“The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt”
This book explains why it has become harder for kids to think, focus and build close relationships in the digital age and provides reforms to build a healthier childhood and prepare them for the world.
7 lessons from the book 🧵
This book explains why it has become harder for kids to think, focus and build close relationships in the digital age and provides reforms to build a healthier childhood and prepare them for the world.
7 lessons from the book 🧵
1) Between 2010 and 2015, the social lives of American teens moved largely onto smartphones with continuous access to social media, online video games, and other internet-based activities.
This Great Rewiring of Childhood is the single largest reason for the tidal wave of adolescent mental illness that began in the early 2010s.
This Great Rewiring of Childhood is the single largest reason for the tidal wave of adolescent mental illness that began in the early 2010s.
2) Unstructured time with friends plummeted in the exact years when play-based childhood was replaced by phone-based childhood.
Children learn through play to connect, synchronize, take turns and develop social skills (conflict resolution), etc.
Children learn through play to connect, synchronize, take turns and develop social skills (conflict resolution), etc.
3) All children are by nature anti-fragile. Just as the immune system must be exposed to germs, children require exposure to setbacks, failures, shocks and stumbles in order to develop strength and self-reliance.
Overprotection interferes with this development and renders young people more likely to be fragile and fearful as adults.
Overprotection interferes with this development and renders young people more likely to be fragile and fearful as adults.
4) The Four Foundational harms of the phone-based childhood:
- Social deprivation
(time with friends in face-to-face settings plummeted)
- Sleep deprivation
(sleep declined in both quantity and quality)
- Attention Fragmentation
(lesser time to think without an interruption)
- Addiction
(got hooked into the plethora of available social apps)
- Social deprivation
(time with friends in face-to-face settings plummeted)
- Sleep deprivation
(sleep declined in both quantity and quality)
- Attention Fragmentation
(lesser time to think without an interruption)
- Addiction
(got hooked into the plethora of available social apps)
5) A better way to think about child rearing is as a gardener.
Your job is to create a protected and nurturing space for them to flourish.
Your job is to create a protected and nurturing space for them to flourish.
6) There are four reforms that are so important that would provide a foundation for healthier childhood on the digital age:
- No smartphones before high school.
- No social media before 16.
- Phone-free schools.
- Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence.
- No smartphones before high school.
- No social media before 16.
- Phone-free schools.
- Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence.
7) When we give trust to kids, they soar.
Thank you for going through this short thread. Follow me at @readswithravi for more book learning, reviews, lessons and recommendations.
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