The Anxious Generation

Over the past week, I’ve started reading a book called: The Anxious Generation. This newsletter will be a two-parter since I haven’t finished the book yet. For now, here are my initial thoughts and lessons learned.

Growing Up On Mars

“Suppose that when your first child turned ten, a visionary billionaire whom you’ve never met chose her to join the first permanent human settlement on Mars.” This is the first sentence written in the book's introduction. Immediately, it paints a picture of a situation that would seem cool and harmless but could have drastic and grave effects on the individual who agrees to participate. Being the first to discover the unknown is never a simple task.

The book revolves around cell phones, social media, and how a whole generation was used as a test group to see the outcome of raising a child in a radically different environment. At first, I didn’t think much of it. I felt like I lived a pretty normal and okay life. As I continued to read through, however, I realized just how off-track my mental state was from that of previous generations and why I was feeling the way I felt in certain social situations with people from older generations.

Questions started being answered and I had no idea how deep into that experimental hole I was truly in.

Gen-Z & The 2010’s

The book classifies Gen-Z as people born after 1995 and into the early 2010s. I was born in 1996 so, as my luck would have it, I was one of the first test subjects drafted into the experimental times.

A noticeable shift is impactfully referenced surrounding adolescent life in the 2010s and the decline of their mental states. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide more than doubled amongst this age group during the shift.

One thing I loved that the author, Jonathan Haidt, had done, was he didn’t just blame technology for rising mental health issues, he described where he believes we went wrong in the process and how the human mind isn’t fully prepared to exist and evolve in that new type of environment.

Life Reflections Being Gen-Z

Haidt describes two types of childhoods in the book. “Play-Based” childhoods and “Phone-Based” childhoods. Since I was one of the first years of Gen-Z, I experienced a little bit of both. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse than being brought up completely in a “Phone-Based” childhood environment.

The author described that when cell phones, and technology, started becoming more popular and prevalent, the way parents raised their children also changed. I do remember experiencing this shift and feeling lost because of it. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever felt “found” or “secure” since noticing that shift.

Another pillar the book speaks on is the “Discover vs Defend” mindset. Generations before Gen Z were seen as “Discovery Minded” meaning they saw the world with curiosity and wonder. Gen-Z was labeled as “Defense Minded” meaning one had the mindset that the world was out to get them and everything around them was there to harm them.

This struck a chord with me because that is exactly how I feel 24/7. Haidt attributes this to the change in parenting where parents became more protective of their children and told them all the things they couldn’t do because it was too dangerous and that people you didn’t know were harmful and not to be interacted with. This form of parenting, rather than allowing children to learn life through personal experiences and mistakes, became one of the major downfalls to the new generation.

I’m excited to see how the end of the book turns out and what potential solutions he may have for us. I think this book could help a lot of the younger people out there understand why they feel the way they do even if they’ve always felt “Normal”. It could also help parents understand what their children may be going through mentally without them even knowing it.

I’ll see you next week for part 2!