"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/
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.
Millennials were sold the same promises as Gen X, only it was quickly becoming apparent that those promises were straight up lies. The young millennials cam of age in the wake of the 2008 crash while the older ones lost everything in said crash. Zoomers are still being sold the American dream, only now it’s more of a hostage demand.
And we all will land gently into a third world of our own making. The extremely rich, who are countryless/boarderless, will settle into their private islands as they use people to rack up “money points” and abuse underage childten.
I’m certain Ill be dead/dying in time to tell story’s have how we use to have rights and how Rosa Parks sat at the front of a bus once and helped change a nation. I will instill ideas of democracy that my current countrymen seem to hate so much, now. Then I will probably pick up a pack of smokes so I can look cool as I die rambling on about the ballot or the bullet.
I am an elder millennial graduated in 02, the 90’s were fucking great. It’s literally been a downhill slide since 9/11. We were told we were post history.
Yeah, my brother is an elder millennial (43), I’m 33. It’s wild the different stories we were told about how our lives were going to be. If he hasn’t gone into the military, I doubt he’d be any better off then I am, and I am… Not doing great, financially.
I have siblings that are 12 and 10 years older than me and they had my same experience, but okay.