Who had it worse—Boomer or Gen Z?

Each generation thinks they had it ‘the worst!’

Like many Boomers, I’ve looked at the array of choices, opportunities and technology available to younger generations and have fallen into the trap of thinking “they have it better!” The more I see, the more I thank God I am not growing up today!

Boomers did have to cope with potential annihilation from nuclear war—but we had those sturdy school-desks to protect us when “The Big One” went off!

Get underneath that thing and you’ll be just fine..!

Inter-generational Communication

Different generations never truly listen to each other—the recurrent story of ‘young pups’ and ‘ol Fogeys!’

Part of the difficulty is from each having their own slang, but communication problems have compounded because we are not even using the same mode of communication now. Boomers try to talk face-to-face (ewww!) while Gen Z uses their cell-phones / mobiles. Therein lies the rub.

The Problem

First I thought way too deeply about what new generations are facing.

COVID; educational loss (COVID); Climate Change; Women’s Rights; Trans Rights; every-bodies “RIGHTS”; financial crashes; astronomical property prices; mass immigration; woke-ism; Cancel Culture; overpopulation; possible food shortage; polar bear starvation (NOT!) and the death of the planet because—gasp!!—I used a plastic straw: Bloody Hell!

Evil agencies like the World Economic Forum are manufacturing many of these crises to put the ‘Plebeians’—us!—back into indentured servitude. The problem is that they do so by leveraging the massive increase in anxiety, especially in the younger generations.

Stress, anxiety & suicide

One outcome for the youth and young adults to such stressors is the dreadful suicide rate. Female suicide rates are still way lower than males [below is a graph of Suicide Rates for Teens Aged 15–19 Years, by Sex in the United States, 1975–2015]:

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/wr/mm6630a6.htm

StatsCan

Source CDC: mostly male professions

That said, the suicide of teenage girls gains vastly more media publicity—with media bias being a major problem. (Which might be one reason young women/girls are self-harming more.) Two notorious Canadian cases of cyber-bullying and subsequent media-hype are of Amanda Scott and Rehtaeh Parsons.

Amanda Scott RIP 2012

Rehtaeh Parson RIP 2013

Boys/men more often withdraw and often do not seek constructive help. Even after suicide, males are frequently invalidated or vilified in the media. (and likely, many are silent victims of cyber-sexual bullying too.)

Unlike other countries, Canada has also documented an increase in younger [10-14 year old] female suicides since 2011.

(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10408560/)

The marked and consistent trend of rising suicide rates among adolescent females aged 10 to 14 years in Canada signals increased distress and/or maladaptive coping in this segment of the population. There are many factors that could be contributing to increased distress in this demographic. For example, the proportion of school-age girls in Canada reporting symptoms consistent with depression—strongly linked to suicide risk—is rising. Mounting societal and gendered pressures in the form of familial stress from the 2008 global financial crisis and its aftermath, or the advent of smartphones and ubiquity of social media may have put disproportionate stress on younger girls. Additionally, changing gender norms and messaging that younger girls are exposed to could influence suicide rates. This may include more frequent dissemination of information about self-harm, increased awareness and acceptability of more lethal suicide methods, and an inadvertent positioning of suicide as a normative response to distress.

Anti-Social Media

So, what happened around 2011/2012?

The sale of smartphones and access to (anti-)Social Media 24/7/365 started to boom.

Psychologist and author Johnathon Haidt attributes much of the profound anxiety in younger generations to the early use of smartphones, the incessant access to (anti-)social media and an increasing sense of meaninglessness.

He gave a fascinating interview on Triggernometry recently: it is well worth 1-hour of your time.

(Click image to link to X and the 1 hour interview)

Penguin Books: ISBN 9780593655030

He contends that the smart phone is leading to “the destruction of human capital” on an unprecedented scale. (He notes a recent survey in the UK shows that 24% of 5 to 7 year olds have their own smart phone!) He fears this will end with civilisational collapse.

The statistics are stark.

One survey revealed recently that 45 per cent of men aged between 18 and 25 have never approached a woman in person for a date. What’s more, the hyper-sexualisation of our culture, the porngraphic focus on body parts, has gone hand-in-hand with a denial of the reality of biological sex.

The Fix?

Haidt suggests a start with just 4 strategic and achievable changes:

1. No smart phone before High School (flip-phone or basic phone is okay)

2. NO Social Media till 16 years of age.

3. Phone-free schools.

4. Independent free play & responsibility in the real world.

Conclusion
Many of us did things in our youth which were perhaps a tad…embarassing! Before 2007, we did not have to live with those indiscretions being seen forever around the world, after they were documented in High Definition living colour.

Johnathon Haidt is on the right track and his suggestions are worth repeating:

1. No smart phone before High School (flip-phone or a basic phone is okay)

2. NO Social Media till 16 years of age.

3. Phone-free schools.

4. Independent free play & responsibility in the real world.

Kevin Hay.

You can follow Kevin on 𝕏 ( Twitter / Twi𝕏 ) @ kevinhay77