The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt on what smartphones and social media did to childhood after 2010
Jonathan Haidt's 2024 book argues that a phone-based childhood replaced a play-based one in the early 2010s, and that teenage anxiety, depression and lost sleep followed. He pairs that with a second claim: parents grew overprotective in the physical world while leaving children unsupervised online. The prescriptions are collective rather than individual, such as delaying smartphones and social media, phone-free schools and more unsupervised play. Critics dispute how much of the mental health trend the data can pin on screens.
People on record
Sorted by strength of stance
Does it: documented as part of their own routine. Recommends: explicitly advises other people to do it. Discusses: covered it substantively without clear personal adoption; this can include criticism or disagreement.
- Bill GatesRecommends
Microsoft co-founder · Gates Notes reading lists
Scary but convincing, in his words, on how phones rewired adolescence. His daughter, a pediatrician, recommended it; what worries him most is the effect on the ability to concentrate, since his own Think Weeks came out of a childhood with nothing to scroll.
Source: Gates Notes: The cost of growing up online - Simon SinekDiscusses
Author · Start with WHY
Jonathan Haidt came on the podcast to argue that the Gen Z mental health crisis traces back to growing up with smartphones and social media. Sinek says Haidt believes it is solvable, and asked what he would tell worried parents.
Source: A Bit of Optimism: The Anxious Generation with social psychologist Jonathan Haidt
Aimed at the same thing
Other entries filed under focus or stress.
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Digital Minimalism
A philosophy for using much less technology, on purpose
On record from 2 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it, 1 has discussed it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Clear Thinking
Parrish on the ordinary moments where a decision is really made
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Effortless
Make the most essential activities the easiest ones to do
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Essentialism
The disciplined pursuit of less, applied to a career and a calendar
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Heavily Meditated
Dave Asprey on shortcuts to deep meditative states with breath, feedback and pain
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it - Book$$$Cheap: Roughly under $50, or under $15/month.
Psych
Judd Biasiotto on the mental training behind record-setting powerlifting
On record from 1 of 62 tracked people: 1 recommends it
Book entry · notes paraphrased from cited sources, quoted excerpts copied from the transcript they link to. Not medical advice. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by anyone listed. How this works.