Book Review - The Anxious Generation

From time to time, I recommend books that are not from our religion. I do this because I believe the book to have information that can benefit our people. This is one of those occasions. The book is called The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt.

We have all seen the cultural changes that have accelerated over the past few decades. Even if you are younger, you've seen evidence of those changes. What's more, there seems to be a great increase in depression and other other mental illnesses. This book, written by a social psychologist and citing many academic studies, addresses the likely causes of these issues.

The book places the blame on two things. In the 1980s, the attempt to make everything "safe" for kids, removed many of the activities that growing children need in order to develop into functioning adults. Then, around 2010, the combination of smartphones and social media removed complex relationships from pre-teen and teen-aged minds during critical development stages, additionally exposing the same kids to pressures and concepts they may not be ready for. Of course, the book does a much better job of describing these things and makes a point to cite their sources.

So why am I recommending this book on a site for Germano-Norse Paganism? That's simple, our younger generations have been exposed to these things too, and we need to work to repair and prevent the damage. Many of our folk are in the Millenial or Gen-Z groups affected, or we have kids and grandkids that are. Maybe you have children just reaching the age when they are most vulnerable. In all these cases, a better understanding of what is going on is critical.

Social media, in general, has been a boon to our folk. We are few in number and scattered widely. Written materials were always stored in obscure academic libraries in old cities. Through the Internet, we have connected, shared resources, and grown stronger. This technology is awesome for learning and communicating. However, those communications have limitations.

Communicating with people involves body language, facial expressions, and the subtle changes to the voice. Written communication, such as online, does not have those things. We miss out on the fullness of human communication. If children and teens mostly communicate through a computer, they aren't learning how to do all the rest of the communication.

As for learning, there is really something special about face-to-face learning. A teacher can make the subtle changes needed based on interactions with the students. In my day job, I am a professor. Many students lament that they took an online course when they see how much more their classmates learned from the same course taken in person. It just is not the same.

My recommendation is to read the book and become more aware of the effect that these parts of life are having on you and the young. With more knowledge, we can make things better for those who come after.