The surge behind Gen Z’s mental health issues

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Jayden Chui

The Sidekick staff writer Aarya Pardeshi writes about the possible reasons why Generation Z is often considered to be more “emotional” than previous generations. Pardeshi goes into detail how different the world that Gen Z has grown up in compared to previous generations, which has led to higher levels of stress, anxiety and depression.

Aarya Pardeshi

Restlessness. Worrying about the future. They are both feelings young adults and many members of Generation Z are familiar with. Dealing with school, home life and being more connected than ever has affected many in this generation, including myself. 

Through recent years, Gen Z has been through some of the most striking events in history, growing up in the age of technological advancements and the recent isolation in the COVID-19 pandemic. With stress caused by both, an analysis by Harmony Healthcare IT showed that 42% of Gen Z today have a diagnosed mental health condition. 

Growing up, I can’t remember a time where there were not electronics in my household. Starting from elementary school, I was using classroom laptops to complete English comprehension practice and was already learning how to use Google applications for presentations in class. 

How does this early exposure to technology connect to stress and anxiety? 

Gen Z has been exposed to the world around them through technology, and not just from the news, from a very young age. Social media platforms and entertainment outlets such as YouTube and Instagram are often used to share information about other people’s lives, from all over the world. Growing up in an age of technological advancement and ever growing connectivity has included hidden stressors. 

In my experience, I saw my Gen Z peers open social media accounts in their middle school years, which is one of the main reasons teenagers feel so many expectations. While social media is an outlet for connectivity, its constant exposure is detrimental to one’s mental health. 

“Social media has created a positive global perspective but also a harmful global perspective,” Coppell High School lead counselor Ann Cinelli said. “Like body image. Everybody’s social media tells them the way they should look and I think that’s internalized by a lot of young people who are going through so many changes and adaptations of who they are and who they want to be as an adult and it becomes really hard because they keep comparing themselves to other people.”

This constant self critique of comparing your life, body and experiences with those of others sets up a very unrealistic view of life. When young people view their lives as boring or unfulfilling compared to others, it can be very detrimental  towards their mental health as it creates expectations of what their day to day lives should be. 

This recent boom of technology has also impacted the way we look at the world. With most news outlets now being online, information and news about current global events like climate change, job security, migrant family separation and gun violence places an unsettling feeling of uncertainty about the future into young adults who are hoping to join the workforce.  Ultimately, it created a very pessimistic view of the future.

“I think it’s hard for people in Gen Z to think further down the road,” Cinelli said. “We spend so much time in [school] that we spend so much less time looking and watching other people and growing in different things. There’s a lot less of those opportunities because everything is virtual.” 

According to a survey done by Kronos, even with ample education, most of Gen Z still feel unprepared to enter the workforce and said that their education did not prepare them for workplace activities. 

Even two years after the pandemic, members of Gen Z are reporting higher rates of anxiety, stress and depression than any other age group, according to a series of consumer surveys and interviews conducted by McKinsey.

“I think [the pandemic] brought people a lot more into their computers and phones,” Cinelli said. “Coming back out, it was like ‘oh my goodness, who am I, what did I do’ you know?” 

The traditional education system does not include many discussions around skills for entrepreneurship or the range of careers that have opened up since the system was created. Because of this, many experience work anxiety. 

“Jobs are changing so much that the old farming and manufacturing and other jobs such as medical are still available, but there’s also so many other jobs that we’re not teaching about or learning about,” Cinelli said. “It’s really hard to make sure that kids meet state graduation requirements and also make sure that they learn outside the Coppell bubble.” 

As members of Gen Z are growing and getting ready to come out of high school in a time of higher stress and anxiety, they have dealt with significant issues in a very short amount of time. The pandemic itself reported behavior changes due to stress. These combinations of stressors are impacting this generation greatly in terms of well being. Work, future stability and health related concerns stressed out the older members of Gen Z the most, a report by the American Psychological Association says.

As a member of Gen Z, I relate to these higher levels of stress regarding my future. The high school experience is nothing like I expected, and it being glorified on social media made social validation much more important than it needed to be. Overall, pressures from school and society make many high schoolers feel lost.                                                              

 

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