SALISBURY — Hood Theological Seminary is offering a free course that will give people an opportunity to discuss the book “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness” by Jonathan Haidt.

The course is offered as part of the Messinger-Williams Community Education Initiative is an extension of the Hood Theological Seminary’s Messinger and Williams Family Chair in Theology and Ethics. Courses are offered at various times throughout the year. Course topics vary, but will consistently deal with issues of faith, ethics and community. The courses are free and open to the public.  

After more than a decade of stability or improvement, the mental health of adolescents plunged in the early 2010s. Rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm and suicide rose sharply, more than doubling on many measures and raising questions about why.

Social psychologist Haidt believes the answer has to do with what he calls “the great rewiring of childhood,” which took place right under people’s noses when they placed smartphones in the hands of our children and left them to navigate the online world on their own, without guidance or guardrails.

In his latest book, Haidt examines how this “great rewiring” has interfered with children’s social and neurological development, covering everything from sleep deprivation to attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison and perfectionism. He explains why social media damages girls more than boys and why boys have been withdrawing from the real world into the virtual world, with disastrous consequences for themselves, their families and their societies.

The Fall 2024 Messinger-Williams Community Education Initiative will be devoted to a six-week study of The Anxious Generation starting Oct. 6 through Nov. 14. Participation options include in-person sessions held at various churches in the community and Zoom sessions.

For more information including participation options, schedule and registration, go to https://www.hoodseminary.edu/Initiatives/community-education-initiative/current-course-offering.