Author and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt teamed up with science journalist Catherine Price to speak directly to tweens in The Amazing Generation: A Guide to Freedom and Fun in a Screen-Filled World. Drawing on Haidt’s adult bestseller The Anxious Generation and Price’s How to Break Up with Your Phone, the book helps young readers push back against Big Tech and reclaim real-life connections. Centering young kids in the conversation, the guide is solutions-oriented, incorporating interactive challenges, comics, and firsthand stories from teens who regret early exposure to smartphone culture. Haidt and Price spoke with PW about pivoting from adult to young audiences, the collaboration process, and why they believe kids can lead the charge toward more screen-light lives.
Jonathan, you’ve previously written for adults about the risks of phones and social media. What made you want to address kids in this book?
Young people are the ones who have been most impacted by the negative effects of smartphones. They’re the targets, and it’s important for them to have the facts about screens, social media, and the tech companies that manipulate them for profit. That’s why The Amazing Generation has all of the same facts as The Anxious Generation, just in a kid-friendly format.
Kids should also know how much power they hold! They can make their own choices about technology and how and when they allow it into their lives. Catherine and I created what we’ve coined “The Rebel’s Code.” A rebel doesn’t let technology use them—they use it as a tool. Our goal in writing this book was to arm kids with the facts and empower them to stand up for themselves by choosing a life not dominated by screens.
Looking ahead, what role do you hope this book will play in shifting how adults and educators think about casually offering screen time to children?
Almost immediately after The Anxious Generation came out, I was getting requests from parents who read the book and were looking for something similar they could share with their kids. The Amazing Generation is my response. Catherine and I partnered on this companion book in the hopes that it will help adults and educators have better conversations with young people about the decisions they want to make regarding if, how, and when smartphones and social media enter their lives.
Catherine, what made you want to partner with Jonathan on this project, and how did you both approach the collaboration process?
Jon and I are both TED speakers, and when we first met in person several years ago at a TED event, we realized that our work addresses the same challenge—how to help people flourish—from different angles. We also realized that we both strongly believe in the detrimental effects of technology and the importance of play for kids. Jon invited me to become a partner in The Anxious Generation movement, and when Penguin expressed interest in creating a book for kids and tweens, I volunteered for the project. The Amazing Generation is the result of our collaboration, and he and I couldn’t be more excited to share it with the world!
The book emphasizes kids’ agency rather than prescribing strict rules. Why do you believe children need to be active participants in shaping healthier screen habits, rather than just receiving guidelines from adults?
My experience as a middle school teacher and the parent of a strong-willed 10-year-old—not to mention my past experience as a strong-willed child myself—have taught me that the best way to get kids’ buy-in is to meet them at their level and offer them choices, not to talk down to them or tell them what to do. The more you can make them feel like they’re in control and that they’re the experts—and that they know more than adults —the better. Also, most kids and tweens have already heard adults lecture them countless times about screen time, even if those adults often break those rules themselves!
That’s why the book is designed to speak directly to kids and provide them with a choice: they can follow the crowd, beg their parents for smartphones and social media accounts, and allow their lives to be hijacked by Big Tech, or they can join the growing rebellion of young people who are standing up against greedy tech companies by deciding for themselves to delay their own exposure to addictive devices and algorithms, and fill their lives with real friendship, freedom, and fun instead. It’s a choice that all of us are facing—not just kids.
My hope is that educators and parents can use the book to spark meaningful, productive conversations about tech with their students and kids, and that young readers will use the information in the book to help the adults in their lives develop better screen habits, too.
The Amazing Generation: A Guide to Freedom and Fun in a Screen-Filled World by Catherine Price and Jonathan Haidt. Penguin/Rocky Pond, $18.99 Dec. 30 ISBN 979-8-217-11191-6
