Teenage is a group of people I've often been meeting up with due to the nature of my occupation. Some are luckily born in wealthy families while others have to struggle with their destitute circumstances. Nevertheless, most of them are facing enormous pressure in this day and age.
According to The Economist, Move over, millennials. Young people now belong to “Generation Z”: a cohort which demographers usually define as people born since 1997.
In fact, people born in the 1980s and early 1990s (that is, millennials or generation Y) are more educated and poorer than their elders are. Most of the research so far about generation Z suggests that youngsters today are less hedonistic, better behaved and more lonely than ever before.
The bar chart above shows that they are far less concerned about age-old teenage problems like unplanned pregnancy and binge-drinking than they are about mental health. Fully 70% of respondents thought anxiety and depression were a major issue among their peers. Teenagers from poorer households tended to report a wider range of behavioural problems than those from rich households, but concerns about mental health seemed to affect both groups equally.
What is causing such widespread stress and dejection among the young? I think more than once I've seriously emphasised on social media that have made teenagers feel more isolated from their friends and tormented by their peers. Another reason might be academic worries. Members of generation Z, even more so than the millennials before them, seem to have less desire to get wasted and more to get top grades. Some of them feel no pressure at all to get drunk, whereas majority feel under the cosh when it comes to doing well at school.