Do teenagers today face more stress than previous gen’s?

Snowflakes have it easier than ever and their social skills and work ethic suffer because of it.

It’s all perception. They think they are and live in a false reality. But it is very real to them.

I grew up poor, had electricity and water turned off, my parents divorced and my mom was a junkie. The house was dirty, had dog feces never cleaned up and she was probably borderline hoarder. Stress is not eating and not having a place to live. Kids now think that a 3.8 gpa is the end of the world. They struggle with failure. Someone doesn’t tag them in an Instagram photo and they lose it.

Social media is crippling. Even if you don't have your own accounts, if you are social you will be tagged in other people's stuff. It's an ugly competition for some, which promotes harassment and bullying. Overthinking is another big factor. And as someone has mentioned, it appears kids are ill equipped to deal with perceived failure. Good is not good enough anymore.

Hey guys, there are these things called understanding and empathy. You should try it some time! Yes, teenagers in different generations faced different stressors, and maybe some parents could do better or teens could structure their lives better, but that doesn’t mean their struggles and concerns aren’t valid. Just like your struggles and concerns! But I’m sure you’re a tough cookie in which you never complain and everything rolls off your back and everybody is just weak.

Constant connectivity and social media are having very real effects on the mental and emotional well being of teenagers. I don’t just say that from observation, it’s something I picked up from reading research summaries. In general, anti-social habits are up, in-person connectedness is down, and negative emotions are up. In a more casual observation, I can see how children can become so addicted to various touchscreen and display devices that offer little more than passive consumption.

While the teen years always have been a stressful period of life, the ever present connectivity and exposure may offer no breaks from the traditional stressors and amplify them. So in terms of always being connected, aware, and exposed, when previously a teen would spend these moments being present or alone time with minimal distractions, it definitely has effects that could increase some of the stress of teen years.

Jean Twenge wrote a nice book looking at survey response data from the present crop of kids compared to their predecessors. Here's a link to an Atlantic article she wrote summarizing her findings, which are broader than the title, "Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation" suggests.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/

BS. Millenials have it easy just like every generation when compared to the preceding generations. Period. End of story.

There’s no draft.

There are few social stigmas these days.

Internet.

Parents are wimps who coddle their children in order to be liked.

Everyone wins!!!

If you don’t like something get mommy and daddy to force a rule change.

No spa kings unless that what you’re into.

Millenials are losers just like their Boomer great grandparents.

Gen Y is the only generation with a clue.

amkelley wrote:

Early baby boomer males (men who are now in their 60s and early 70s) grew up with the knowledge that as soon as they reached age 18 they would be shipped off to Vietnam and likely come back in a body bag or missing vital parts of their anatomy. I think that's a little more stressful than not getting enough likes on social media.

And let's not forget the regular drills to duck and cover because we could all evaporate at any time. I agree, the pressures on teens today is mostly self induced. But, let's not forget the effects of foods, poisons/toxins on brain chemistry. As an educator I would say that the cases of depression, anxiety and psychotic disorders has multiplied exponentially over the last 45 years.

I think the short answer is, in general, Yes.

The long answer is far more complicated and doesn't apply to all socioeconomic groups. For middle class kids, I think the stress levels are significantly higher. Most of this is self inflicted via the pathways listed already in this thread (overly managed schedules, social media, heightened expectations, etc.....) I've been teaching high school for 20 years and can assure you all that the level of academic performance expected now is far greater than was expected of similar cohorts of kids in the mid 80s. I can tell you that, in general, kids are far more scheduled now than they used to be and I can tell you that kids are far more easily distracted. FOMO is painfully real.

I'll share a story from this summer:

Our school participates in the "Life of an Athlete, Human Performance Project". It's run by a guy named John Underwood out of the Lake Placid OTC. We've implemented a pretty good franchise of said project at our HS in CA and were invited to the OTC last summer to present at their annual conference. Some of the things we were supposed to present on were strategies to reduce stress, unplug from social media, get more sleep, etc... The night before we were supposed to present, our we were going to run through our presentations and then watch "Miracle" (Because, hey, we were in Lake Placid). One of the mentors was a former Philadelphia Eagle. There were a couple of other Navy Seals there too. Even with the knowledge that these intellectually knew (strategies to disconnect), the totally cool setting and company (OTC, elite athletes, elite warriors), and the fact that these kids would never have a chance to replicate that particular experience with that group of friends, many of them were still unable to disconnect from their phones. I specifically remember some of our kids feeling LEFT OUT of something that was happening back home in CA. They were checking their insta-snap or myface pages or whatever and feeling morose that they weren't somewhere else, doing something else. Literally, they were having a hard time BEING HAPPY in a situation that they had all been looking forward to for 6 months.

Stuff like this may seem like an invented problem and seem frivolous to people who have had harder times growing up, but it is very real to our kids.

If we want to talk about the stressors of growing up poor, facing an impending draft, or the multitude of other problems that older generations faced, that's fine and relevant but should not take away from the very real situation that we have created in our modern society.

a recommended read wrote:

Jean Twenge wrote a nice book looking at survey response data from the present crop of kids compared to their predecessors. Here's a link to an Atlantic article she wrote summarizing her findings, which are broader than the title, "Has the Smartphone Destroyed a Generation" suggests.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/

I did read that. Anyone that actually works with children on a regular basis can see how this stuff affects them.

Perhaps things are harder for the average teen, but at the top level it's much easier now than it used to be. The top has gone soft in both athletics and academics.

I think people are confusing mental and emotional stress with other hardships.

For example knowledge/office workers today working in competitive pressure-packed and relentless time sensitive schedules are MUCH more stressed than those working extremely tough manual/agricultural jobs of the past. For example, laying bricks or working in the fields is hard f’ing work, but I believe humans were designed for this type of “simple” work vs the modern overload of complex and intangible demands, offices, computers, bosses, projects, deadlines, presentations, hassles if travel, etc.

Life was tough in the past, but it’s a different kind of tough now. Not a “natural” kind of tough. I read somewhere where humans have been more or less the same for tens of thousands of years. But today’s overload of informantion, complexities, etc is exponentially different.

I agree with you at some level, but as a high school distance program coach, the times presently being run nationally from the top runners are not results reflecting "soft" training or being "soft" in the area of will-to-effort. The teens our coaching staff work with are as tough and hard working as any proceeding generation. Among coaches, there's little talk of our top runners being less dedicated and hard working as our generation. I coach at a highly respected distance program, where distance running has been a mainstay sport since the late 1970's, and with that, new school records continue to be set. Maybe HS distance runners are unique unto themselves and are not representative of the general adolescent culture.

John Utah wrote:

I think people are confusing mental and emotional stress with other hardships.

For example knowledge/office workers today working in competitive pressure-packed and relentless time sensitive schedules are MUCH more stressed than those working extremely tough manual/agricultural jobs of the past. For example, laying bricks or working in the fields is hard f’ing work, but I believe humans were designed for this type of “simple” work vs the modern overload of complex and intangible demands, offices, computers, bosses, projects, deadlines, presentations, hassles if travel, etc.

Life was tough in the past, but it’s a different kind of tough now. Not a “natural” kind of tough. I read somewhere where humans have been more or less the same for tens of thousands of years. But today’s overload of informantion, complexities, etc is exponentially different.

Very insightful, agree

Well, there certainly are a lot more of them (teenagers), nowadays!

That's a great example Coach B. An invented problem perhaps, but real to the kids.

The regimented schedules and expectations put on them by parents , teachers and coaches is really just to keep up with the crowd. The expectations are not absolute (score a 33 ACT, run 9:15). The expectations are relative to peers, just as they have always been. Win district, be top 10 in your class, etc. What we have seen though is an escalation in performance across the board, requiring more regimented schedules, specialization, and reducing free time to achieve the same relative success. If you want to win district in basketball, you have to practice as much as tthe next best team. Most likely that other team is playing spring/summer/fall private leagues plus the winter school league, has extra private coaching, and hours in the gym every day year round. Coaches demand it because that's what it takes these days.

I am glad I narrowly escaped the constantly connected childhood. I don't blame the parents of this post-millennial "igeneration" though, it came on too quickly to predict. I'm hopeful that much of my (millennial) generation, recognizes the depth of the issue adapts our parenting accordingly.

I agree with the stress imposed by being constantly connected. And it is only made worse by parents who hover and try to please every whim of their offspring.

Like others posting above, I was poor and from a single mother home (she was an addict too). My great stress was my father, who was abusive, mean, controlling, and violent (he was well known in track circles). Once he left and abandoned the family, while poverty was a problem, everything else was pretty darn good. Just being free from being beaten up was a godsend. Most important of all, I had lots of freedom - which meant freedom to make my own mistakes, too - but that same freedom gave me a sense of ownership over my life. I did well academically compared to my peers, both undergrad (track scholarship) and graduate school because I was used to being accountable just to me for my own work, and didn't have any of the pressures to please Mommy or Daddy or to satisfy someone else. The freedom really bred a sense of, "Well, if I don't do this, someone else will, but I think with hard work I can really do it better, so let's do it" attitude. Friends - particularly from my school days - look at me like a victim who overcame a lot - but once my father left, I enjoyed tremendous freedom and had a heck of a lot of fun doing what I did. - I was no victim - but a lucky and privileged guy - especially going to the school I did on athletic scholarship. Yes, poverty was an issue, but you only really feel poor when you don't have a future in front of you.

There are some great kids out there today - but I am not sure they often can share the same kind of experiences we did.

I think you fail to realize that there are still many teenagers today who are in a very similar spot to what you were in...

I feel that teenagers today are doing a lot of academic work with rather poor results. 7 hours of class time + however many hours of home work for years to score only 20 on the ACT on average by the age of 18. Using other measures, try talking to a random high school student about something he learned 6 months ago in any of his classes - in most cases you will discover glaring ignorance of the subject matter.

There has to be a better way to do this. My wife and I are not professional educators, we have ten kids, I work full-time (though from home), she chases the little ones all day long, our kids being home-schooled and studying maybe 3 hours a day total are able to go above 30 on the ACT by the time they are 16. We do not cram a whole lot of material into them, but we make sure they remember what we have taught them. We also make sure to focus on the skills that are critical for future growth rather than spending a lot of time memorizing tangential facts that without the foundational context will be quickly forgotten. We try to give them a strong reason why with the vision of becoming a provider not only for yourself but also for a potentially large family as early as possible, as well as a contributing member of society that makes a positive difference. With that vision they learn to see daunting math equations, physics formulas, and lines of programming code as something that will put food on the table, give them independence, and allow them to help others when they are grown.

I think what needs to happen is that the schools should have a clear vision of what they are trying to make out of the teenagers they are teaching - help them become independent productive members of society with the ability to comfortably support themselves and a small family by their early 20s rather than find themselves in a lot of debt by the time they are 30 with not a lot of practical skills that would pull them out of it. With that vision somebody better trained in educational methods and with the ability to focus 100% on the task of educating will attain the results that are at least similar to ours, and likely better.