I volunteered to be on a committee to help decide how the kids in our school district can grow up to be good digital citizens. We are tackling things such as phone use in school, overall access to tech in school, how to act online, how to navigate social media, basically everything and anything to do with digital media, school and kids.
We were given two books to read for our research and to help us navigate this very murky world that we now find ourselves in.
One was The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and the other was Growing Up In Public by Devorah Heitner, PhD.

The Anxious Generation
I enjoyed the pace and information shared in this book. I had heard about it from many parents and was very excited to dive in.
First – it’s not a fairytale book. If you are looking for a book to tell you how great digital media is for our kids and how we haven’t screwed them up…then this is not for you. If you are seeking a reality check with some solid facts, this is a fantastic resource.
I truly enjoyed his thoughts on a “play based generation” vs a “phone based generation”. I found myself asking every single one of the adults in the waiting room at my kids Taekwondo dojo – “How old were you when you were left alone at home?” or “Did your parents ever know where you were during the day?” I was absolutely a “be home when the street lights turned on” kid and was babysitting other children at ten years old. This is absolutely a research study on how parenting has changed and if there is a way back. Spoiler alert – there is.
Did this book fill me with anxiety? Yes and no. It gave me hope that there is a way to travel these waters without giving up the convenience of a digital world. It provides more guidelines and warnings for our current parenting styles and small tips on how to help children who are navigating this world today.
This book was a very good deep dive into how our generations have changed and so quickly. What this means for our children and how we can move forward and help our children out of the anxiety that seems to be constantly surrounding them…and us.

Growing Up In Public
If you are looking for a “How To” book on helping your kids with digital media, then this is the book for you.
The author has done multiple focus groups with kids of all ages and parents, and gives practical advice on how to help kids and adults navigate this challenging landscape.
If you are a parent that wants to track every move of your children, she’s not going to share your viewpoint.
She makes some solid arguments and I am in agreement with her. When parents ask me how to help their kids in social, I tell them that they need to help them navigate it at first. It’s like swimming in shark infested waters (my analogy), you won’t throw your kids in without teaching them how to swim and at the very least, giving them some floaties!
This book helps you to teach your kids how to navigate social in various scenarios and during multiple age ranges.
Because the author was working to reach such a wide audience, I felt like she repeated herself multiple times, and got a little bored. That being said, upon further reflection, if you want to use this for a resource book for certain age ranges, then that makes a ton of sense. Reading it cover to cover got to be a bit much for me.
Overall Impressions
Both were very good for very different reasons and view points. I actually read them at the same time because the authors were so different. I appreciated the flow and writing style of Jonathan Haidt a bit more but like I said above, I believe that was because Growing Up In Public can easily be used as a resource for a variety of people. It may be better when you are seeking out specific advice. The Anxious Generation is a cover to cover read. Each chapter builds upon the last, really tying together all of his and his team’s research.
I highly recommend reading both books if you are a parent in today’s digital age. They won’t give you all the answers and they don’t explain how the digital platforms, like Instagram and TikTok work exactly, but they give you the tools to understand how they affect our kids. They also gave me great understanding for why when I was a kid, I constantly heard “Go Outside!”.
Have you read these books? What was your impressions? What would you have liked to see in them that they didn’t cover?
Until next time my friends, cheers.