Why today’s ‘anxious generation’ needs cellphone bans in school

As of this month, 34 states and Washington, D.C., have policies aimed to reduce cellphone use at school, including complete or partial bans. One of the key figures who is credited with inspiring this movement is Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.

In his book The Anxious Generation, published last year, Haidt makes the case that the rise in social media and cellphone use is a major factor behind what’s making kids more anxious and depressed. Research shows that in the early 2010s, the prevalence of mental health disorders among young people started to climb rapidly—a trend that coincided with an increase in social media use among teens on digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat.

At the Fast Co