What is really causing generation Z into despair

thank you asta

the hbo tv adaptation of the book

big little lies there’s a scene where a

second grader

amabella suffers a panic attack after a

class discussion

about climate change now amabella’s

family thought that climate change

was too grave of a subject to be

discussed with children

so while the mother knew how to protect

her from most other dangers of this

world

this was a problem where she was not in

control

so instead amabella’s mother stormed to

the school

and took her anger out on the teacher

who had brought up such a terrifying

subject

with the children amabella

is a typical member of generation z

raised by parents who did everything

they could to keep their children

safe and happy and nonetheless

generation z is growing up more anxious

more depressed more lonely and more

distrusting than any other generation

before them

i have studied generation z since before

some of them

were even born and this is the trend

that troubles me the most

i suspect that in our efforts to try to

understand

what are the causes for these these

rising mental health crisis with our

kids

we might be looking for causes in the

wrong places

or at the very least overlook some

plausible explanations

that are a little less obvious in this

talk

i hope to shed light on some of those

explanations

and possibly introduced some solutions

generation z took their baby steps

in the last half of the 1990s and

throughout the 2000s

at the beginning of an era of rapid

change

a time when a multitude of global trends

came together

and accelerated at the same time

globalization had shrunk the world and

new

information and communication

technologies connected us

in ways that hadn’t been possible before

parents logged onto what we then called

the information superhighway

and we’re constantly reminded of all the

possible threats

that might be hiding around the corner

cable news and emerging internet

communities

amplified these fears and constantly now

on the parents minds were child

abductions

playground accidents food allergies and

all sorts of possible harms

that are frightening but statistically

fairly rare

the result of this is that generation z

to a large extent has grown up in our

bedrooms

the number of teenagers who meet up with

their friends every single day

dropped in half since 1980 and

even more during the pandemic now that

doesn’t mean that generation z is any

less connected

with the world literally at their

fingertips

they are learning to navigate a

pixelated reality

one where physical rooms have given way

to

virtual rooms and

where they’re constantly soaking in a

constant onslaught of information

24 7.

now it might be that growing up

protected

from the occasional boogeyman on the

street corner

and scraped knees on the playground is

not the best recipe

for happiness or even safety

experts are not wondering why

generations ears have the second leading

cause of death

of young people today is suicide

you can now actually read long

academic articles and wrestling books

from social psychologists who are

starting to wonder

what is going on what is going on with

our kids today

and parents who are already worried now

they worry even more

now we blame the technology now we blame

the touch screens the smartphones the

tablets

the social media networks and the video

gaming platforms

you can now even hear from silicon

valley executives

who will publicly admit that they will

not let their own kids

have the very same technology that they

are creating for others

i suspect though that once again we

might

be looking for a simple explanation

a single variable to try to explain all

the misery

now there is a relationship between

screen time or at least social media

and depression but the effect isn’t

lar any large enough to explain

all the misery and when

we look at this relationship we don’t

even know if it is

that social media causes depression or

if depressed people

spend more time on social media perhaps

it is then that we’re taking

our worst behaviors online maybe

but if we compare all the negative

interactions with the positive

interactions we have through these

devices

do we even know that the bad outweighs

the good

during a talk that i had on generation z

and their technology use

a few years ago a woman in my audience

stood up to share her story

now as a mother she too had worried

about

the effect of the screens on her family

so she introduced screen time rules

where at a certain

hour every evening all the family

members were to drop their phones into a

basket

and not reclaim it until the next day

now one of these nights her daughter’s

best friend

had tried to reach out during his

darkest hour

when he wasn’t able to make contact he

ended up trying to end his own life what

a wicked twist of fate

that this technology that our experts

had warned us

could cause suicidal proclivities was

now in fact the communication device

that could help

prevent it now thankfully he

did survive but it is a stark reminder

that technology itself is neither good

or bad

it’s how we use it that really matters

now i want you to think back on that

story i told you about anabella

and the teacher who had been blamed for

bringing up such a frightening subject

like climate change

just like the teacher um generation z’s

technology

is really a messenger of bad news but

not the direct

cause of it if we shift our focus

away from the symptoms and start digging

for the underlying causes

perhaps what we might find out is that

these screens

are conveying a reality that is

happening outside

simply mediating messages of things that

are happening in the real world

like for example when we see images of

forest fires completely out of control

of coral reefs dying in the ocean of the

constant reminders that

species are going extinct by the dozens

every single

day wouldn’t it be

plausible to assume that this reality

has an effect

on mental health psychiatrists and

environmentalist

lisa van susteren has looked at the

relationship

between climate change and mental health

she describes this as a pre-traumatic

stress

condition which really is about fear of

something

you feel you cannot control something

that is bound to happen

that you cannot influence

in many ways it’s the opposite of

post-traumatic stress

which is the anxiety that is brought on

by

past trauma so pre-traumatic stress

is in many ways fear of the future

and it’s true that it is the younger

generations

are going to have to deal with the

problems that we’re causing

today whether we talk about climate

change

resource depletion mass extinction water

scarcity

pollution pandemics we know from

international service

that it’s the younger generation that

worry about

these trends the most

perhaps then this is the biggest

difference

younger generations and their parents

because again while their parents did so

much to protect them

they can’t protect them from the future

but what if that future can be changed

and what if it turns out that those very

same technologies

that are showing us all of these images

of terrible things that are happening in

the environment

all of these constant reminders those

technologies are also the devices

that are connecting young people in

unprecedented levels of activism

now why what if that activism is also

the best remedy

to replace the sense of despondency and

despair

with hope and empowerment

two years ago this month

over one and a half million kids in 125

countries

took to the streets to protest what they

felt

was an inadequate response to the

problems of climate change

this was made possible through the

connectivity

that this generation enjoys

and it’s this connectivity that is

helping them build momentum

around common values that gives them a

very strong

global voice a voice that is in fact

becoming so powerful

that big international corporations are

now starting to listen

and actually make changes to the

practices to appeal

to this hyper-connected

hyper-influential and very

digital generation these businesses

they know that young people with

smartphones

can dig up any smudge that could tarnish

their reputation

or bring viral fame to brands that live

up to their expectations

so perhaps in spite of all of their

anguish generation z

is the most powerful

so what should you do if you have a

teenager who seems

glued to the screens should you

install screen lock apps uh or

or spying apps or all of these should

you count the

second and hours that they spend online

or might to have a better

results if you actually engage in more

conversations about what it is that they

are doing on the screens what they’re

seeing

how does it make them feel what gives

them hope

how do they feel that they can make

changes

to their future because the truth is

we might not be able to protect our

children

from everything that is worrying them or

worrying

us our greatest fear might in fact be

that we don’t

have much control at all just like

anabella’s mother

and it’s tempting then to think that if

we could just keep our kids inside

we can keep them safe or if we take

their phones away

they’ll be happier but shutting off the

world outside

isn’t going to solve anything but we

shut it off physically or digitally

and it’s really only going to prolong

the time it takes

before we deal with real issues real

issues that are scary because

they’re tied to the future of our planet

a future that our children are so

determined

to change so if we really want to help

our kids

heal let’s start by being honest with

ourselves

let’s start by accepting that mental

health

is linked to the health of our planet

and let’s join that global voice for

change

thank you