When I was growing up, summer was magical. Many days my neighbor and I would grab our bikes and ride for miles. Other days were spent at the local park where along with most of the neighborhood children, we played hockey, made crafts and took turns on whatever apparatus was open. \u00a0My mother\u2019s only rule was to come home when the streetlights turned on. Sure, there were spats to negotiate, patience to be learned when the toys were being used and dirt all over us from running through a muddy stream. Today, the roads are heavily congested, parks no longer are the gathering places for children and fear of real-world violence has prompted parents to limit free play that defined so many of my days. While my daughters were able to play freely in our neighborhood, even I might be hard-pressed to give them the total freedom I experienced if there was even a park nearby.<\/p>\n
In this blog I will discuss the two main reasons that author Jonathan Haidt discussed for the generations of children who were born after 1995 to become more anxious and depressed than those in previous generations. I will also touch on some of the ways that the author believes the trend can be reversed with intentional changes. Space constraints limit my discussion of the impact of dopamine[1]<\/a> has on the drive to be on social media and the four foundational harms that social media causes[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n The emergence of extreme safety concerned parenting has had unintended consequences on children where it actually increased anxiety in the generations of children who no longer have free play[3]<\/a>. However, based on The Anxious Generation, the free play that I experienced as a child was developmentally important. Children need to learn how to navigate small hurdles to give them confidence and tools for the bigger ones to come as they reach adulthood. Play becomes a steppingstone for living through life challenges[4]<\/a>. Today parents are fearful, and on one level with good cause. There IS violence in the world. Florida alone has a high occurrence of young people being sold into sex trafficking. In 2023, there were approximately 680 cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline in FL alone. Of them, 181 were minors[5]<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet, physical danger for children is not the biggest threat to the health of children and adolescents between the ages of 10-18. In 2019, a New York Times article said 45 million children being sexually abused via online images and videos. The consensus is that today, more sexual predators are online than in person[6]<\/a>. Additionally, since the inception of smart phones, the enticement to spend more and more time on social media is difficult to resist. Of great concern, Haidt cited research that showed girls are more negatively impacted by social media than boys. Girls seek communion, the need to be part of a larger social unit by caring for others. Getting more friends on social media gives the allusion of doing that when in fact it sets the girls up to be shamed from not having enough \u201cfriends\u201d or the \u201cperfect body\u201d, ridiculed and taken advantage[7]<\/a>. Boys are drawn to the concept of agency which comes from striving to grow by building qualities such as efficiency, competence and assertiveness[8]<\/a>.<\/p>\n A coordinated effort from governments, tech companies, schools, and parents is needed to reverse the anxiety caused by lack of play and too much social media. Some of these recommendations follow:<\/p>\n I believe the future of today\u2019s youth is at stake. Sound dire? It does to me. The recommendations of Jonathan Haidt push back on the profits of tech companies and their advertisers, the will of schools to enforce no phones at school or give more play time for elementary children. My real concern is for the plight of parents working multiple jobs who have allowed smart phones and all their apps to babysit their children while they struggle to cook dinner, pay bills and just get through life. \u00a0I say this with no malice toward them. I hear their stories and feel their pain. Yet the research of Jonathan Haidt shows that social media in excess not only correlates to rising anxiety but actually is a significant cause of it[17]<\/a>. \u00a0Help for parents is a much bigger problem than I or this blog can solve today but my heart aches for them and their children.<\/p>\n [1]<\/a>Daniel Z. Lieberman and Michael E. Long, The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity \u2013 and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race <\/em>(Dallas, TX, BenBella Books, Inc., 2019), xvi. Daniel Lieberman is a psychiatrist and professor at George Washington University. Michael Long is a speechwriter, playwright, and screenwriter., I was firsts introduced to the dopamine molecule through his work. p.6.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation (New York, Penguin Press, 2024), p.120-130.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> Jonathan Haidt,<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> Jonathan Haidt, p. 7.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> National Human Trafficking Hotline, Florida Statistics, \u00a0Accessed Feb. 19, 2025. https:\/\/humantraffickinghotline.org\/en\/statistics\/florida<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> Haidt, p. 67.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> Haidt, p. 152.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> Haidt, p.152.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> Haidt, p.234.<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> Haidt, p. 236.<\/p>\n [11]<\/a> Haidt, p. 252.<\/p>\n [12]<\/a> Haidt, p. 254.<\/p>\n [13]<\/a> Haidt, p. 225.<\/p>\n [14]<\/a> Haidt, p. 15.<\/p>\n [15]<\/a> Haidt, p. 276.<\/p>\n\n