Women in STEM Bookclub: The Anxious Generation

This book club is for women in STEM to explore workplace related themes that are centered on women, STEM issues and leadership. Through these book explorations, we share experiences, exchange new ideas, and empower each other through friendly conversation and community.

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Title - The Anxious Generation
By: Jonathan Haidt

In The Anxious Generation, social psychologist Jonathan Haidt lays out the facts about the epidemic of teen mental illness that hit many countries at the same time. He then investigates the nature of childhood, including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent, thriving adults. Haidt shows how the “play-based childhood” began to decline in the 1980s, and how it was finally wiped out by the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He presents more than a dozen mechanisms by which this “great rewiring of childhood” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies.

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Whether you love or hate the book, read one chapter, or happened across this description and found yourself interested, come join us for coffee and conversation!
Feel free to reach out for any questions or book suggestions as well.

Sincerely,
Jenny & Daniela