Millis Reads 2025: Digital Wellbeing

Millis Reads is an effort to strengthen ties throughout the Millis community by encouraging everyone in town to read and discuss the same book. The mission of Millis Reads is to promote literacy, to foster community dialog, to increase engagement, and to broaden understanding and tolerance of differing points of view.

Participants are encouraged to read or listen to the book selection and attended a variety programs that tie in to the themes of the books!

Millis Reads is sponsored in part by the Millis Cultural Council. Funding is also generously provided by the Friends of the Millis Public Library.

Book Selections

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Featured Title

The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness by Jonathan Haidt

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt explores the impact of two cultural shifts on adolescent mental health – the decline of the “play-based childhood” beginning in the 1980s and the arrival of the “phone-based childhood” in the early 2010s. He makes a case for impacts on children’s social and neurological development, including sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, addiction, loneliness, social contagion, social comparison, and perfectionism.

Haidt ends with a clear call to action, diagnosing the “collective action problems” that trap us, and proposes four simple rules that might help. He describes steps that parents, teachers, schools, tech companies, and governments can take to improve mental health and restore a more humane childhood.

Copies of the book are available at the Library.

The title is also available as an eBook or eAudiobook through Overdrive or the Libby app.

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Other Highlighted Titles

Featured Event

“The Anxious Generation” Panel Discussion

Thursday, March 13th at 6:30 PM

In The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt explores the rise of anxiety, depression, and social disconnection among young people, linking these trends to the pervasive influence of smartphones and social media. Haidt argues for a return to real-world childhood experiences, emphasizing the need for stronger community bonds, free play, and delayed exposure to digital devices. Our discussion will feature local professionals sharing their take on the book.

Panelists will include:
Riley Dunn – Riley received her Masters in School Counseling from Boston University in 2014 and has been a high school counselor at Millis High School for the past 11 years.
Dawn Skop – Dawn received her Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Lesley University in 1998. She has been a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Millis for 14 years.
Pat Nash – For the last two decades, best selling author Pat has worked with thousands of teens as a teacher, coach, school administrator and youth group leader.

Visit our events calendar to see details for all the planned events for Millis Reads 2025