The Anxious Generation
Concerned that your children or grandchildren might be getting sucked into the darkness of the internet? Join the Lake Highlands YMCA and First Global Methodist Church Dallas as they team up for a four-week study series, “The Anxious Generation.”
The discussion, led by Rev. Jill Jackson-Sears, will center on Jonathan Haidt’s New York Times bestseller, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. Haidt is a social psychologist and professor of ethical leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business. Amazon calls the book “a must-hear for all parents: the generation-defining investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media and big tech — and a plan for a healthier, freer childhood.”
To help stem the rising tide of anxiety in children and teens, Haidt urges parents to give them far more time playing with other children, look for more ways to embed children in stable real-world communities, not give smartphones as the first phone, not give a smartphone until high school and delay opening social media accounts until at least the beginning of high school.
Participants may choose midday (10:45 to 11:45 a.m.) or evening (6:30 to 7:30 p.m.) sessions on four successive Wednesdays: Oct. 30, Nov. 6, 13 and 20. The meet-up, conversation and study will take place in the Community Room of the LH YMCA, 8920 Stults Road. Admission is free and childcare may be arranged at info@firstgmcdallas.org.
