CONCERN about the impact of our childhood experiences is a feature of modern life. One form today focuses on mental health, with convincing evidence that levels of anxiety and depression are skyrocketing among teenagers and young adults. In this powerful and important book, Jonathan Haidt pins the blame on two related factors: the culture of “safetyism”, which inhibits the scope for the sort of play that builds social as well as physical skills, but, most crucially, develops personal resilience; and the smartphone.

Technological innovations are always experienced differently by those who remember the shock and excitement of their arrival and those who are born after their introduction. Generation Z are digital natives, born after the iPhone was invented. It’s not new, special, exciting, exotic, rare or dangerous for them. It’s just part of the way the world is.

Except that it isn’t. The smartphone and the digital world that it brings relentlessly close is a place of extraordinary interest and jeopardy. It is fascinating, of course. But what the naïve consumer of digital products fails to appreciate is that this world is designed to exploit those who use it. Haidt’s message, however, is not a warning about the power of algorithms, but the even more sinister claim that those exposed to the digital jungle in their formative years experience a “great rewiring” of their brains. And it is this rather than concern about climate change, or threat of war, or economic uncertainty, that lies behind the mental-health crisis afflicting young people.

As well as analysis, Haidt offers strong practical guidance, though much of it seems to boil down to an optimistic “Keep the kids away from the smartphone.” He has ideas about how this might be achieved. Among the best, to my mind, is the introduction of the not-so-smartphone (or dumbphone, which allows you to call home and say you are delayed or lost, but that’s about all) for those who are not yet mature enough to live a healthy life with a smartphone.

There’s a ton of interesting data in the book. Girls are harmed more than boys: girls who are heavy users of social media are three times as likely to be depressed. Haidt puts forward four reasons for this: greater sensitivity to visual comparison; a tendency to express aggression by denigration; greater readiness to share emotions; and vulnerability to stalking. Boys, it turns out, can gain valuable skills from gaming, although access to pornography provides a means of satisfying “powerful evolved desires” without learning any life skills. In both cases, however, screentime removes them from useful unsupervised risky play and face-to-face interactions.

A fascinating chapter discusses “Spiritual Elevation and Degradation”. It concludes that “a phone-based life is compatible with many of the behaviours that religion and spirituality can produce.” Haidt is concerned, because these also contribute to happiness, well-being, trust, and group cohesion. But there are questions, too, of what constitutes good.

I am genuinely puzzled here. Many are happy to have a good part of their spiritual life online and to join the worship in a great cathedral on a small screen. On the other hand, those responsible for liturgy in great buildings sometimes have to battle against the distraction from engagement in the present moment which the smartphone represents. Imagine tuning into a televised carol service and noticing that congregation, choir, and clergy are on their smartphones throughout. And now imagine that you don’t have to imagine it.

Call me old-fashioned, but I think we should be concerned not only for the young and anxious. Rather, we should be anxious for ourselves and every aspect of our culture and sense of meaning which depends on the immediacy and vulnerability of non-digital synchronous communication. We are both more connected and less in touch than ever before. If we weren’t so distracted, we would be properly concerned and work out what to do about it.

The Revd Dr Stephen Cherry is Dean of Chapel at King’s College, Cambridge. He is a speaker at the Festival of Preaching, to be held in Cambridge, 15 to 17 September. For details, visit: festivalofpreaching.hymnsam.co.uk

The Anxious Generation: How the great rewiring of childhood is causing an epidemic of mental illness
Jonathan Haidt
Allen Lane £25
(978-0-241-64766-0)
Church Times Bookshop £22.50