Why Gen Z is Quietly Giving Up

let me ask you a question do you feel hopeful for the future I mean like when you think about Humanity do you think that tomorrow will be better than today well for some reason a lot of young people don't according to the Walton Family Foundation jenzi is nearly twice as likely as previous generations of Americans to battle feelings of depression and hopelessness and even more alarming they're three times more likely to say their challenges are so severe they thought they might be better off dead and so that begs the question why is jenz so hopeless and more importantly what can we do about it well after doing some research into generational psychology and philosophy those are the questions I'm going to attempt to answer in this video and I want to do so in three parts first the problem how we got here and data that shows us what is actually happening and surprisingly it's not because genz is more open about their mental health next the causes three reasons why this is happening and lastly a possible solution that combines the best of Western philosophy and Eastern wisdom so buckle up get ready and let's address the problem when it comes to generational Trends Dr Jee twangy is the go-to expert I research generational differences she's the author of seven books and more than 180 scientific Publications about generational differences and Social Psychology so today I'll be leaning heavily on her work that being said though her work is an iceberg so if you want to learn more I've left all of my sources in the description below anyways let's look at some graphs in the data coming out around 2012 2013 there started to be some odd Trends more and more teens saying that they felt lonely that they felt left out that they felt like they couldn't do anything right that they didn't enjoy life clinical level depression among 12 to 17year olds doubled self harm admissions quadrupled the suicide rate doubled so we're we're talking about changes that are very large that happened over a very brief period of time clearly something went wrong with jenzy and specifically around 2012 if you look at each of the graphs that I've shown you you can see that the Staggering increases don't start beginning until that year so of course that begs a question why why did it happen at this particular time what was going on in teens lives that that might explain this well it has to be something massive like a specific event something similar in scope to the Great Depression or the Cold War all right what was happening around 2012 I've always here Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez while there was the 2008 recession 43% completely out this could be the most serious recession in decades but at that point the economy was already recovering unemployment was actually going down over this time that tea Depression was going up and of course Co was massive too but that wouldn't hit us until 8 years later and it was hard to think of an event that happened at that time reverberated across the decade was really a mystery to me and everybody else so what could it be well there is one generation defining thing and you're probably using it right now and we are calling it iPhone today apple is going to reinvent the phone and here it is in the year 2012 smartphone ownership in the US crossed a critical threshold of 50% this was the fastest adoption of any technology in human history and Dr twangy argues that this is the most likely cause behind jz's mental health issues it's difficult to identify any other big social change that happened around 201 or 2012 that might be linked to mental health other than smartphones and she bases her argument off of four pieces of evidence one the timing lines up perfectly here's teen depression smartphone ownership number of hours per day the teens spend online now of course correlation isn't a causation but this does help rule out other factors such as the economy anxiety over school shootings environmental concerns the 2016 election this helps to rule those out number two it's impact a day-to-day life like crazy teens started spending a lot more time online and a lot less time with each other face to face and a lot less time sleeping and that is a terrible formula for mental health three smartphone ownership affects everyone whether or not you participate in it social media is social it doesn't just affect the people who use it it affects the people who don't use it cuz then if you're not on it you're left out and lastly number four the disproportionate impact on girls meta's internal research found that especially for girls many of them Trace their body image issues to spending a lot of time on Instagram and it is particularly toxic for girls I mean you think about Instagram Instagram at base is a platform where primarily girls and young women post pictures of themselves and ask other people to comment Jesus brutal but I want to go a step further you see I believe that smartphones were just the beginning their adoption in 2012 was just a catalyst but it is no longer the persistent cause these days I believe that it was just a Gateway into a whole new reality a hyper reality that one compounded with the other factors that I'm going to talk about feels pretty damn meaningless coming to bed honey yes dear you and I are beans and for most of human history we lived in this jar now this jar was made up of core beliefs or meta narratives and while this can definitely restricted our freedom it also kept us together and this is known as premodern ISM I sure do love hanging out with my good friends God community and truth you guys are the best no modernism you're the best but the world that we live in today has opened that jar dumped all the beans out onto a table and thrown the jar away now without those pesky restrictive meta narratives of the past you're free to be whatever kind of bean you want to be without religion telling you who to be you're free to choose whatever spiritual path is true for you without traditional gender rules telling you how to behave and who to be you're free to be whoever you want this is postmodernism hey guys what's up oh hey postmodernism and it's definitely had its benefits don't get me wrong the society that we live in these days is way more diverse egalitarian and individualistic however there's a big drawback why did you kill God God's not real idiot use your brain loser why would you kill community group think is bad idiot think for yourself for a change all you've done is take from me you've destroyed the foundation of what's given me purpose and happiness and given me nothing in return huh I guess you're right you see there's a bunch of beans on a table and while they're definitely free from the jar they're also separate from one another they're disconnected and also not to mention it's incredibly messy I'm going to have a fun time cleaning this up you see we tend to think of Freedom as this overriding unquestionable good thing but let's also not forget that freedom is also chaos and too much freedom without any order to contain it can easily lead to a sea of meaningless uncertainty and alienation and when it comes to Freedom jenzi is arguably the most free generation in history we have all of the options in the world when it comes to careers who to be what to believe but this has also led us to being the loneliest I'm just so lonely all the time and most confused so like what's the point of all this [ __ ] if you're just gon toing go on the ground there's no point to this man and this is what the philosopher Alber kamu called the Absurd the conflict between the human tendency to seek inherent of value and meaning in life and the human inability to find any now as for whether or not we should get back in the jar I'll talk about that more at the end but as of right now without that jar we're just a bunch of only [Music] beans we live in a society we're living in a society and in order to keep that Society from collapsing into Anarchy we each agree to a set of implicit social contracts whether or not we're aware of them for example money is real and has value if you steal then you go to jail or for my male audience this one's a no-brainer I'd definitely go all the way to the right you want to space yourself as much as you can here I'd probably go to the same thing cuz anything else and you're kind of too close to people and for previous generations specifically American baby boomers their overarching social contract was known as the American dream and the American dream promised that if you work hard at a safe job then you will be able to afford a comfortable life full of consumer goods and white picket fences and back in those days the American dream was true for most white Americans but times have changed is it still true these days well let me tell you the story of the family company IBM Once Upon a Time IBM was considered quote a family company and in this giant Tech Utopia young graduates were hired straight out of college and promised a job for life with generous benefits health care and Secure Retirement plans according to this handbook in over 40 years full-time employees haven't been touched by layoffs people are a treasured resource and are treated like one however in the ' 80s and '90s the tech landscape began to shift and IBM fell into turbulent Financial Waters in 1993 the company of 300,000 posted an $8 billion loss in order to stay afloat they had to transform and so the once Unthinkable occurred IBM in practically one swift motion cut 60,000 employees the largest layoff in American history James Gallow found out it was his turn to go at IBM and ess6 Junction after 27 years they give you any warning that it could be your you know you absolutely not feel like a termination without us this process felt like a betrayal and let me tell you all this isn't a lone incident you see prior to the 70s massive layoffs like this were considered Unthinkable and were considered just poor management but nowadays it's strictly business jenzy knows that companies don't actually care about us we know this because we grew up watching people in supposedly safe jobs like IBM get laid off at a moment's notice first in the 2008 recession and then again in 2020 and furthermore as we continue to move towards Automation and AI we know that we're going to be inevitably replaced now this isn't because companies are evil it's simply economics the system that we're in rewards this kind of short-term transactional behavior and so in return employees are more short-term and transactional with their employers so that's how we end up with things like this right now the phrase quiet quitting is exploding on social media yeah I actually don't dream of Labor I don't want to work I don't have a dream job I don't dream of Labor looking at these Trends though I began to wonder is this just an American [Music] phenomenon there is an undercurrent of dissatisfaction Brewing among the young in China a new phenomenon called ban meaning let it rot it was seen as the spiritual successor of an earlier movement known as tamping or lying flat in order to understand this phenomenon better I decided to talk to my friend Rachel what does tanging mean tanging the direct translation for this word means like you're lying down like you're lying flat it just simply means like I'm not going to get myself involved in a necessary competition I'm just going to do what I'm paid for and not beyond that on the broader level what is it a response to in China the work culture is all about competition at school we have examinations and that's like the standard measurement for everyone to show their abilities people are going to compete amongst themselves you know to see like oh who gets um the highest score in this test you know that's a culture that led to Tong ping however more recently Tong ping has given rise to a more extreme form of disengagement as youth unemployment hit a record high of 20.8% in May 2023 we started to hear Whispers of a new phenomenon so what does ban mean so ban means letting it rot like letting yourself rot it's kind of similar to T where it's caused by overc competition and they want to exclude themselves from a necessary competitive situations like this now while tanging and ban are different phrases they both encapsulate a similar attitude just give up you cannot control anything even if you work hard you may not have a better life and better future and so when we zoom out and look at the bigger picture we can see that a significant number of young people around the world are dissatisfied with how we work they want better but also feel powerless to change it which leads us to reason number [Music] three for most most of Humanity's history we lived localized lives we rarely traveled Beyond Regional boundaries if ever past our own village and so the average person back then likely knew a few hundred people at most fast forward to today and apparently your grandma is friends with over 1,000 people on Facebook it's a hot girl summer right now the internet has made the world bigger and as the world gets bigger competition increases and as competition increases only the extremes stand out behind me are the the most expensive cars in the world size painter taking the art World by stor the world's youngest billionaire Muma Jor every day all we see are the best of the best the worst of the worst the craziest and most extreme versions of reality and so it's no wonder why our perception of normal is just completely worked for some reason we think that if we're not famous or a millionaire by 25 then we've somehow failed what furthermore though the internet reveals an interesting Paradox that I've never really thought about before in her book jenzi explained Berta cats writes the experience of jzer is often paradoxical even contradictory they have more voice than ever before for example a meme or a video can reach Millions but they also have a sense of diminished agency in real life institutions and political and economic systems seem locked inaccessible to them and wrong-headed simply put jenzi is louder but has less power and this is most evident with social media activism your voice matters whether you're typing it whether you're speaking it whether you're reposting it we're often told to use our social media platforms to spread awareness use your platform use your platform use your platform however big it is and while this has definitely made a positive difference to many worthy causes it has also exposed us to a constant barrage of problems problems that are often way beyond our control it killed at least 128 people injured day in is potentially devastating war in Ukraine I'll be honest when I hear about like a war or a tragedy or environmental disaster happening halfway across the world I don't know what to do except feel horrible like Beyond donating and voting what can I actually do about that and so I hate to admit it but I don't know what to do except just numb myself into not caring which which is go so counter to who I am as a person when I hear about all the bad [ __ ] that happens especially right now this is known as learned helplessness a state that arises when individuals repeatedly face uncontrollable challenges leading them to feel powerless and unmotivated to change their circumstances good news is there's a way out of [Music] it okay first let me preface this by saying that this is just what works for me I don't have clinical level depression and I don't have a sick family member and so if that's the battle that you're facing I hope that you get all the support that you need otherwise let's talk philosophy while Modern Life has definitely Amplified the world's craziness the problems that we Face aren't exactly new when it comes to feeling powerless or finding meaning the oldest questions often have the oldest answers so let's go back to 100 CE there was once a Greek philosopher named epic tetus and he had a handbook and in that book he wrote happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle some things are within our control and some things are not unless you're the president you and I have such little control over the external World we're powerless tiny and in the face of wars and economic uncertainty you can all feel so overwhelming and hopeless and you're absolutely just ified to feel that way however there are a lot of things that we can control for example our physical fitness our phone usage how we show up in our relationships our commitment to growth all of these are areas where we can take responsibility and like sisifus pushing a boulder up a hill we can choose to change the things that we can and in doing so create meaning now as for the rest bad things will still happen Wars will still be waged the economy is entirely out of your control struggle is just an inevitable fact fact of life and no amount of focusing on what we can control will make that go away however it stands to reason then that if we have no control over something then that also means that worrying about it does nothing it does nothing except cause us unnecessary wasted suffering and this is what Eastern wisdom teaches us to let go [Music] of pain is breaking your life that will always hurt on the other hand though suffering is saying I shouldn't have broken my leg I'm so stupid for breaking my leg the world is conspiring against me and everything is going to hell because I broke my leg resisting pain rejecting struggle and wishing that reality were different that's what causes suffering and I'm not saying anything new here this is like the most ancient of ancient Buddhist wisdom desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want now this isn't to say that we should deny and suppress how we feel no not at all I think it's about picking up those desires intentionally instead of wishing for a million things maybe pick one thing that's worth suffering over for example if it's a fight that gives your life more meaning than it does pain or is just of personal importance to you then only you can decide that at the end of the day life is totally absurd and overthinking just makes it worse so be here now or in more gen Z terms touch grass I'm out here at a lake y'all nature is honestly the thing that really helps me feel grounded and I think living in a city can be so overwhelming sometimes so when I'm back out here it just reminds me to be present and I hope you guys can share that as well you and I are sharing this moment across time and space we are here right now life can be so so beautiful if we see everything as if for the first time again the way that light reflects off the water the mountain mountain in the distance perhaps even the walls of your room life can be so beautiful if we're fully here [Music] now now I'm not saying that if you just stop thinking about your problems they're going to magically disappear far from it these issues that we Face are real and actually do require our full attention still I believe that our best chance of creating lasting positive change in the world is to First create lasting positive change within ourselves now as for whether or not creating lasting positive change even matters if humanity is doomed in a million years well infinite time makes everything meaningless the fact that something will end is not a case to say that it does not have meaning because things have meaning while they are here now so be here now

Channel: Ameer Corro

Views: 124,626

Keywords: mental health, depression, gen z, mental health awareness, depressed, why depressed, gen z depressed humor, gen z depressed tiktok, gen z depression, teens depression, social media depression, gen z is hopeless, gen z is actually hopeless, gen z is actually hopless, hopeless generation, why young americans feel hopeless, how to stop feeling hopeless, hopelessness, gen z has no hope, how to stop loneliness, gen z loneliness, no hope for the future, pessimism, loneliness, giving up

Id: c9mvcfVfbio

Length: 20min 56sec (1256 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 12 2023