Why Gen Z and Gen Alpha are the Anxious Generations
Why are people so stressed?
Many people you see are usually very stressed. If you’re reading this, you’re probably stressed. I’m definitely stressed. Most of us already know why us, the individual, is stressed and we also know various techniques to combat stress: meditation, exercise, journaling, etc. But the question that this article right now poses is “Why?”. Why are we, the generation, so anxious?
Before we start, I just want to highlight that all the claims/statistics here are from various research papers (Research Gate, Stanford, McKinsey) and this podcast episode from The Checkup with Doctor Mike, featuring Dr. Jonathan Haidt, a respected social psychologist and author. I’ve included links to all of this. However, do take things with a grain of salt and do your own research.
Correlation Between Social Media and Anxiety Levels.
I want you to note one thing: Correlation doesn’t equal causation, and while there are links between negative mental health and social media, it’s not the only reason why anxiety levels rise.
One of the most important factors that come to mind when we look at the correlation is timing of birth and technological advancements. For individuals born between 1996–2010, or the Gen Z, the iPhone came out even they were relatively young. Most phones/computers/apps where expensive, so they might not have owned one of those until they were older, when they might have already gone through puberty.
However, for people born after 2011, phones and apps began to rise, become cheaper, better and more accessible, therefore letting teenagers access all of this. This era is also marked by the rise of Instagram, Samsung’s, Apple, Google etc. Now, kids between 13–15, a phase where they enter puberty and begin to shape their identities because of influences, where now being influenced by social media influencers who present extreme viewpoints without wisdom .
As such, mental illness, stress, depression began to become the norm. Despite being things that should addressed, it also began to influence and shape identities of young adults, leading to self-esteem levels decreasing, and depression and anxiety levels rising. Other factors include fear of missing out (FOMO), once again marked by rise of social media, social comparison (self-esteem levels decreasing), and cyberbullying (leading to depression). Concerns have begun to rise that Gen Alpha would have access to abundance of social media and other technologies, impacting social abilities and skills to face challenges.
Uncertainty of Too Many Choices
With the rise of social media also came the rise of sharing of information, which led to more awareness on various issues, such as climate change, economic instability, political issues, technological issues, and more. This is not in fact bad in anyway. However, this leads to so much uncertainty about the state of the world and making it feel as if we are incapable of doing anything and the world is going to die anyway. YouTuber Cleo Abram highlights this wonderfully in her very first video where she explains why she’s going to make more optimistic science stories.
We’re also having more options, which if you’ve read the Paradox of Choice by Barry Schwartz , you would know that with more choices leads to more dissatisfaction when it comes to whatever we choose. This ties with uncertainty well as we’re way more uncertain if we’ve made the right choice with the amount of knowledge about options. Social media offers the cons of each choice, making us second guess ourselves (not completely a bad thing).
This all leads to the concept of Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU). People with high IU experience more stress as the interplay between brain regions involved in processing uncertainty and emotional responses contribute to anxiety. People with high IU and inability to know how long something uncertain will last will only lead to increase in stress.
What Now?
Nothing. I don’t know what to do and I don’t know what to tell you either. All I can say is that for now, focus on yourselves and try stress-reviling techniques (meditation/journaling, etc.). These things ARE within our control, so we can at least try.
However, when we’re talking about society as whole, there should be age restrictions that aren’t easy to bypass. Age restrictions could be useful such as no social media before 16, and no phones before 14. These are workable without being to restrictive, allowing us to address these problems. Democratic regions like Britain could pass laws ensuring safer internet with more control over technologies.
Social media and such has remained unchecked for so long. It’s time that we address this problem and at best, know the WHY? I hope you learned something, and if you did, clap, comment and drop a follow to see more stories.
