Here we have the second instalment of our book review series.
“THE ANXIOUS GENERATION“ by Jonathan Haidt, who is the Thomas Cooley professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of business, is a timely study of how the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of anxiety and mental illness in young people.
Professor Haidt’s essay at a rationale of this increasingly common problem points to the early 2000s as the time when children began to lay aside their ice skates, football boots, tennis rackets and cricket bats in favour of ever more powerful mobile phones and a plethora of apps that had previously been numbered by the score, but were suddenly available by the hundred if not by the thousand.
This work should be obligatory reading for everyone who has anything to do with children and young adults, not excluding parents and school teachers. This significant study includes sections on a tidal wave – the surge of suffering, the backstory – the decline of play-based childhood and the Great Rewiring or the rise of phone based childhood.
No therapists working with children and young adults can afford to ignore this work. Considering that it delineates the parameters of the problem as well as pointing us in the right direction for “making a better digital life with kids.’ it is highly recommended.