The Anxious Generation Book Review: Part IV
I’ve tackled Haidt’s methodology issues and the issues of healthy relationships with technology as part of living in the modern world and ignoring the broader picture. The last issue I have with The Anxious Generation’s narrative is the idea that boys take fewer risks and that that is somehow a bad thing.
Risk-taking behaviour is down across all demographics. We're seeing fewer teenage pregnancies and less smoking and alcohol use. That's not a crisis—that's progress. The "crisis" Haidt identifies—that boys' risk-taking has decreased to levels previously seen only in girls—reveals more about his patriarchal assumptions than teenage development. The idea that "boys will be boys" and must engage in dangerous behaviour to develop properly belongs in the same dustbin as the idea that girls shouldn't be good at math.
Besides, teenagers haven't stopped exploring—they're just smarter about it. When they experiment, they're more likely to do so in controlled environments—like drinking at house parties instead of going out to bars. They share safety information. They plan ahead, make sure they go out together and that someone stays sober to take care of people who had too much. This isn't risk avoidance—it's risk intelligence.
Haidt talks about gaming as a crisis of male withdrawal from society. But the data tells a different story: 87% of gamers are casual players. As I discussed before, when teenagers play video games together, they're not "withdrawing"—they're socialising, creating, and problem-solving. They're taking risks, too, just not the kind that might land them in the emergency room. They risk creative rejection, project failure, and emotional vulnerability. These aren't lesser risks just because they happen in digital spaces or are not associated with traditional masculinity.
This brings us back to where we started. Just as Haidt's methodology fails to capture the nuance of the teenage experience, his gendered interpretation of risk-taking behaviour misses the mark. We don't ban alcohol because some people become alcoholics—we create frameworks for responsible use. Similarly, the solution to phone-related challenges isn't wholesale restriction but teaching healthy usage patterns.
Like cigarettes, social media and gaming apps are developed to be addictive. And just like we made sure tobacco companies can’t do whatever they want, we must hold the developers accountable. That's where our focus should be—on the systems designed to exploit vulnerability, not on demonising the technology or its users.
Looking across these four pieces, we've seen how oversimplification consistently fails to capture the reality of modern teenage life. The "Anxious Generation" isn't failing to develop properly—they're adapting to a complex modern world.
Our job isn't to force them back into outdated developmental models but to support their navigation of contemporary challenges. The real risk isn't that teenagers are becoming too cautious—it's that we might fail to recognise and support the new ways they're learning to navigate their world.
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