The other explanation I often hear is that Gen Z is anxious and
depressed because of climate change, which will affect their lives more than
those of older generations. I do not deny that their concern is legitimate, but
I want to point out that impending threats to a nation or generation (as
opposed to an individual) do not historically cause rates of mental illness to
rise. When countries are attacked, either by military force or by terrorism,
citizens usually rally around the flag and each other. They are infused with a
strong sense of purpose, suicide rates drop,[41] and researchers find that
decades later, people who were teens during the start of the war show
higher levels of trust and cooperation in lab experiments.[42] When young
people rally together around a political cause, from opposing the Vietnam
War in the 1960s through peak periods of earlier climate activism in the
1970s and 1990s, they become energized, not dispirited or depressed. Every
generation grows up during a disaster or under the threat of an impending
disaster, from the Great Depression and World War II through threats of
nuclear annihilation, environmental degradation, overpopulation, and
ruinous national debt. People don’t get depressed when they face threats
collectively; they get depressed when they feel isolated, lonely, or useless.
As I’ll show in later chapters, this is what the Great Rewiring did to Gen Z.
📚 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
🖋 Jonthan Haidth.
depressed because of climate change, which will affect their lives more than
those of older generations. I do not deny that their concern is legitimate, but
I want to point out that impending threats to a nation or generation (as
opposed to an individual) do not historically cause rates of mental illness to
rise. When countries are attacked, either by military force or by terrorism,
citizens usually rally around the flag and each other. They are infused with a
strong sense of purpose, suicide rates drop,[41] and researchers find that
decades later, people who were teens during the start of the war show
higher levels of trust and cooperation in lab experiments.[42] When young
people rally together around a political cause, from opposing the Vietnam
War in the 1960s through peak periods of earlier climate activism in the
1970s and 1990s, they become energized, not dispirited or depressed. Every
generation grows up during a disaster or under the threat of an impending
disaster, from the Great Depression and World War II through threats of
nuclear annihilation, environmental degradation, overpopulation, and
ruinous national debt. People don’t get depressed when they face threats
collectively; they get depressed when they feel isolated, lonely, or useless.
As I’ll show in later chapters, this is what the Great Rewiring did to Gen Z.
📚 The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.
🖋 Jonthan Haidth.