Gen Z is actively building movements for change to transform our world and its future for the ... [+]
Is Gen Z the most “depressed, anxious, and fragile” generation ever?
That’s the thesis of research by Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Haidt, the author of “The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure” and two forthcoming volumes with similarly doom and gloom titles, told the Wall Street Journal’s Tunku Varadarajan that this supposed fragility of Gen Z is a “national crisis” that will imperil American capitalism, culture and social cohesion.
Reading Varadarajan’s piece, you could be forgiven for thinking that Haidt hasn’t stepped foot outside of his “professorial…book-lined” office to connect with the lives, experiences and aspirations of actual Gen-Zers.
Haidt’s conjecture of the impending downfall of our society because of “kids these days'' is nothing new. Indeed the younger generation is seemingly always the target of the barbs of such serious-people-who-study-serious-matters. Look no further than the recent thread by political scientist Paul Fairie who found that every generation going back to the 1920’s has been called “too soft” by the Haidts of their era. It wasn’t so long ago that millennials were lamented as hopelessly entitled, self-centered, and lazy. In time, their contributions and potential to improve the world came to be rightly acknowledged.
What Haidt does get right is that Gen Z has faced unprecedented challenges and novel social dynamics. This is a generation who is coming of age in an era of mass shootings in schools, a global pandemic, and turbocharged political turmoil. These things will invariably take their toll on young people, and all people. What he gets flat wrong is how young people are responding. The truth is that they are not just effectively navigating those challenges, but are actively building movements for change to transform our world and its future for the better. Gen Z is perseverance personified.
Haidt follows the same tired declension narrative that his rhetorical forebearers did. He builds his generation’s version in part on the increase of reported incidents of depression and anxiety among Gen-Zers, which he attributes to overbearing parenting and too much time on social media. He fails to note the remarkable truth. Gen Z is in fact embracing a new, more open and honest relationship with their mental health, one that destigmatizes the issue so that it can be addressed. This is leading to more people reporting their mental health challenges and seeking support, and contributing to the rising numbers of reported cases. More effective diagnoses and increased connection to care are both good by any measure.
It’s really a matter of perspective. Haidt sees Gen Z as hopelessly lost in their screens, drowning in the pursuit of digital affirmation through social media. He ignores how young people are actually leveraging these technologies to solve the intractable problems that older generations have proven unable or unwilling to address. It is this generation that is taking the lead on issues like food scarcity, climate change, and racial injustice.
Gen Z is drinking less, learning more, and embracing a spirit of global agency and impact that prior generations could not even imagine. Which raises the question: what were later Boomers and Gen-Xers of Haidt’s cohort doing when they were 15, 16 and 17?
While social media has certainly fomented the spread of conspiracy theories, movements to undermine democratic institutions, and political radicalization writ large, these have largely been the machinations of generations other than Zers.
Instead, Gen Z was using that technology to register voters, win elections, and elect their peers to local, state and federal offices. But Haidt shrugs off that reality and the contributions of Gen Z luminaries like Greta Thunberg and Malala Yousafza by arguing they’re no Mark Zuckerbergs. Apparently missing the irony of elevating the person most responsible for the rise of social media while also bemoaning the effects of his creations.
As an educator, I feel an obligation to support Haidt on his personal learning journey. And as someone who has actually worked with Gen-Zers, I can tell you, the kids these days are more than alright.
Take Joe Nail, who in his early 20s founded Lead For America, a national service program to build a new generation of leaders. Joe and his team are keeping talented young people in their hometowns to strengthen their communities. Lead for America provides fellowships to support these emerging leaders and prevent these urban neighborhoods, small towns and rural areas from the brain drain that can undermine local economies and social vibrancy.
Or Andrew Brennen who cofounded a youth organization in his home state of Kentucky that successfully lobbied the state legislature to restore $14 million in need-based scholarships. The Kentucky Student Voice Team is now an independent research and advocacy organization. Dedicated to centering the experience of young people in public policy, the organization recently announced the creation of a new youth-led education media service, The New Edu.
Or Melati and Isabel Wijsen, sisters from Indonesia, who at the ages of 12 and 10 years old founded what is now one of the largest environmental nonprofits in their home province of Bali. In just one day, volunteers with their organization removed 65 tons of plastic waste from the environment and their reach extends beyond their home island–influencing policy and advocacy around the world.
In Pennsylvania, then-16-year-old Neil Deshmukh created PlantumAI, an app that uses artificial intelligence to help farmers address everything from crop disease and overuse of pesticides to unpredictable harvest schedules driven by climate change.
In Colorado, Gitanjali Rao has developed breakthrough technologies in early diagnosis of prescription opioid addiction and lead contamination in water, and created a cyberbullying prevention tool using AI and natural language processing. She’s done all of this while in high school.
And in Iowa, then 17-year-old Dasia Taylor developed color-changing sutures to detect post surgical infections. The lower cost medical device uses beet juice to warn patients recovering from medical procedures of potential infection, making it well-suited for use in lower- and middle-income countries.
There are millions more young people like these–catalysts in their communities whose work will change the world in the years and decades ahead.
Rather than write off the value of a generation that includes today's sixth graders, Haidt and those like him should spend some time with Gen Z and see what is plainly in front of them: in a complex and changing world, it is so often our young people who are rising to the most pressing challenges we face.
