Take a morning walk with me along the out-and-back paved trail near my home and, on a typical day, you will witness a demonstration of what social psychologist Jonathan Haidt names The Great Rewiring. You are aware of this phenomenon, as you see it playing out every day, when you encounter the different generations represented in our current culture. And this is not the ages-old comment of “kids these days” that every generation speaks, The Great Rewiring is, as I have felt for many years, a deeper issue that is begging for our attention as parents, educators, coaches, and community members.

Let me attempt to paint a picture for you. On a wide path that meanders among God’s creation, you will be surrounded by creeks, trees, grasses, critters on the ground and birds in the trees. It’s a beautiful and relaxing setting, but what often draws my attention, as a person interested in generational theory along with health and wellness, is the people I encounter. For the most part, they can be divided into roughly two groups: those under the age of 30 and those over. Those under 30 will often model characteristics associated with what Haidt terms a “phone-based childhood” while those over 30 likely demonstrate what was a “play-based childhood.” Perhaps you can already picture what I’m about to describe. Those under the age of 30 on the walking path, passing me heading in the opposite direction, rarely make eye contact, much less offer a verbal greeting, even if their eyes are not focused on their phones. Those over the age of 30 will, for the most part, look me in the eye, and often offer a verbal greeting such as “Good Morning!” even if they are listening to something via a device.

Now, picture a college classroom and multiply this scene by the number of students in the room. This troubling phenomenon, The Great Rewiring, is the central theme outlined in Haidt’s latest book where he outlines two trends: ”overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual world” and they are the “major reason why children born after 1995 became the anxious generation.” Haidt shares the latest research that now exists on one of the causes behind the rising rates of anxiety and depression—the smartphone and other screened devices that remove us from the real world. Building off the ideas that he shared in Coddling of the American Mind, that “people born in and after 1996 were different, psychologically, from those who had been born just a few years prior,” Haidt considers the issue as larger than just our devices, it’s also “a historic and unprecedented transformation of human childhood.”

Haidt offers four foundational reforms that would provide a healthier childhood in the digital age: (1) No smartphones before high school, (2) No social media before 16, (3) Phone-free schools, and (4) Far more unsupervised play and childhood independence. He shares the in-depth research supporting each of his reforms and it mirrors what I recommend as developing a Digital Philosophy for individuals, families, schools, and other communities. There is not enough space in this one post to share all the valuable information Haidt offers, but many respected researchers and academics are raising a Red Flag that should no longer be ignored. Whether it is developing a Digital Philosophy, engaging in reforms, cultivating the Habits of a Flourishing Life, or just making an intentional decision to Let Them Play, our children need us to act before our culture continues down a road of even more unhealthy futures. The challenge is that change means swimming upstream of popular culture, approaching life in a different manner, and protecting the health of our children as we nurture, instruct, coach, guide, or mentor. There are no easy answers, but there might be some simple ones if we commit to enhancing the culture of our shared life and commit to one another’s flourishing.

We know that “Children [flourish] when they are rooted in real-world communities, not in disembodied virtual networks. Growing up in the virtual world promotes anxiety, anomie, and loneliness. The Great Rewiring of Childhood, from play-based to phone-based, has been a catastrophic failure.” Now, what can we do to change the future?

What intentional actions have you seen implemented that might help rewire our children’s futures and reverse some of the mental illness we are now witnessing? Would you consider sharing these in the comments below so others may benefit? More on this topic to come!

Reference:

Haidt, J. (2024). The anxious generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness. Penguin Press.