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

Did not finish book.

Agree with the four reforms the author posits very early in the book. For most people, the four reforms are all you will need as a guide for parenting your children. Maybe this book is helpful to change policy or if you are really unaware of what smartphones are doing to yourself and your children and you like all the social science, but I found it to be quite a slog and gave up on it. I didn’t like how the behavior of people was compared to dogs, repeatedly. To be fair, cats were mentioned, too. But we weren’t created in the image of dogs and cats. (I understand that is how evolutionary social science works, but I find it to be so unrelatable. Faith is discussed in a later chapter in terms of its mental health benefits.) In all seriousness, I’m glad this book is sparking reform. Even in my own area there are groups popping up advocating for change because of this book. And I think that is great even if I didn’t enjoy the book.