The After Babel Substack has extensively covered the topic of declining adolescent mental health, particularly highlighting the more severe challenges faced by girls, often noting that “liberal girls sank first and fastest.” Research findings, as well as accounts from numerous girls, consistently attribute these issues to the pervasive influence of smartphones and social media platforms, notably Instagram and TikTok. This impact is especially pronounced when girls become engrossed in these platforms during early puberty, typically during middle school.
However, the situation regarding boys’ mental health has been less clear. While boys generally experience lower rates of anxiety and depression compared to girls, they are nonetheless struggling, with no distinct patterns or explanations readily apparent. This changed in late 2022, when Zach and I embarked on investigating the issue of boys’ mental health while writing The Anxious Generation. I tasked Zach with creating a comprehensive Collaborative Review Doc focusing on boys, encompassing various factors such as increasing marijuana use, declining sperm counts, and addiction to sports betting.
We enlisted the expertise of my friend Richard Reeves, who was concurrently working on his book Of Boys and Men, to serve as a curator of the document. Upon reviewing Richard’s book, the narrative surrounding boys’ mental health became significantly clearer. The story traces back to the 1970s, when boys began to gradually transition from the real world to the virtual realm, influenced by the advent of home computers and video games. This shift intensified with the widespread adoption of the internet in the 1990s, and reached new heights in the late 2000s and early 2010s with the proliferation of immersive multiplayer games, smartphones, and virtually unrestricted access to the digital world facilitated by high-speed internet.
