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