         Research has shown a decline in not only the quantity, but also the quality of sleep in adolescents.  

·         When teens are allowed to have screens in bedrooms, they are more likely to use them late into the night.

·         Additionally, shorter sleep times have been associated with depression, lack of impulse control, and aggression.

3.                  Attention Fragmentation: 

·         In the discussion of this harm, what struck me most was the amount of notifications a young person may have in an average day.  One study found that on average an adolescent receives 192 alerts per day, which is about 11 notifications per waking hour, or one every 5 minutes.  And this data relates to the “average” teen, not even including a heavy user, such as older teen girls who are texting and using social media apps far more than any other group.  

·         He describes attention as the ability to stay on one mental task, or one “mental road” even when there are attractive “off ramps” trying to deter you.  Smartphones have many “off ramps” causing many opportunities for disruptions and distractions to teens.  Again, much harder for children and teens with an immature frontal cortex.  

·         With third party apps, the companies that advertise on the various social media platforms are competing amongst themselves as to who can gain the most attention and for the longest form users. They were designed and created with that sole purpose.  With these constant interruptions or as Haidt describes as“off ramps”, it gets harder and harder to stay focused. 

·         EF skills are compromised with heavy users

·          I thought it was also valuable to note that studies have shown that even when the phone is left in a bag or in one’s pocket it can still reduce the ability to focus because of the constant need for stimulation and the continuous updates/notification which foster this sense of urgency or “fear of missing out”.

·         I liked the visualization presented “If you think of every app as an “off ramp” and every notification as a billboard calling you to “tap here and see what someone has just said about you”.  And if you think about how difficult this is for adults to stay committed to one “mental road” and not get sidetracked by every “off ramp” imagine the challenge this presents to teens with underdeveloped frontal cortices.  

·         Just the presence of the phone, even if a student is not checking it, is a distraction and interferes with their ability to focus and think.  Another study’s results illustrated this by determining that the group of college students did best on an exam when their phones were left in a bag in another room and did worse when the phone was sitting on a desk next to them.  

·         Our middle school, like many others in Bucks County, has implemented a strict policy that phones are required to be left in student’s lockers.

 Addiction: 

·         The behavioral addictions to social media and other apps is not exactly the same as a drug addiction.  However, they both involve dopamine, cravings and compulsions. Dopamine makes you want more of whatever the activity was that triggered the release.  Many apps have designed their programs specifically to “hook” their user.    

·         Interestingly, after a teen is “hooked”, the trigger for the next round of behavior could be internal.  Meaning a teen may no longer need a notification to trigger the desire to check Instagram.  That desire or thought (I wonder if someone has liked my post). could arise in the middle of doing a homework assignment.  Just the thought of a possible reward can trigger the release of dopamine and the craving and compulsion to check Instagram for example.  If the teen does check Instagram and feels disappointed that they haven’t received a “like” on their post that may then prompt them to look at older posts for validation or start endlessly scrolling for immediate entertainment.  

·          The design of smartphones and social media apps, with their continuous updates and notifications, fosters a sense of urgency and the fear of missing out. Young people, constantly tethered to their devices, experience heightened anxiety about not being "in the loop" or missing important social interactions. This can lead to addictive behavior, making it increasingly difficult for them to disconnect and engage in other forms of leisure or productive activity.

Why Social Media Harms Girls More Than Boys

• Haidt explains that 3 harms caused by social media that are disproportionately felt by girls, particularly in terms of their mental health. 
• (#1) Girls, especially in adolescence, are more prone to social comparison and perfectionism., often tying their self-worth to external validation (a like on a post, a positive comment about their appearance). 
•  #(2)Girl aggression is more relational (spreading gossip, turning friends against another friend, isolation, lowering a friend's “value” in a friend group, etc.) Social media platforms have only magnified the reach of relational bullying and/aggression.  
• This is often done in a way in that adults have limited access or understanding.  
• The relational aggression that can occur through social media platforms can be subtle and anonymous, making it easier for the aggressors and harder to intervene and address.  
• (#3) Girls more easily share emotions and disorders:  This “emotional contagion” is especially strongest amongst girls. 
• A Study found that negative emotional states, such as depression/anxiety are more influential than positive emotional states.  Additionally, this spread only happened from women to women.  Which could relate to the tendency for women to talk about their feelings more than men when they are together.    
• With the introduction of video oriented platforms, like TikTok, rates of anxiety and depression rose, especially amongst teen girls.  
• Haidt discusses the “anxiety variant” which affects girls and often happens as a result of a stressor or threat to the community.  During the COVID epidemic, Tik Tok was an exciting, relatively new platform for girls.  What started as an app to create dance videos quickly utilized an algorithm to pick up on the slightest bit of interest shown by the user.  Therefore, any user that showed an interest in mental health was bombarded with videos from other teens discussing mental health and receiving social support for doing so.  As a result, there are examples of how several disorders (such as Tourette’s and dissociative identity disorder) has increased among girls self-identifying with the disorder.  
• (#4) Girls are more subject to predation and harassment.  Girls are more likely to be exposed to older men who seek them out.   The virtual world has made it easier for girls to be a target of predatory behavior...   
• Quantity over Quality:   Social media places a greater emphasis on the number of followers, likes, etc. which is often felt more in girls than boys.  So, while the number of online relationships multiplies, the quality of in person and face to face relationships (or some might say “real) decreases.  
• The visual nature of platforms (which are used more often by girls) like Tik Tok, Instagram exaggerates this tendency, with girls being more likely to focus on their appearance and the opinions of others. These platforms encourage a culture of comparison. 
• Users are constantly exposed to curated content showcasing the highlight reels of others’ lives, which creates unrealistic standards of beauty, success, and happiness.
• For young people, the pressure to conform to these standards is immense, leading to anxiety, depression, and a diminished sense of self-worth. 
• Haidt argues that this incessant comparison is especially harmful for adolescent girls, who are more sensitive to these social pressures.
• When it comes to the impact of social media, it exposes girls to hundreds, possibly thousands of such images a every day.
• Another factor to consider is that earlier forms of “airbrushing” and “photoshopped” advertisements were different than social media today in that girls are now competing against people they know (classmates, friends) and not necessarily strangers in earlier forms of advertising.  
• Boys, on the other hand, are generally less affected by appearance-based comparisons. Haidt notes that while social media can still contribute to anxiety, depression, the harm is not as acute because boys tend to use social media differently. Boys are more likely to engage in competitive or interest-based activities, such as gaming or discussing hobbies, which do not focus as heavily on appearance or social comparison.

What’s Happening to Boys?

• Haidt highlights that the growing prevalence of smartphone and social media use has affected boys in a different way compared to girls, but it is still having a profound impact.
• Boys, traditionally more prone to externalizing behavior like aggression, are now showing increasing signs of disengagement and depression. 
• Haidt suggests that the passive nature of screen time, particularly with video games and social media, contributes to a lack of physical activity, outdoor exploration, and social bonding. 
• Teens are not engaged in as many bad things as they once were- less alcohol use, fewer car accidents, fewer physical fights, and teen pregnancies.  However, he asks that question what if this is not the result of Gen Z getting wiser, but because they were withdrawing more from the physical world and more into the virtual world.  
• One study’s results indicated a greater decline in boys self-reporting the “enjoyment of risk taking”.  The risks include both healthy and unhealthy risks which can help teens develop and manage risks in the real world.  
• Boys are not only self-reporting a decrease in the desire to take risks there has been evidence of a decline in unintentional injuries in boys aged 10-19, when looking at hospitalizations in the US.  
• By 2015, boys were exposed to a level of stimulation and attention extraction than had been unimaginable 15 years earlier.  
• Haidt relates what is happening to boys as a “Failure to Launch”.  He sites that young men (27%) are more likely to live at home into their late 20’s than young women (17%).
• Boys are spending more time at home on screens.  And with the introduction of the smartphone, their social lives moved more online, and their mental health declined.  Boys in the past would experience an unbelievable amount of boredom and loneliness in their bedroom which would motivate most adolescents to make a change.  Not the case anymore when you can take your screen into your room for endless entertainment.  
• The tech world has found ways to engage boys in things they want to do without having to take physical or social risks.  Boys are more consumed in the virtual world by pornography and video games.
• Pornography and video games are consumed at a much higher rate among boys. 
• The amount of time spent playing video games means less time devoted to sleep, exercise, and in person interactions.
• Again, there is the issue of quantity vs. quality.  Relationships developed in the virtual world create weaker bonds than those developed in person.  
• There have been more reports of depression, social withdrawal, and a decrease in overall motivation and ambition among boys.  
• Haidt connects these changes to the diminished presence of meaningful, face-to-face interactions that help young people build resilience and self-confidence.

Spiritual Elevation and Degradation

• Haidt describes how research has shown the power various spiritual practices (i.e. prayer, meditation) can improve one’s wellbeing.
• He highlights six spiritual practices that he believes can improve our lives, as well as the lives of our children and adolescents. These practices are accessible to everyone and don’t require a religious affiliation. He emphasizes that they can help us connect more deeply and thrive in our own lives.
• (#1) Shared Sacredness: (participating in regular religious services, establishing family rituals, or joining organizations with a shared moral, charitable, or spiritual purpose such as volunteer opportunities).  
• (#2) Embodiment: The representation of something in tangible form- he uses examples of in person activities or rituals that involve people bonding together (team sports, attending live concerts, religious services, family meals)
• (#3) Stillness, Silence, and Focus-He uses the example of meditation and breath work which can help to calm the mind and has been shown to improve wellbeing (vs. the phone-based life that is frenetic and rarely includes moments of silence or stillness).  He points out that even brief sessions of 10 minutes each day of mindfulness meditation can reduce negative emotions (anxiety, irritability)
• (#4) Transcending the Self- spiritual practices can quiet the mind's focus on what I want, what I need, and what other people think of me. As opposed to social media which does the opposite.  
• (#5) Be Slow to Anger, Quick to Forgive- 
• (#6) Find Awe in Nature- Easily accessible (get outside, take a walk)

In conclusion, Part 3 of The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt paints a comprehensive and concerning picture of the long-term impact of smartphones and social media on the mental, social, and spiritual development of today’s youth. Haidt emphasizes the urgent need for greater awareness, regulation, and intervention to mitigate the harms caused by these technologies, especially among vulnerable groups like adolescent girls. At the same time, he calls for a balanced approach, encouraging healthier ways of engaging with technology while fostering deeper, more meaningful connections in the physical world.

I think that knowledge is power and educating our youth about the effects on their brain and how the various social media apps and games were designed is crucial.  The platforms were not created with mental health in mind.  They were created with the main goal of grabbing and keeping the consumers attention with little regard to the mental health and societal consequences.   Children and teens will be using smartphones and new advanced technologies, so helping them learn how to manage their use while maintaining healthy connections to the physical world is the call to action.

Lastly, I will say that fear of the “battle” we were possibly going to face vs. the reality of how it actually has played out within our own district is eye opening.  We have not had any concerns from parents or guardians about the policy and students have adhered to the new policy with extremely limited violations.  

Thank you Christyn, for your summary of the Great Rewiring and the Rise of Phone Based Play.

The last section we will be discussing is:

Part 4: which is called Collective Action for Healthier Childhood.

Susan, you will be providing a summary of Part 4 of the book, where the author talks about the steps to be taken to help correct the current mental health crisis. What can you tell us about the specific steps that are recommended by the author for us to consider?  

Susan responds:

 Anxious Generation Podcast Review-Part 4 Collective Action for a Healthier Childhood

Part four discusses various topics to aid in a healthier childhood consisting of what the government, schools, and parents can do.  I will touch on government but primarily focus on suggestions for schools and parents. 

• What government can do: 
  • In order to create a safer environment for children and adolescents, government and tech companies can do the following: 
  • 1. Assert a duty of care which is the moral and legal obligations to individuals under 18 years old, for example, have settings as automatic default to private and a child must elect to make it public
  • 2. Raise the age of internet adulthood to age 16 (currently anyone 13 or older is considered internet adulthood. The bill, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act was enacted in 1998 and nothing has been updated since. Data can be collected, and accounts can be made at age 13. However, as the author Jonathan Haidt mentions age 13 is too low and age 16 would be more developmentally appropriate
  • 3. Facilitate age verification-some kind of age verification implemented especially on sights that are promiscuous such as pornography 
  • 4. Encourage phone free schools-government could support from all levels from local to federal, and phones would not be allowed during school hours.  And, offer financial support for more free play and recess programs in schools as well as before and after school programs
• What schools can do:
   
  • Most importantly, Jonathan Haidt encourages phone free schools.  Students need to put their phones away when they enter school, either in lockers or designated areas and they cannot access them until dismissal.  If parents need to contact students, they are instructed to call the main office.  There has been apprehension from parents if there was an emergency, but it actually is safer for the school to contact parents as opposed to parents frantically texting and trying to call their child’s phones during emergencies.  
• 
  

Phones allowed in schools interfere with social interaction.  Some schools have opted to have phone free classes, yet when students are in the hallways there is zero social interaction.  Students are quickly checking their phones between classes, scrolling through social media, and then have no face to face interaction.  They are waiting for the next ping on their phone and rushing to leave class to go check phones in book bags and lockers.  Instead, Jonathan Haidt suggests putting phones away for the entire duration of the school day.  If students put phones away, they are more inclined to have a conversation with students and interact with others.  Students are in need of community and sense of belonging, and phone free schools allow an improvement in mental health and socialization.  

Also, phones interfere with learning and they disrupt students from paying attention.  Phones have been found to increase distractions and disruption in the classroom.  Students are waiting to check social media, text messages, and scroll through apps.  They are less engaged in instruction.

The start of this school year, the New Hope-Solebury Middle School implemented a no cell phone policy:  students must put cell phones in their lockers for the entire day.  Initially the staff thought there would be a lot of pushback from students and staff alike.  However, surprisingly there was very minimal questions or objection to the new rule. Since school started, we have had less issues with cell phones.  Students using them inappropriately has been cut significantly and students have not been receiving discipline referrals for using them throughout the school day.  The hallways are noisy, in a positive way, with students socializing and talking to one another.  Occasionally, a student will ask if they can text or call a parent using a cell phone and the student is directed to go to the office.  

 Furthermore, Jonathan Haidt has also suggested that schools introduce more unstructured time and play (even in middle and high school).  The middle school introduced advisory this school year, to have a softer start to the school day.  Advisory helps to improve connectedness to school and also a connection with an adult in school.  Advisory is 22 minutes and then students move to first period.  Looking into adding more unstructured time in middle and high school could be advantageous and create more autonomy among our adolescents. 

• What parents can do:
• Encourage less screen time and set screen time limits-children spend so much time on tablets, phones, computers that they need more time face to face with friends, individuals, and real-life interactions.  They need to form social connections in communities and schools.  They need to have limits on screen time daily

When you do allow your child to use social media and phones, tablets, etc. make sure you have parental controls and filter content.  Check your child phones and devices regularly! Look for signs of addiction or problematic use such as visiting sites/downloading apps that are inappropriate, activity on devices interfering with daily responsibilities, extracurricular activities, school, etc., deceptive behavior to spend time online, choose social media over in person interactions

• Talk to your child about risks online.  Not every website or app is geared for children or adolescents. Try to delay social media accounts until 16; accounts such as Tik Tok or Instagram.  Remind adolescents about the risks of providing personal information and content on various platforms-once it’s out there you can’t take it back.  Discuss sexting and cyberbullying and problems associated with it.  Even when adolescents have access to various apps-continue to set parameters and keep open communication 
• Need to encounter social challenges-children need to learn resilience and problem solving.  They need to learn how to fall and get up again.  They need to learn how to have conflict and find resolutions.  Parents tend to helicopter their children in the real world yet allow them to have free reign in the electronic/cyber world.  
  • Allow kids to play and be out of parent’s sight for a period of time-let teens learn and grow, increase confidence, safe risk taking-mountain biking, backpacking, camping-trying new activities 
  • Allow free play after school or before school
  • Allow kids to walk and ride bikes to school
  • Find summer camps that are device free
  • Work within your neighborhood to encourage free play
  • Give adolescents chores, jobs, etc at home-clean, cook
  • Find ways for them to lead and develop independence-become a camp counselor, babysit, mow lawns, dog or cat sit-learn leadership skills and empathy 

In conclusion, it’s really hard being a parent in an ever-changing technological world where our children almost know more than us!  It’s a balance between students and our children being independent and feeling a part of a social network but also still keeping them engaged to learn and grow and foster independence and resilience.  We need to work together with other families and schools to foster more independent free play and also delay the online phone-based childhood.  If schools, parents, and government can work together towards the goals in the book, “The Anxious Generation,” we will collectively increase positive mental health among our children and adolescents-more confident and less anxious future generations!  As a middle school counselor and parent of an adolescent, I am professionally and personally invested in the endeavor to help our future generations be the best they possibly can be.

Thank you, Susan, for your summary of the Collective Action for Healthier Childhood.

Conclusion:

As you can see there is a lot of information to process about this topic and it likely raises a lot of questions and concerns for parents, educators and mental health professionals alike. Since we are all mental health professionals in schools, we may see students on a daily basis that could be emotionally impacted or effected by these situations we’ve discussed. Because of this, I think it’s important for all of us be aware of the potential factors that come into play when working with students with mental health issues, and when deciding on strategies to help support them.  

I would also encourage parents, teachers or anyone who cares about the current state of mental health with school aged students to read The Anxious Generation and get more detailed information about the specific topics that were presented today. You may find that the information is very relevant to you or your child and you might want to consider implementing the recommendations provided. 

So, this concludes our presentation on the book The Anxious Generation by Dr. Haidt.  Kate, Sarah, Christyn and Susan, thank you all so much for being here today and providing a great summary of information presented in the book. 

I am Doug Olszewski, host of The School Social Worker Spotlight podcast, and thank you for listening.