Community Read and Related Programs

This fall, Dr. Neil Gupta, Superintendent for Oakwood Schools, and Wright Memorial Public Library invite you to a very important Community Read: The Anxious Generation by Johnathan Haidt. 

All community members are invited to read the book and/or participate in a series of discussions at Wright Library on topics addressed in Haidt’s book.

Community Conversations 
October 24 & 30; Nov. 14 
Wright Library (limited seating) 

In The Anxious Generation, Haidt explores the collapse of youth mental health and presents a plan for a healthier, freer childhood. He discusses the decline of the “play-based childhood" and the arrival of the "phone-based childhood" in the early 2010s — and how this "great rewiring of childhood" has interfered with children's social and neurological development. The book also explains why social media damages girls more than boys, and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families, and their societies. 

Haidt describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to end the epidemic of mental illness and restore a more humane childhood. 

Copies of the book are available through Wright Library Fast Reads and general circulation. 

Wright Library also invites the public to a special panel discussion this fall with experts in child psychology, socialization, and technology:

Panel Discussion - Kids & Tech: A Parent’s Guide 
Fall 2024
Wright Library (limited seating))

Additional Resources at Wright Library

Youth Reading List [coming soon]

Adult Reading List [coming soon]

Activities at Wright Library [coming soon]

About the Author

Jonathan Haidt is an American social psychologist and author. He is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at the New York University Stern School of Business. His main areas of study are the psychology of morality and moral emotions. He has authored and co-authored four books for general audiences: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (2006); The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012); The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure (2018); and his latest book, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness (2024), which makes the case that the rise of smartphones and overprotective parenting have led to a "rewiring" of childhood and a rise in mental illness.