While this is absolutely true, there's also another elephant in the room: a global pandemic that's destroyed every kid's routine, robbed 2+ years of their childhood from them, and for many put them severely behind in school and extracurricular achievement. Given all the pressure we put on kids these days to excel at everything in order to ensure their futures, it's not surprising that many are feeling more hopeless and jaded than even the generation that came before them.
Frankly, I think all of this jadedness and depression is at least partly a product of the inconceivably high stress of everyday life experienced by millennials and then Gen Z.
Most millennials saw all of this before finishing high school:
- Gulf war
- 9/11
- Wars in Iraq/Afghanistan/etc.
- Hurricane Katrina
- 2007 housing bubble/fuel shortage
- 2008 financial crisis
In short, America's "squeaky clean best country in the world" image falling apart;
Most Gen Z will have seen all of this before finishing high school:
- Sandy Hook shooting, among dozens of others
- The election of Donald Trump (who, love him or hate him, is _extremely_ unpopular and seen as an existential threat by most American teenagers)
- Rapidly increasing ecological destruction (West coast fires, Australian fires, Hurricane Maria, etc. etc.)
- The COVID-19 Pandemic
- The murder of George Floyd and many others besides
- The unbelievable greed of major corporations financializing nearly every aspect of modern life
- (as of a few days ago) the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Casey vs. Planned Parenthood
In short, the basic fabric of society starting to unravel.
This analysis is obviously extremely slanted by my leftist bias and leaves out plenty of other tragedies and trials I could mention, and I'm not going to deny that. But the fact is that the teenagers I know have zero hope left that the future holds anything better for them. They're inheriting a broken world and they know it; their mental health reflects this. People love to wax philosophical about how "kids these days have no trust in authority or institutions" and...well shit, you wonder why.
Gee I wonder what teenagers saw during the black plague or conquest of the Mongols?
The problem kids face today isn't problems, those have always existed.
The problem today is non problems or problems that don't relate to the person in any way or hypothetical problems that are pumped to cause hysteria for political or economic gains get way too much attention. Which describes most of what you list.
People have survived and overcome massive problems in our historic past, but these bullshit "problems" have themselves become a problem and media, social and otherwise is a good part of the cause.
Downplaying the problems of the youth today because six hundred years ago kids had to deal with a plague, is a new one for me.
"You think you've got it rough? Well six hundred years ago there was a conquest of the Mongols. I bet you feel pretty stupid about your suicidal ideation now!"
This one-upmanship about the problems people face is toxic, and frankly boomer logic.
"Toxic" and "Boomer Logic" are lazy mind numbing cliches and no one is one-upsmanshiping anything.
Problems have always existed. What is different now?
A couple of things (in my opinion).
1) Entities, through media, are blowing up minor or hypothetical or non problems into existential crisis hammered 24-7 for political or financial gain. Happening on all sides of the political spectrum.
2) Kids aren't growing up learning a rational assessment and approach towards problems as much as was the case in the past. We "solve" too many small problems for children leaving them feeling powerless to solve the bigger problems later in life.
> While this is absolutely true, there's also another elephant in the room: a global pandemic that's destroyed every kid's routine, robbed 2+ years of their childhood from them, and for many put them severely behind in school and extracurricular achievement.
I'm baffled that you're one of the rare person mentioning this. We had 2 years stolen from us so of course people turned to social media to fill that void.
Maybe it's because i saw it first hand; my younger brother graduated high school in 2020 and my partner worked in education until mid 2021. I heard first hand accounts of just how horrific the pandemic was for school age kids.
Frankly, I think all of this jadedness and depression is at least partly a product of the inconceivably high stress of everyday life experienced by millennials and then Gen Z.
Most millennials saw all of this before finishing high school:
- Gulf war
- 9/11
- Wars in Iraq/Afghanistan/etc.
- Hurricane Katrina
- 2007 housing bubble/fuel shortage
- 2008 financial crisis
In short, America's "squeaky clean best country in the world" image falling apart;
Most Gen Z will have seen all of this before finishing high school:
- Sandy Hook shooting, among dozens of others
- The election of Donald Trump (who, love him or hate him, is _extremely_ unpopular and seen as an existential threat by most American teenagers)
- Rapidly increasing ecological destruction (West coast fires, Australian fires, Hurricane Maria, etc. etc.)
- The COVID-19 Pandemic
- The murder of George Floyd and many others besides
- The unbelievable greed of major corporations financializing nearly every aspect of modern life
- (as of a few days ago) the overturning of Roe v. Wade and Casey vs. Planned Parenthood
In short, the basic fabric of society starting to unravel.
This analysis is obviously extremely slanted by my leftist bias and leaves out plenty of other tragedies and trials I could mention, and I'm not going to deny that. But the fact is that the teenagers I know have zero hope left that the future holds anything better for them. They're inheriting a broken world and they know it; their mental health reflects this. People love to wax philosophical about how "kids these days have no trust in authority or institutions" and...well shit, you wonder why.