The Anxious Generation summary

In the early 2000s, the mental health landscape among preteens and adolescents appeared relatively stable, with no clear indications of an impending crisis. But the next decade brought about a dramatic shift: mental health issues among Generation Z children and teenagers began to surge at an alarming rate.

To put this phenomenon into perspective, consider the findings of a US National Survey on Drug Use and Health. The data reveals a staggering 145 percent increase in reported cases of depressive episodes among girls since 2012. For boys, the rise is even more pronounced, with a 161 percent increase in reported cases of depressive episodes over the same period. The impact extends beyond self-reported symptoms, with college students receiving a 134 percent increase in anxiety, a 106 percent increase in depression, a 72 percent increase in ADHD, and a 57 percent increase in bipolar disorder diagnoses since 2012. This surge in mental health challenges is, with the exception of some young millennials, largely confined to the Gen Z demographic.

The statistics only begin to scratch the surface. Among girls, there has been a 188 percent increase in emergency room visits for self-harm since 2010, and a 167 percent rise in suicide rates. For boys, the numbers are also alarming, with a 48 percent increase in self-harm-related ER visits and a 91 percent surge in suicide rates.

What accounts for this dramatic shift in the mental health landscape of Gen Z? The answer may lie, in part, with the widespread adoption of smartphones and the corresponding changes in the social fabric of adolescence. Smartphones, first introduced in 2007 and widely adopted by the 2010s, have profoundly influenced the way young people interact, communicate, and engage with the world around them.

Studies have shown that tweens and teens who accessed the internet in the 1990s and early 2000s were, on average, slightly happier during their adolescence than their Gen X predecessors. However, this trend reversed dramatically with the widespread adoption of smartphones, which enabled adolescents to be connected and online constantly, wherever they were. By 2016, 79 percent of teens owned a smartphone, as did 28 percent of children aged 8 to 12. Alarmingly, a 2022 Pew report indicates that 46 percent of teens describe themselves as being online “almost constantly.”

This shift in the social landscape of childhood and adolescence, often referred to as the “Great Rewiring of Childhood,” has had a significant impact on the mental health of Gen Z. As their social lives have increasingly moved online through the constant access to social media, video gaming, and other internet activities, the first generation of teens in the United States to go through adolescence with this level of connectivity has become more anxious, depressed, and suicidal than any generation recorded before them. This troubling trend is not limited to the US; studies across Canada, the UK, and the Nordic states have reported similar findings, suggesting that this is a global phenomenon.

While other factors, such as anxiety surrounding global issues like climate change, may also contribute to the mental health outcomes of Gen Z, the ubiquity of smartphone usage and the corresponding changes in social dynamics appear to be the primary drivers behind this tidal wave of mental illness. As we grapple with the implications of this crisis, it’s clear that a deeper understanding of the complex interplay between technology, social interaction, and adolescent development is needed to develop effective strategies for supporting the mental health of our youth.