The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

BATB Score: 8.5/10 👏

*reader discretion advise* this is not a book; this is a white-paper research document proposing one single premise that mobile phone x the internet x social media, all from 2010 onwards is creating an anxious generation with weakening mental health and detrimental life consequences

Best for: read this book if this is you - “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.” 🙋‍♀️🙋🙋‍♂️

Best to: Haidt’s pitch is “No smartphones before high school. No social media before 16. Phone-free school hours. More independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world.” that’s it

BATB lingering thought: a prisoner in jail gets two hours of outdoor recreational time VS a kindergartener gets 30-minutes of recess 🤯

Best as: each chapters are not MECE [Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive]; 15% of the time it get repetitive

Best quotes: “People don’t get depressed when they face threats collectively; they get depressed when they feel isolated, lonely, or useless.”

“Conformist bias motivates them to copy whatever seems to be most common. Prestige bias motivates them to copy whoever seems to be the most accomplished and prestigious.”

“We are overprotecting our children in the real world while under-protecting them online.”

“Being a perfectionist also increases your anxiety because you fear the shame of public failure from everything you do.”

“A girl who feels her value sinking is a girl experiencing rising anxiety.”

“BIOPHILIA is ‘love of life’”