This week we're covering chapter seven, "What is Happening to Boys?" from The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. In this chapter, Haidt examines the mental health crisis affecting boys, driven by the shift to a phone-based childhood. Since the early 2010s, boys have experienced rising depression and anxiety, though less severely than girls, alongside a long-term decline in school engagement and achievement. The accessibility of video games and pornography has pulled many boys into virtual worlds, reducing real-world social interactions and contributing to loneliness and disconnection. For a subset of boys, excessive gaming leads to addiction, harming mental and physical health and straining family relationships. Haidt notes that boys’ retreat into digital spaces, coupled with overprotective parenting and reduced unsupervised play, hinders their development of resilience and social skills. This "Great Rewiring" of childhood has left many boys at risk of "failure to launch," with some becoming young adults not engaged in education, employment, or training.

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