A Public Health Educator’s Viewpoint of The Anxious Generation

In March 2024, Jonathan Haidt, author and social scientist, released “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.” Since then, the book has received a great deal of attention. In the book, Haidt summarizes the research and describes four foundational harms of a phone-based childhood: social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. He calls on all of us to play a role in preventing these harms. Haidt provides action steps for parents, educators, schools, legislators, and young people.  

In this presentation, an overview of the four harms will be provided, and the recommended action steps for advocates of children and youth.  Action steps for public health professionals will be presented and discussed. 

Speaker Bio:

Maree Hampton, M.Ed, CHES, is the founder of Digital Wellbeing Solutions. Maree brings years of digital well-being, public health, and youth development expertise to provide guidance, tools, and resources for individuals and organizations who work with children and young people.  Maree is a certified Digital Wellness Educator, Certified Health Education Specialist, and an active member of ScreenTime Action Network’s workgroups: Online Harm Prevention and Nature and Play. She is passionate about promoting the digital well-being of young people so they can thrive in the digital age.