In his bestselling book “The Anxious Generation,” author and NYU Stern School of Business professor Jonathan Haidt discusses the societal changes that led to Gen Z’s spikes in anxiety and depression, namely the introduction of the smartphone and social media.
The book spawned the Anxious Generation Movement, a public health campaign “focused on changing policy, culture, and behavior,” according to its website. Led by Haidt, its team keeps track of legislature around child phone use and creates documents that offer policymaking ideas, among other initiatives.
Gen Zers aren’t the only ones affected by smartphones and social media. “We all feel it,” says Alexa Arnold, who serves as both the managing director of the movement and as Haidt’s chief of staff.
If you’ve felt your mental health take a hit in the last few years, here are Arnold’s tips for lowering anxiety.
First, decenter your phone in your life, says Arnold.
You can do that by turning off notifications and disabling the ability for texts to come through to your computer, she says. You can also try “putting your phone in the other room for hours at a time,” she adds.
“I think the longer we can take breaks and have longer periods of deep work and deep focus,” she says, “the better our brains will be.”
Arnold suggests you start to think about using your phone in batches of time. For example, if you’re someone who likes to keep up with the news, block off just 20 minutes of your day to do that, as opposed to checking your news apps repeatedly throughout the day.
Arnold’s second tip for lowering anxiety: Do something that scares or challenges you.
Workplace challenges help you grow, Arnold says, especially when they put mental or physical strains on you. That principle also holds for doing something scary in social settings, like starting up small talk with strangers. And the effects are monumental, she adds.
“Doing hard things makes you more confident and capable and creative and confident,” Arnold say, regardless of where you are in life. Doing hard things can also help alleviate anxiety.
“We get this question in almost every room we go in: Who is the anxious generation?’,” Arnold says.
“And I think the truth is that it’s all of us.”
Want to level up your AI skills? Sign up for Smarter by CNBC Make It’s new online course, How To Use AI To Communicate Better At Work. Get specific prompts to optimize emails, memos and presentations for tone, context and audience. Sign up today with coupon code EARLYBIRD for an introductory discount of 20% off. Offer valid Oct. 21 through Oct. 28, 2025.
Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newsletter to get tips and tricks for success at work, with money and in life, and request to join our exclusive community on LinkedIn to connect with experts and peers.
