"In fact, Gen Z might just be the most risk-averse generation on record. Fewer Gen Zers got a driver’s license, drank alcohol, or had sex as teenagers than their parents did. The same young adults now report skyrocketing rates of anxiety and other mental illnesses, with some estimates finding that as many as 1 in 5 18-to-24-year-olds have been diagnosed with depression. Timidity—not to mention self-conscious neuroticism—is increasingly the norm.
“An ongoing study from Montclair State University argues that some of this risk aversion is due to the current political climate—or perhaps young people’s perception of it. “Gen Z’s mental health has deteriorated due to a worldview that the society and environment around them are crumbling,” writes justice studies professor Gabriel Rubin. “Rights are being taken away, the Earth is burning, maniacs could kill you with a gun, and viruses could shut down society again.””
See also, for counterpoint: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcperna/2024/06/18/gen-z-thriving-entrepreneurship/
18-to-24-year-olds
Weird grouping with Gen Z being 3 years older than the max
But the way they use the computer and internet shows they aren’t risk adverse, just different risks
The anxiety is probably because like millennials, they’ve been told the world is ending their whole lives and instead of doing anything about it we’ve just made the middle class poor
Don’t forget the rapid fire misinformation they are addicted too. Manipulation is off the charts
People like Tate and Peterson have done immeasurable damage to Gen Z… Instagram was deeply damaging to women’s mental health but the manosphere has done damage that will probably never be undone.
Millennials were not told that. Millennials grew up on in the golden era and then it all fell apart on them when they became adults. They were raised on high hopes.
The US was fighting wars in the Middle East for the first 30 years of our lives, we watched the worst mass casualty event since pearl harbor on live tv, we lived through the worst economic crisis since the great depression, covid, tea party, trump, Katrina, isis, Putin, etc etc. When were these high hopes you speak of?
I mean… I’m 29 and grew up being told that everything my parents enjoyed would literally never be a reality for me. I was 14 when the economy crashed in 2008 and 17 when gas prices first started spiking and never went down. I had to take out a $40k loan just for 1 year of university when my parents had the chance to graduate nearly debt-free and use their summer jobs to qualify for a mortgage.
Maybe you’re thinking of Gen X or something, because I really wouldn’t consider 1995-2015 (roughly the time when Millennials were coming of age) a golden era.
Millennials include people 10 years older than you. We were definitely being sold a future of sunshine and rainbows until at least late high school, if not our 20s.
Yeah I’m 30 and had to explain to my father that he could raise a family on a single engineer’s income, but I wouldn’t be able to. That was when I was a teenager
Kyoto protocol was 1997, and that was just extending a climate treaty from 1992
You’re thinking of boomers
I hate these articles that try to paint entire generations of people with the same brush.
I don’t think any article about generations is doing that when they point out percentages vs other generations. Groups exist, generations are a thing. It’s gonna be ok buddy.
I think there are some things we need to learn about people that grew up on the unregulated internet. I normally hate generation generalizations but Millenials (at least us 80s kids) were the last people who got to grow up without the internet being omnipresent in our lives before we hit puberty.
You make an excellent point.
People love to scapegoat the parents of the prior generation but I believe we’re gonna find out the plastics or some other environmental toxin had a substantial impact and causal Relationship with this sort of thing.
Yes, or it could be the incredibly obvious fact that it’s a generation that grew up on media and technology that amplified fear and anger for profit and with corporate powers leveraging the most advanced technologies in the world to seek, compete for, gain, and hold attention as much as possible in almost every waking moment.
Well if that’s true, I sure hope they don’t become leaders in creative industries. There’s already a lack of risk taking in favor of bland bullshit that tries to have mass appeal.
Sorry to say that from the Gen Z I know they’re even more into big brands and “collabs”. It’s disheartening how much more deeply they’ve been sucked into the big corporate marketing machine.
Oh, hell, and you’ll be judged if you don’t conform. No other shoes than Nike, no other phone brand than Apple, no other earphones than AirPods, hell, I even got made fun of for my choice of wireless carrier (I went for the cheapest - rather than one providing unlimited data for apps like TikTok and SnapChat plus 5GB for other traffic for €17/month until the EU banned that crap, I chose 300GB for €12/month. But, it was the cheapest, so…)
There’s a big difference between not wanting to be a (teenage) parent and not having any imagination?
Maybe that’s why so many American young people voted Red in this election.
In normal circumstances I’d understand that, but describing Trump particularly as risk-averse is kind of an interesting take imo
Keep them scared, keep them voting Republican.
and here the rest of us thought the tumblr “guess i’m gonna die” memes were just silliness. guess they meant it, huh.
As the saying goes, there’s a grain of truth in every joke.
Uh… sports gambling?
Uh… what?
This article is focused on traditional measures of risk (drinking and sex) and is ignoring novel forms of risk… Gen Z appears to be extremely active in the gambling markets (particularly sports and political) in a way that older folks simply haven’t engaged in.
Oh. I see.
If it’s from MSU, it can safely be ignored.
Source: I went there. Gained nothing but a piece of paper. Lost time, money, and effort.
Skill problem.
