Previous
Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Anxious Generation, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Decline of Play and Real-World Childhood
The Adolescent Mental Health Crisis
Social Media’s Harmful Design
The Loss of Meaning and Community
Restoring Childhood Through Collective Action
Summary
Analysis
Haidt discusses how boys have experienced a slower but equally concerning decline in mental health compared to girls. While girls’ struggles escalated rapidly between 2010 and 2015, boys have faced a long-term disengagement from school, social life, and work since the 1970s. This process accelerated with the rise of the internet, video games, and pornography. Many boys are retreating into the virtual world, losing real-world experiences essential for personal and social development.
Haidt presents boys’ disengagement as a crisis that predates smartphones but worsened with their arrival. The long-term decline in school, work, and social participation suggests that boys have been gradually losing their sense of purpose, with digital distractions accelerating the process. This isn’t just about technology—it’s about the erosion of real-world structures that once guided boys into adulthood.
Themes
Unlike girls, who gravitate toward social media, boys tend to immerse themselves in video games, pornography, and online communities, often to an extreme degree. The ability to access digital entertainment privately through smartphones has led many boys to prioritize agency-building activities—competition, skill mastery, and exploration—within virtual spaces instead of real life. While some develop useful tech skills, many end up socially stunted; disengaged from real-world challenges; and struggling with loneliness, anxiety, and depression.
The shift from real-world achievement to virtual agency raises questions about what constitutes growth and competence. Video games and online communities offer social hierarchies and opportunities to master skills, but these digital achievements rarely translate into real-world resilience. Without tangible, real-life challenges, boys risk developing confidence that exists only in virtual spaces, leaving them unprepared for interpersonal and professional demands.
Themes
A major shift has occurred in boys’ risk-taking behavior. Historically, boys engaged in more externalizing behaviors, such as rough play and physical risk-taking. However, since the early 2010s, their willingness to take real-world risks has plummeted, mirroring girls’ rising internalization of anxiety and self-doubt. Fewer boys engage in sports, outdoor activities, or unsupervised play, leading to a decline in social competence and resilience. This aversion to risk, coupled with excessive screen use, has contributed to a growing population of young men struggling with a “failure to launch” into adulthood.
“Hikikomori,” a phenomenon first observed in Japan where young men become social recluses, is emerging in the West. More boys are becoming NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, or Training); living in their childhood bedrooms; and surviving off video games, internet forums, and pornography while avoiding real-world responsibilities and social interactions. Many reject traditional markers of adulthood, framing their withdrawal as a form of “freedom” while experiencing deepening isolation.
Themes
Get the entire The Anxious Generation LitChart as a printable PDF.
Pornography, in particular, has reshaped boys’ romantic and sexual development. Easy access to limitless hardcore pornographic content has replaced real-world dating and intimacy with artificial gratification. Studies show that heavy porn use diminishes attraction to real partners and reduces motivation to pursue relationships, leading to increased loneliness and dissatisfaction. AI-generated porn and virtual relationships threaten to further isolate young men from forming meaningful connections.
Themes
Video games, while not inherently harmful, have become a substitute for real-world engagement for a subset of boys. While gaming can improve cognitive skills and provide a sense of camaraderie, excessive play leads to addiction-like behaviors, social withdrawal, and avoidance of real-world challenges. About 7% of adolescent boys exhibit gaming addiction, experiencing real-life consequences such as declining mental and physical health, family conflict, and career stagnation.
Themes
Ultimately, Haidt says, the Great Rewiring has stripped boys of real-world community ties and stable social norms, replacing them with fragmented digital interactions. As with girls, technology has increased the quantity of social interactions while reducing their quality, leaving boys lonelier than ever. The result is a generation of young men disconnected from meaningful personal growth, struggling to find purpose in an increasingly digital world.
Themes
