Discussion Do young people today have no resilience?

[freedommatrix]

This is something I heard said by Boomers and Gen X'ers about the generation born in 1990-present. They are "snowflakes", too soft, can't handle life. Would you say this is the case?

 

[porfin1234]

This is something I heard said by Boomers and Gen X'ers about the generation born in 1990-present. They are "snowflakes", too soft, can't handle life. Would you say this is the case?

I can't speak for an entire generation but I know that's my problem. If I had been more resilient, ironic thing is, my life would be easier. By being lazy and running away from problems... they just get worse.

 

[PartingGlass]

Unfortunately it's true for me. I can't handle anything.

 

[memataporfavor]

as far as i know, suicide was not invented by young people today. its been happening for a long long time. so do mental health issues, physical issues, life problems or any other reasons one must have to want to ctb. if nowadays seems that ppl are more "soft" or are more depressed or whatever, its probably cuz we're talking more abt it. before it was all a tabu. psychology is a quite a new science, its acceptance its even newer. some ppl still think mental health is bullshit. just bcause we're talking more abt our feelings and weaknesses it does not mean we're softer then bfore. it maybe means that we at least put some effort into getting better?
and abt taking shit from others or handling stuff i guess it goes from person to person... i consider myself a pretty resilient person, but i can be wrong

 

[mediocre]

I definitely believe my parents and especially my grandparents had a lot more resilience than me and lived through far harsher times. My mum was dirt poor in the 70s. My grandparents grew up during WW2. Yes today's problems are different but I still feel like I've had it way easier. I've had way more opportunities and basically had everything handed to me on a plate but I couldn't handle it. I definitely feel like a snowflake most of the time.

 

[lostangel]

I can only speak for myself. But I am very soft and sensitive. My parent grew up poor so they adapted to the harsh condition they were in. I was never listened to growing up. My problems were not addressed so I think that is the reason why I am so soft. Plus the fact I was given a warm house to live in.

 

[Carina]

While grouping people is bad.... And of course all of below is just my beliefs, others can believe whatever.

The thing with gen X... the older ones (prior to 1973) seem to be more like Boomers than not, the 1973 and up are generally more like Millennial (some insurance companies even had 1976 as the Millennial start year!)--but the later years had game consoles, computers, cell phones, etc in school [depending--just the firsts of it]. One thing that many seem to agree with which is... weird... many wouldn't be opposed to an asteroid just killing them off. It's weird.. At least in my school/area I came from, the "Gen X" is the suicidal generation. Like a stop caring, world is screwed, why even bother generation. And they get called snowflakes too!

I guess what I'm saying is, different people just want to insult others, and they like grouping them up so it's a "us vs them" type of thing for simplicity. Things change over time. Things that were more deadly were made so people weren't risking their lives just for a job. Typewriters were changed for computers. Internet allowed people to see, instantly, what was happening all over the world, instead of needing to wait for a horse or something to deliver news from days ago from a town miles away. Now we can see what really happens, see real people's fears, beliefs -- where before we didn't. We know how events effect others. We see the daily struggles of everyday people.

As a result, each generation had a safer place to be, but realized how harsh the world really was. They found out they needed college, but found out that there was no guarantee they'd get a job even with a degree. And their parents (of any generation) didn't always teach them internet safety because they didn't know, so they found out about predators on their own. Environmental factors influence development just as much if not more than nurture. People born in war zones in the same time frame would be different than ones in other countries. I'd much rather generations be soft, than be exposed to endless pain and torture just to make them strong, so they become desensitized to others suffering--thing is, even if they were exposed to that, still no guarantee they wouldn't be suicidal.

 

[rosetrapped]

I know so many people, including myself at one point in the past, who have had to run away and live with friends, grandparents or alone because their parents are selfish and abusive and have already left them traumatised. And this is at ages 13-16., not even counting kids who already went into care much younger. It's a big problem and it's usually middle class 'perfect' parents who get away with everything and leave their kids fucked up and having to look after themselves because authorities see money and think everything must be fine. I think problems stem from bad parents, this is from mine and my friends and classmates' experiences.

I think the increase in selfish, bad parenting has led to fucked up kids. Just a theory.

 

[TAW122]

I can't really say, there are some people who are resilient in our generation (I'm a millennial here) but there are also a lot of people who can't handle the pressure. For me, yes while I fall closer on the soft side of things, I have also rationally considered that death is more preferable to life. Life is just about all suffering until time's end.

 

[thelastchicken]

Many great points in this thread.. And great question! Idk, but some things come to mind..

How much of how people of other generations acted/behaved while young adults was resilience and how much of it was stoicism or just simple giving up and numbing oneself? Social pressure? Emotional pain was much more perceived as a weakness before compared to now. Who would want to show their belly to the wolves.. Maybe most people were not getting on their feet, but they simply stayed/became 'wooden'?

Another thing that may contribute to the impression/conclusion of a soft generation is the way talking about feelings goes.. it is quite new, and to me personally it looks green and clumsy. Oversharing all over the place, venting all over the place, talking chosen over taking specific actions (not saying that an action would help in any given situation, probably not at all, just it seems that it is not that much of a priority lately). Istitutions that provide listening but without listening. People listening but not really knowing what to do with any of it. (I would add the whole free speech confusion to the bunch). Talking and listening in the human society is at a great start, but it's a mess right now, not much of it is put to work in a meaningful way. People are invested in it, but not much changes and maybe this grinding the water component to it in the present is what makes it seem to be a soft way of 'handling life'. I imagine in the future it will be much more interconnected with doing and actually solving and the whole approach will be seen and accepted as strength and maybe even as a superior form of resilience.

 

[Jean4]

It is the times we live in. It would be the same as saying did the children in a war zone have no resilience?

Living in the world today is difficult for anybody. We do not live in peaceful times. UK has Brexit, I have Trump, then there are wars and civil disobedience in other countries.

 

[memataporfavor]

It is the times we live in. It would be the same as saying did the children in a war zone have no resilience?

Living in the world today is difficult for anybody. We do not live in peaceful times. UK has Brexit, I have Trump, then there are wars and civil disobedience in other countries.

that sort of thing is not new also but yea its never been easy
old ppl are just lonely and annoying genereally
i mean, who would want to take care of their old boomer abusive parent? hah jk

 

[Final Escape]

This is something I heard said by Boomers and Gen X'ers about the generation born in 1990-present. They are "snowflakes", too soft, can't handle life. Would you say this is the case?

As a gen Xer I think I was a snowflake because I had grown up with the more severe childhood adversity like many of the younger gens of today. Gen X many of them still had more intact homes and single mothers were still less common than by the time my first child would have been here. My first aborted child would be 19 and would have been born in 2000. So that kid would be so fucked up because I would have been an irresponsible single borderline personality disordered mother. We would have been in poverty dependent on state handouts and my god if the kid was a boy he would have no father not learning how to be a man. If she was a girl, she would repeat the cycle of promiscuity and out of wedlock pregnancy repeating the cycle of fatherlessness and state dependency potentially.

 

[Worthless_nobody]

I can't really comment on millennials as a whole but I am one and I definitely think I am very soft and cannot handle the pressures of life. Everything I wrote below is just my personal experience:

I do think that in many aspects living independently is harder for my generation than it was for previous generations. For example my mother was easily able to get a good degree without ridiculous testing requirements, a long wait list. When I tried to get the same degree I was put on a 2+ year wait list and was given a test that had absolutely nothing to do with the degree but it had high level algebra on it so I didn't pass it. I had family members who worked in factory's and certian jobs where they just showed up and got the job. None of the bs 5+ years experience that is required today to do a job a monkey could do. They didn't have to fill out hour long job pre screening surveys online that waste time. Job competition is just extreme now and they have set in place so many asurd arbitrary requirement just to get a min wage job you can't even live off of.

And the cost of living was more affordable then. My mother was able to get her own place to live independently and so were many of my other family members. They didn't have to continue living with their parents because the cost of rent was so astronomically high like it is now. Yes I know each generation has hardships and these are just generalizations but it's what I have personally experienced. I think previous generations had better opportunity to become independent and learn more life skills earlier on.

 

[konarti]

This is something I heard said by Boomers and Gen X'ers about the generation born in 1990-present. They are "snowflakes", too soft, can't handle life. Would you say this is the case?

I would say so, not all of course but it's no fault of their own. They have grew up in a time when everything is there for them, mainly the internet. Every news story, video, picture, pretty much anything you want to see or find you can. It's a scary world, they read and see things that some should never have to. It's a completely different world to what other generations grew up with. As amazing as the internet is, it's can be dangerous having that much information so easily accessible at the touch of a button.

 

[WhyIsLife56]

The world isn't all that different from any other era in the past. When you're born into an era with technology and the internet, it can make you more aware of what's going on in the world thus bringing more depression (and depressive realism) into light. What with modern life affecting everyone regardless of what generation the person is, it leaves room for more awareness and distraction as well.

 

[EmptyArms]

While grouping people is bad.... And of course all of below is just my beliefs, others can believe whatever.

The thing with gen X... the older ones (prior to 1973) seem to be more like Boomers than not, the 1973 and up are generally more like Millennial (some insurance companies even had 1976 as the Millennial start year!)--but the later years had game consoles, computers, cell phones, etc in school [depending--just the firsts of it]. One thing that many seem to agree with which is... weird... many wouldn't be opposed to an asteroid just killing them off. It's weird.. At least in my school/area I came from, the "Gen X" is the suicidal generation. Like a stop caring, world is screwed, why even bother generation. And they get called snowflakes too!

I guess what I'm saying is, different people just want to insult others, and they like grouping them up so it's a "us vs them" type of thing for simplicity. Things change over time. Things that were more deadly were made so people weren't risking their lives just for a job. Typewriters were changed for computers. Internet allowed people to see, instantly, what was happening all over the world, instead of needing to wait for a horse or something to deliver news from days ago from a town miles away. Now we can see what really happens, see real people's fears, beliefs -- where before we didn't. We know how events effect others. We see the daily struggles of everyday people.

As a result, each generation had a safer place to be, but realized how harsh the world really was. They found out they needed college, but found out that there was no guarantee they'd get a job even with a degree. And their parents (of any generation) didn't always teach them internet safety because they didn't know, so they found out about predators on their own. Environmental factors influence development just as much if not more than nurture. People born in war zones in the same time frame would be different than ones in other countries. I'd much rather generations be soft, than be exposed to endless pain and torture just to make them strong, so they become desensitized to others suffering--thing is, even if they were exposed to that, still no guarantee they wouldn't be suicidal.

Yeah before 1990 when the www was invented we had to wait for a horse to come into town to tell us that the war was over. We felt like such fools. Lol

 

[Carina]

Yeah before 1990 when the www was invented we had to wait for a horse to come into town to tell us that the war was over. We felt like such fools. Lol

Well I skipped a lot of years for space reasons lol

 

[EmptyArms]

Yeah before 1990 when the www was invented we had to wait for a horse to come into town to tell us that the war was over. We felt like such fools. Lol

You know we had newspapers, tv and radio right? News all the way from around the world. And we were taught about real life predators. Because that was happening. We really knew what was really going on in real peoples lives even back then.

 

[Carina]

You know we had newspapers, tv and radio right? News all the way from around the world. And we were taught about real life predators. Because that was happening. We really knew what was really going on in real peoples lives even back then.

Well they don't give you the impressions of hundreds to thousands of people, on the ground, common everyday people reporting first-hand experience without filters, providing even videos from just as many angles, and photos. News, tv, radio--they give short clips, and even edit that, you get longer clips, even if edited at start/end, from people who are on the ground just witnessing events.

 

[EmptyArms]

True. Although we had professional journalists interviewing real people in real situations. No one faked news or videos. The Kardashians weren't news. X Factor wasnt news. We had politicians leading governments instead of tv personalities. It wasnt how it is now with hundreds of people and thousands of videos from millions of angles. I'm making the point that neither was it the news about the nest town delivered by a HORSE days later.

 

[Nnana]

I think life is harsh and if people can't cope they should have a right to quit it. No matter if older people suffered more and coped with it. Nobody should be forced to endure a life they didn't ask for. I think the reason for suicide being on the rise these days too is that people are less religious and do not believe in myths of spending an eternity in hell.

 

[freedommatrix]

I think life is harsh and if people can't cope they should have a right to quit it. No matter if older people suffered more and coped with it. Nobody should be forced to endure a life they didn't ask for. I think the reason for suicide being on the rise these days too is that people are less religious and do not believe in myths of spending an eternity in hell.

In what way do you think life is harsh

 

[WhyIsLife56]

In what way do you think life is harsh

If you've lived life for a while, I think it's common sense to a degree that life is harsh.

 

[freedommatrix]

If you've lived life for a while, I think it's common sense to a degree that life is harsh.

Oh, don't get me wrong. I know life is a piece of shit. But I'm wondering what for you makes life harsh.

 

[WhyIsLife56]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I know life is a piece of shit. But I'm wondering what for you makes life harsh.

Life is harsh once you exist. As I've mentioned a lot of times existence is suffering. You'll go through suffering in school dealing with pressures among your peers, dealing with grades, toxic family environment etc. The list can go on. And most of the times almost everyone goes through this.

 

[seekingoblivion]

Man whatever complaints the previous generation has regarding us they can direct to themselves cause they're the ones that raised us.

 

[Misanthrope]

This arbitrary comparing generations just seems pointless and from what I have seen of it, just seems to tap into a blame culture to shill wonderfully divisive headlines to garner ad revenue. While allowing others to feel smug at how much better they are than you. Every generation though has its unique problems. No generation can predict the future of its behaviour as no one is truly in control. A generation itself is not a singular conscious entity either. The way it is used reminds me of horoscopes in its absurdity. Although horoscopes don't generally scapegoat people.

It is more ugly labels used to lump people all as having the same traits. But just being born after a date does not render every one uniform homogenised milk. It is not even a question you can objectively measure. How the fuck do you measure soft in the first place?

Snowflake is just another empty word with the same bankrupt prejudice behind it as any other pejorative.

What I do know as fact. As we get older our brains become less adaptable it becomes harder to change. We are quite literally creatures of habit and that gets more ingrained. So anything that falls outside of habits is a particularly threatening other. Obviously responsible for every future horror in the world. Every generation that has come after seems to blame the one that went before it. Whereas the one prior blames the new for its newfangledness that will undo the fabric of society as we know it. Seems like nothing changes other than the words used.

 

[xXSarac3nSlay3rXx]

It seems that most people on this forum can't handle life for one reason or another. That's fine too, because in a general sense life fucking sucks. I'm young but I don't think of myself as a snowflake. At least, not in the sense that I'm easily offended. I see where some are coming from. I saw this article about how some dumbass "social media influencer" thinks we should stop teaching about the world wars because they're too scary. However, a lot of it seems to be overblown.

I find it funny that boomers chastise current generations when in a lot of ways, they had life easier themselves. A far more fertile economy and significantly cheaper college goes a long way. I'm sure your average 19th century pioneer had a hell of a hard life, so who are they to talk? Neanderthals probably had it harder still. Technological evolution makes life generally easier. This whole "ok, boomer" thing is overused and unfunny in my opinion. This whole thing is yet another "us vs. them" mudslinging match that accomplishes exactly nothing.

 

[WhyIsLife56]

Happiness doesn't exist. People are mistaking distraction and the optimism bias for happiness. Why is life harsh you ask? Because of the fact that people have to distract themselves with TV shows, movies, celebrity worship, their smartphones, social media, "the American dream," and so many other pointless things.
Why are you so keen to distract yourself instead of facing reality for what it is?