On 25 June 2026, the Rafael del Pino Foundation organised the J Keynote LectureJonathan Haidt "The Anxious Generation. Why social media is causing an epidemic of mental health problems amongst our young people.” to mark the publication of his latest book of the same title, published by Deusto. Following his talk, he will take part in a discussion with Ana Ariño.
In The anxious generation, Jonathan Haidt examines one of the great silent transformations of our time: the profound impact that a hyper-connected childhood – characterised by smartphones, social media and the loss of free play – has had on the mental health of children and teenagers. With a clear, well-researched and thought-provoking perspective, Haidt shows how the shift from a play-based childhood to one dominated by screens has contributed to rising levels of anxiety, depression and emotional fragility amongst young people, whilst proposing concrete ways to reclaim spaces for autonomy, social interaction and healthy development. An essential read for parents, educators and anyone interested in understanding the challenges facing the new generation.
Jonathan Haidt is the Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1985 and his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. Haidt is a social psychologist whose research focuses on morality - its emotional foundations, cultural variations, and developmental course. He began his career studying negative moral emotions, such as disgust, shame, and revenge, but then moved on to understudied positive moral emotions, such as admiration, awe, and moral uplift. He is the co-developer of Moral Foundations Theory, and the YourMorals.org research centre. He uses his research to help people understand and respect the moral motives of people with whom they disagree. In 2012 he was named as “one of the top 100 global thinkers” by Foreign Policy magazine and one of Prospect magazine's 65 “World Thinkers of 2013”. He is the author of more than 90 academic articles and two books: The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom, y The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. At NYU-Stern, he is focusing his research on moral psychology to business ethics, asking how companies can be structured and function in ways that are resilient to ethical failures. Haidt is also working to increase the diversity of viewpoints in academia through Heterodox Academy, his new collaborative project.
Ana Ariño She is the founder of EducAI and a recipient of the Rafael del Pino Fellowship of Excellence. An expert in strategy, innovation and economic development, she has built an outstanding international career in both the public and private sectors. She has held senior management positions at the New York City Economic Development Corporation, where she was Executive Vice-President y Chief Strategy Officer, as well as at ACCIONA and Bird, where she led operations in Spain and Portugal during a period of strong growth. Prior to that, she worked as a consultant at The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Recognised among the Choiseul 100 Economic Leaders for Tomorrow a graduate of Johns Hopkins SAIS, she currently focuses her work on promoting education in artificial intelligence and preparing the next generation for the challenges of the economy of the future.
Summary:
On 25 June 2026, the Rafael del Pino Foundation organised a keynote lecture by Jonathan Haidt, «The Anxious Generation: Why social media is causing an epidemic of mental health problems amongst our young people», to mark the publication by Deusto of his latest book of the same title. Following his talk, the renowned social psychologist and professor at New York University took part in a discussion with Ana Ariño on the challenges posed by the technological revolution for child development, education and the future of democracies.
A new phase in the transformation of our societies
Jonathan Haidt began his talk by recalling his previous visit to the Rafael del Pino Foundation in 2019, when he sought to explain the profound political and social transformations that were beginning to emerge in many Western democracies. At that time, he sensed that a historic rupture had taken place, the origins of which were still difficult to pinpoint. Years later, he said, the accumulated evidence has enabled him to understand that a substantial part of that change lies in the technological revolution driven by the widespread adoption of smartphones and social media.
According to Haidt, the period between 2010 and 2015 marks a genuine turning point in the development of the younger generations. During those years, not only did communication habits change, but the environment in which children and teenagers grow up was also profoundly altered, changing the processes of socialisation, learning and personality development.
Far from viewing technology as a neutral phenomenon, he argued that today’s digital ecosystem has transformed the very conditions of human development, shaping a generation whose childhood has been spent under the constant influence of devices designed to capture and hold their attention.
Child development depends on the environment
One of the central themes of the conference was an explanation of how a child’s brain adapts to the environment in which it develops. Haidt used the metaphor of a tree’s roots to illustrate how neural connections develop in response to the stimuli they encounter in their surroundings.
Just as a tree adapts its growth to suit the terrain, he argued that adolescents’ brains are being shaped by an environment dominated by screens, constant stimulation and continuous digital interaction. This transformation affects not only behaviour, but also physical development, sleeping patterns, the ability to concentrate and even the way in which young people form social relationships.
The American professor warned that never before had a generation gone through puberty whilst immersed in an ecosystem designed to constantly compete for their attention. It is precisely during this critical stage of brain development that digital platforms most intensively deploy mechanisms aimed at maximising usage time through recommendation algorithms and immediate reward systems.
From a childhood centred on play to a childhood centred on the mobile phone
Haidt summarised the phenomenon he describes in his work as a «tragedy in two acts». Firstly, Western societies have progressively curtailed children’s autonomy, replacing free play with constant adult supervision. At the same time, whilst freedom in the physical world was being restricted, virtually unlimited access to the digital world was permitted.
In his view, families have overprotected children from the risks of the real world whilst leaving them inadequately protected from the risks of the virtual world. This combination has led to an unprecedented change in the experience of growing up.
The result is a much lonelier childhood, with less face-to-face interaction and fewer opportunities to develop social skills, take on small everyday risks and build the resilience that comes from shared experiences with other children.
In this context, spontaneous play, exploration and independence have gradually been replaced by forms of individual entertainment mediated by electronic devices, which now take up an increasing proportion of children’s and teenagers’ free time.
Evidence of a global mental health crisis
Much of the lecture was devoted to presenting the empirical evidence which, in Haidt’s view, demonstrates the close link between the expansion of social media and the deterioration in adolescents’ mental health. Drawing on numerous international studies, he argued that the trend observed since the early 2010s cannot be understood as a mere coincidence in timing.
The data show, he explained, a sharp rise in anxiety and depression among young American university students starting precisely in 2012, a trend that has since been replicated in numerous Western countries. Added to this is the rise in self-harm, suicide attempts and completed suicides amongst adolescents, particularly amongst girls, the incidence of which has seen an unprecedented increase in the space of just a few years.
For Haidt, these indicators reflect not only a greater willingness on the part of young people to express their psychological distress, but also a genuine deterioration in their emotional wellbeing. The coincidence in timing between the widespread adoption of smartphones, the rise of Instagram and the consolidation of the so-called ‘attention economy’ is, in his view, a highly significant explanatory factor.
He emphasised that, far from being confined to the United States, the trend can also be observed in the United Kingdom, northern Europe and various Asian and Latin American countries. Spain is no exception either. Although the increase recorded is less pronounced than in other countries, the available data nevertheless show a significant rise in anxiety and depression among adolescents over the last decade.
He placed particular emphasis on various studies carried out in Spain which analyse the gradual roll-out of high-speed broadband across the different provinces. As he explained, these studies provide evidence of a causal link, showing that the rise in psychiatric problems runs parallel to the expansion of high-speed internet access, particularly amongst teenage girls.
Consequently, he argued that the debate should no longer focus exclusively on whether there is a statistical correlation between social media and psychological decline, but rather on how to respond to evidence that he considers to be increasingly robust from a scientific point of view.
The erosion of attention and human capital
Although The anxious generation Although it began as research into mental health, Haidt explained that over the last two years he has come to the conclusion that the most far-reaching problem may not be the rise in anxiety or depression, but rather the progressive decline in the younger generations’ ability to pay attention and concentrate.
In his view, constant exposure to brief stimuli, immediate rewards and content designed to maximise time spent on digital platforms is profoundly altering cognitive processes. The difficulty in sustaining attention for prolonged periods affects both learning and the ability to undertake complex projects, read lengthy texts or maintain a continuous line of reasoning.
As evidence of this, he presented various international educational indicators. Assessments carried out over recent decades show that the cumulative gains in academic performance began to reverse precisely from the years when smartphone use became widespread amongst teenagers. Whilst the pandemic subsequently exacerbated the situation, Haidt argued that the decline in educational standards was already clearly visible before the health crisis.
He expressed particular concern about the trend in the performance of pupils with the lowest academic results, whose loss of skills is considerably greater than that observed among higher-achieving pupils. In his view, this trend poses a direct threat to the human capital of advanced societies and undermines their future capacity for innovation, productivity and growth.
This loss of attention does not affect young people alone. Citing various recent studies, he pointed out that adults, too, are finding it increasingly difficult to understand relatively simple texts or to maintain concentration during prolonged intellectual tasks. In this regard, he warned that the problem goes beyond the educational sphere to become a cultural challenge of the first order.
Girls and boys: two different forms of vulnerability
Another aspect discussed during the conference was the different ways in which the digital ecosystem affects girls and boys. Although both experience a decline in their well-being, Haidt argued that the mechanisms leading to this situation differ significantly.
In the case of teenage girls, she identified social media as the main factor contributing to vulnerability. Platforms such as Instagram intensify constant comparison with others, amplify pressure regarding body image and lead to the widespread circulation of rumours, conflicts and processes of social exclusion. Relational aggression, which is traditionally present during female adolescence, finds in social media an extraordinarily effective tool for spreading and taking on a permanent dimension.
Added to this is the constant exposure to content relating to eating disorders, unrealistic beauty standards or social validation dynamics based on immediate approval from others. According to Haidt, internal research carried out by some technology companies themselves shows that their executives were aware of the particularly negative impact that certain platforms were having on teenage girls.
The situation for young people, however, follows a different logic. Rather than social media, the main risk stems from an ecosystem dominated by highly immersive video games, instantly accessible pornography, sports betting and other constant sources of instant gratification. This combination of stimuli progressively alters the brain’s motivation circuits and makes it increasingly difficult to take an interest in activities that require sustained effort, such as studying, reading or working.
The result is a growing disconnect from the real world, which limits the development of personal skills, reduces the capacity for engagement and hinders full integration into adult life. In Haidt’s own words, a society made up of men unable to realise their full potential is unlikely to become one in which women can also thrive fully.
Reclaiming childhood: an agenda for families, schools and governments
After setting out his analysis, Jonathan Haidt devoted the final part of his talk to presenting the measures which, in his view, would make it possible to reverse the changes in childhood that have taken place over the last decade. Far from considering the phenomenon to be irreversible, he argued that it is still possible to rebuild a model of child development based on autonomy, play and personal relationships.
His proposal is based on a central idea: the problem cannot be solved solely through individual decisions made by families. As long as early access to smartphones and social media remains the norm, parents will continue to face a collective action problem, under pressure to ensure their children are not left behind by their peers.
He therefore proposed establishing four shared principles: delaying access to smartphones until around the age of fourteen; preventing access to social media before the age of sixteen; keeping schools free of mobile phones throughout the school day; and restoring spaces for free play, autonomy and responsibility in the physical world.
With regard to Spain, he expressed his satisfaction at the public debate already taking place on these issues and welcomed both the initiatives launched to restrict the use of mobile phones in schools and the interest shown in raising the minimum age for accessing social media, in line with other European countries.
Alongside public policies, he emphasised the importance of families’ commitment. He recommended encouraging shared activities, reviving a love of reading, cinema and long stories as an alternative to the fragmented consumption of short videos, as well as limiting the individual use of tablets and mobile phones during childhood. In his view, the real challenge lies in replacing the culture of instant gratification with experiences capable of strengthening attention, imagination and social interaction.
He also argued for the need to give older children greater independence. In his view, allowing children to play without constant supervision, permitting them to take small everyday risks and encouraging them to form spontaneous relationships with other children is an essential prerequisite for developing resilience and so-called «antifragility», understood as the ability to grow stronger precisely by overcoming minor difficulties.
Artificial intelligence and the risk of a new form of cognitive dependence
Although the main focus of the conference was social media, Haidt devoted a significant part of the discussion to analysing the impact that artificial intelligence may have on younger generations.
He warned that many of the trends observed over the last decade could intensify considerably with the expansion of increasingly sophisticated conversational systems. In his view, artificial intelligence should not be seen merely as a new technological tool, but as an agent capable of profoundly changing the way people learn, think and interact.
He expressed particular concern about the emergence of conversational AI designed to forge emotional bonds with users. These systems, he argued, may end up partially replacing human relationships during particularly sensitive stages of personal development, hindering the acquisition of basic social skills and fostering new forms of psychological dependence.
At the same time, he warned of the risk of increasingly delegating intellectual processes to artificial intelligence. Whilst in the early years of the internet users turned to technology to make certain tasks easier, the new generation of tools could, he explained, lead to a genuine relinquishment of cognitive effort. When machines automatically generate responses, write papers or make decisions, the need to exercise essential skills such as reasoning, creativity and critical judgement gradually diminishes.
Against this backdrop, he advocated a cautious approach to the educational use of artificial intelligence. Children, he argued, first need to fully develop their intellectual and social abilities through engagement with books, people and the physical world before embracing technologies whose impact on human development remains uncertain.
A challenge to democracy and human flourishing
During the discussion with Ana Ariño, the conversation moved beyond the strictly educational sphere to address the social and political implications of the technological revolution. Haidt argued that the fragmentation of the public sphere brought about by social media has weakened the ability of democratic societies to share a common understanding of reality.
Drawing on the biblical metaphor of the Tower of Babel — which also inspired the title of his forthcoming book — he explained that digital platforms, far from connecting citizens, have contributed to dividing them into multiple information communities that are increasingly isolated from one another. This loss of a shared language constitutes, in his view, one of the greatest contemporary challenges facing liberal democracies.
Nevertheless, the American professor concluded with a message of optimism. Whilst just two years ago he viewed the scale of the problem with concern, he now believes that an unprecedented international movement is taking shape. The growing involvement of families, educators, researchers and public officials demonstrates, in his view, that democratic societies retain the capacity to respond to the unintended consequences of the technological revolution.
The conference thus concluded with a call to revive a conception of childhood based on play, autonomy and human relationships. For Haidt, preserving these experiences is an essential prerequisite not only for safeguarding the mental health of future generations, but also for ensuring personal fulfilment, the quality of education and the strength of future democracies.
The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for the comments, opinions or statements made by the people who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their sole responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference are the result of the debates held at the meeting held for this purpose at the Foundation and are the responsibility of their authors.
The Rafael del Pino Foundation is not responsible for any comments, opinions or statements made by third parties. In this respect, the FRP is not obliged to monitor the views expressed by such third parties who participate in its activities and which are expressed as a result of their inalienable right to freedom of expression and under their own responsibility. The contents included in the summary of this conference are the result of the discussions that took place during the conference organised for this purpose at the Foundation and are the sole responsibility of its authors.
