America has a long history of moral panics, the phone, rock music, rap music, etc. I always want to be careful about blaming “that new thing the kids are doing” and therefore I try to offer a balanced perspective when somebody starts talking about “the kids and the phones”. Needless to say I went into this book with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Right off the bat my skepticism was rewarded in the form of a lengthy anecdote about sending kids to Mars as test subjects, which Haidt uses as some kind of metaphor for the way big tech uses kids as test subjects in social media, advertising, etc. And while I agree with the point I felt the metaphor was heavy handed and it kind of commenced the book with a bad taste in my mouth, although I still kept an open mind.
Fortunately, the Mars story was the first and last of such abstract anecdotes and the book settles into a well researched and factual deconstruction of the way children have been raised for the past 30+ years (essentially my from my childhood to now: my daughters’ childhoods) and the impact that phones and social media has played on that. I was pleased that Haidt didn’t only point fingers at “the phones”. He deconstructed the “stranger danger” panics of the 80s and 90s which directly led to more sedentary inside time for kids and more fear mongering for both kids and parents.
Nothing happens in a vacuum and Haidt got the approach right; yes social media drives young adult anxiety and depression but it it’s particularly virulent because of these devices which are in our pockets all the time. And yes we have our phones on us all the time but we also are less equipped to have real-world interactions because of parental fears about kidnappers and molesters which arose directly from 1980s culture. Yes there was a lot of fear in the 80s and 90s most of it misplaced, but there was also a new emphasis on child rearing as an active pursuit rather than a passive one. This “active” parent was more than just being loving, supportive and attentive it led to the phenomenon of “helicopter parenting” because heaven forbid kids were on their own for five minutes.
Back to my original skepticism I think it was largely misplaced because the scope of this books was far broader than just “phones are bad”, The Anxious Generation is a survey of the evolution of children over two generations. As much as I like to push back against the panic around phones; there is a reason we don’t have a TV in our home. There is a reason we send our daughter to a Waldorf school. I acutely feel so much of what Haidt’s saying, I think too much media (social or traditional) at a young age is harmful not only as a leaver on anxiety and depression. Kids have wonderful imaginations and substituting this natural creativity with a screen of any kind can severely damage it. I see a pipeline from kids in front of the TV; to kids in school finding the textbook answer; to compliant adults who do what their told- adding value to the military industrial complex, and being good consumers. (Now who’s panicking‽)
I volunteered for a few years at a youth group for kids roughly 6-9 it was fascinating to observe the kids who, at that young age, had phones and those who did not. The ones who had phones were almost always on them; although they were still able to engage with the group and participate in meaningful ways the phone was almost always in hand. Not only that but these children seemed older than they should have been, more worldly. They would reference jokes and memes laughing at the humour but not understanding the point because they were 9 years old not 25. Their lived experience did not match the content they were viewing and it was ageing them without making them wise.
I read this book because I have two daughters but even for those without children it serves as a stark cultural survey. A rebuke not only for parents whose children faces are always aglow in blue light but even for adults such as myself who spend too much time doom scrolling.