I often notice that the parents of this generation have felt so overwhelmed and in need of a way to reduce the mess. This has led often to permissive parenting with moments of reactivity with a large portion of reducing mess by putting kids on screens. This seems to be a big part of the reason these folks are struggling with emotional resilience. The feeling from the parents was “we can’t contain this mess”. Notably leading to obsessive personality structures.
And as a parent I really understand feeling that the world is too messy and noisy and I need quiet. It’s not common or even often condoned anymore to say “go play until dinner “ anymore. So parents use screens instead of sending kids out to experience mess and social complications and their own resilience outside of the home.
And yet the stereotypes I keep seeing about Gen Z from older generations are just the opposite: "Body positivity glorifies obesity. They're spoiled and don't want to work anymore." Perhaps young people hear such judgements and take them to heart.
It's hard to tell people they need more mess, but that's exactly what we need. And you can only cross that threshold of radical acceptance of the mess when you see positive benefits in your own life - your feelings, choices, the effect on the people around you. Many little steps - this makes it daunting but also makes it possible. Thank you for this great piece!
Great data and analysis; thank you! It's an ugly time to be in that age group, no doubt about it, with headwinds they, like the wartime/post-war adaptive cohort before them didn't deserve. I just returned from several days of generational work with faculty, kids, and parents at a large prep school, one philosophically commiitted to the liberal use of scholarships to assure a student body representative of perhaps (for prep schools) unusually broad economic and demographic strata. At least in these HS age Gen Zs, their high energy levels, enthusiasm for life, and particularly their artistry and creativity--hallmarks of the generation--pointed out how much they are bringing to us on the positive side, if in a very different way than even Millennials. Sure, college or not, and adult life in a very turbulent, unsettled time lie ahead, but the core values I saw all week gave me huge hope for what they will bring to us as they seek their individual paths and move through the experimentation we all did to attempt to control our own generation's uncontrollables. What positive experiences and attributes are you seeing in these kids--our next generation of nation-builders-- that, like the adaptive cohorts before them, will be exactly what we need as we need it? Thanks again.
I often notice that the parents of this generation have felt so overwhelmed and in need of a way to reduce the mess. This has led often to permissive parenting with moments of reactivity with a large portion of reducing mess by putting kids on screens. This seems to be a big part of the reason these folks are struggling with emotional resilience. The feeling from the parents was “we can’t contain this mess”. Notably leading to obsessive personality structures.
And as a parent I really understand feeling that the world is too messy and noisy and I need quiet. It’s not common or even often condoned anymore to say “go play until dinner “ anymore. So parents use screens instead of sending kids out to experience mess and social complications and their own resilience outside of the home.
It's really scary to think about the way the frictionless fawning of AI chatbots will make this even worse for so many young people!
And yet the stereotypes I keep seeing about Gen Z from older generations are just the opposite: "Body positivity glorifies obesity. They're spoiled and don't want to work anymore." Perhaps young people hear such judgements and take them to heart.
It's hard to tell people they need more mess, but that's exactly what we need. And you can only cross that threshold of radical acceptance of the mess when you see positive benefits in your own life - your feelings, choices, the effect on the people around you. Many little steps - this makes it daunting but also makes it possible. Thank you for this great piece!
Great data and analysis; thank you! It's an ugly time to be in that age group, no doubt about it, with headwinds they, like the wartime/post-war adaptive cohort before them didn't deserve. I just returned from several days of generational work with faculty, kids, and parents at a large prep school, one philosophically commiitted to the liberal use of scholarships to assure a student body representative of perhaps (for prep schools) unusually broad economic and demographic strata. At least in these HS age Gen Zs, their high energy levels, enthusiasm for life, and particularly their artistry and creativity--hallmarks of the generation--pointed out how much they are bringing to us on the positive side, if in a very different way than even Millennials. Sure, college or not, and adult life in a very turbulent, unsettled time lie ahead, but the core values I saw all week gave me huge hope for what they will bring to us as they seek their individual paths and move through the experimentation we all did to attempt to control our own generation's uncontrollables. What positive experiences and attributes are you seeing in these kids--our next generation of nation-builders-- that, like the adaptive cohorts before them, will be exactly what we need as we need it? Thanks again.