Haidt's sub-claims in the book- leading to higher levels of depression and anxiety

Juxtaposition of Trends: He rhetorically links two distinct trend lines: the rise of the smartphone and social media usage (specifically around 2012) and the sharp decline in mental health and well-being among adolescents, especially girls, in the same period. This juxtaposition suggests a clear cause-and-effect relationship, often described using the term "The Great Deterioration."

Focus on Girls: By centering the argument on teen and pre-teen girls, he taps into societal concerns about vulnerability and development. He often argues that social media's emphasis on appearance, social comparison, and performance is uniquely toxic to the adolescent female psyche.

📊 Supporting Research Provided by Haidt

Haidt primarily relies on three categories of evidence to support his claim:

Epidemiological Correlation Data (The "Before and After"):

Data Source: Large-scale surveys like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and Monitoring the Future (MTF) study.

Evidence: Haidt highlights national data showing that starting around 2012–2014, rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and emergency room visits for mental health issues among adolescents, particularly females, began to climb sharply after decades of stability or slight improvement.

Sample Answer

Haidt's Sub-Claim: Social Media Harms Teen and Pre-Teen Girls

One of Jonathan Haidt’s most prominent sub-claims in his work regarding the decline in adolescent mental health (often associated with his book The Anxious Generation) is: The sudden switch from a play-based childhood to a phone-based one, particularly due to the rise of social media, has severely harmed the psychological development of teen and pre-teen girls, leading to higher rates of depression, anxiety, and self-harm.

🗣️ Rhetorical Framing

Haidt frames this claim with a powerful, often alarming, rhetoric of public health crisis and cultural inflection point.

The "Great Rewiring" Metaphor: He uses strong metaphors like the "Great Rewiring" of social life or the "rewiring of childhood" to suggest a fundamental, dramatic, and irreversible change to the human developmental process. This framing implies urgency and high stakes.