The youth of today are the unhappiest ever

[Unfinishedkitchen]

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/apr/05/young-people-have-never-been-unhappier-research-suggests

Some are stabbing each other. Some are killing themselves. Some can’t escape social media bullying. The nihilism, hopelessness, anger and hate is rising. Its like many of them see no real future. It feels like we’re entering a dystopian age. It scares me. Our country is sick and the youth are displaying the most painful symptoms.

I disagree many more children are growing up vast distances from extended family, as did I.

I think the biggest reason for it, is home no longer being a safe space. Teens are constantly connected to their social lives through social media. There's no longer any coming home and chilling out, leaving all the stress and worries of their complex social lives outside. No more switching off. I imagine that's utterly draining. Plus even if you take wifi and devices away, they know it's all still going on, only now they aren't included. It's a total no win situation for them.

Let's blame tax credits for everything

I have 3 DC, 18,16 and 12. I hear a lot about children being pressurised and distressed by the pressure of GCSEs. My older 2 seem to have managed fine! Is it not down to the family to ease that pressure, we encourage and nag (at DD!) but we're all quite chilled about the academic things.
They all play competitive sport, DD at county level. Sometimes they fail, sometimes they do brilliantly, and that raises their self esteem, while teaching them how to cope with disappointment.
Maybe they need to learn resilience as well as academic work.

stay But generally younger people use social media, WhatsApp, Snapchat, with their immediate circle of local friends far more than to keep in touch with their cousins three counties away, And the point is too many young people do not use it well. Their use of it is often unmonitored by their parents. You get kids of 10 throwing tantrums for not having an iPhone for god's sake. There is absolutely no need for children to have a smartphone. If they need a phone so that they can contact their parents, they just need a very simple phone without internet access. We all managed without phones at school

good point there CuppaSarah

Really interesting points, Element.

ShatnersWig
Of course they are. They spend hours on their phones rather than going out and actually doing things like we did when we were younger. Social media, selfies, obsessed with celebs and image, people becoming famous for doing fuck all.

^ This

Added to which so many children these days appear to receive very little or no discipline (free spirits) that when they are in a situation where they need to do as they are told, follow instructions or rules, the poor things freak out.

From the article that painting linked to at 12:39 "The Generation K is widely modeled by the worst recession the west has faced in decades and the greatest geopolitical dangers it has confronted in years."

Oh, purlease. Decades? years? Those are very short time spans.
She is actually saying, without admitting it, that older people have endured just as bad, if not worse, conditions in which to grow up.

mightymucks you must have missed the kids being dumped outside pubs while the parents were inside drinking. The latch key kids. The parents who thought nothing of smoking and drinking while their kids were inadequately fed.
Don't make you laugh? Suggest you take off your rise tinted glasses. The fact that there are massive parenting sites dedicated to discussing how to be parents indicates that it's actually something people are interested in doing and learning about, whereas they certainly didn't used to be.

Actually the fact that this is even being discussed indicates that society is way more child centred nowadays. I can't imagine people being that concerned in the 60's and 70's. A kid that complained about being unhappy would most likely just to be told to STFU.

Its about fundamentals;

housing - unaffordable
jobs for life - gone
Pensions - reduced
Retirement - gone for many

Then playing compare and contrast with parents, realising you're more qualified and earning more money yet have none of the fundamentals listed above.

The fact you have an iPhone, festival tickets and cheap clothing doesn't really cut it.

One biggie is the lack of family time. Not enough emphasis on living life, cultivating and nurturing relationships and friendships because all our dick arse government can focus on us people working, working to survive. Nobody has time for each other , everyone is stressed and knackered. No sense of community and all you see is fade. No intimacy, no empathy, no time no money

They are all nannied- no ones allowed to discipline kids any more without being called an abuser- what the hells wrong with a soft clip round the ear type thing?

I'm fed up single parents getting the blame for poor upbringing also, there are 2 parent dysfunctional families too.

these kids are bored, theyre given everything, do everything, allowed everythingm they have the edge over adults -schoold especially, and they are BORED BOERED BORED.

I say bring back national army service or whatever it was called. give them a place to live- barracks and dormitories, learn a trade or skill, learn to live and work together etc.

Might not eradicate all of it but these kids have no sense of proper ambition or anything. Also whats wrong with a parent limiting internet use? they geta lot of ideas from that.

*ShatnersWig
Of course they are. They spend hours on their phones rather than going out and actually doing things like we did when we were younger. Social media, selfies, obsessed with celebs and image, people becoming famous for doing fuck all.

^ This

Added to which so many children these days appear to receive very little or no discipline (free spirits) that when they are in a situation where they need to do as they are told, follow instructions or rules, the poor things freak out.
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senua Fri 06-Apr-18 13:33:01 *

Absolutely^^

I think it starts at the beginning of high school tbh.
many are given access to social media at this age and the push from schools to be constantly working is unbelievable.
I also agree about the culture of following slebs who have done very little to gain sleb status.
I think a lot of children are confused and haven't a clue how to manage the stresses.

Materially people nowadays are far better off (on average). There were severe shortages of housing after WW2, worse than now. Most people then didn't have central heating, indoor bathrooms, washing machines, certainly no tv and mod cons like many people have now. Only the most recent generation (aged maybe 40-60) really had it good growing up.

Some people now are poor, but I reckon they are not the only ones feeling miserable so don't really prove anything. Even this so called poverty is a far cry from the days when babies got abandoned on the streets and old people went into the workhouse.

People haven't grown up dealing with hardship and worry as they did in former generations. Instead they have parents who try to make them happy and provide for their wants. They therefore lack resilience and are unable to deal with failure, disappointment and imperfection in life. It's human nature to worry about something and if you don't worry about immediate things such as getting enough to eat or your parents smacking you if you misbehave, you then start to worry about other things such as your appearance or what pension you will have in 50 years time.

A fundamental mistake is in thinking the problem is due to poverty/lack of money/lack of opportunity. We have more money and opportunity than ever. 100 years ago people had virtually no choice about most aspects of their lives. It's to do with appreciating what you have, enjoying human relationships and taking the time to do what's important (for children this includes lots of time playing without adult interference, preferably outside).

So many families nowadays have 2 working parents and think they need this to earn enough to live. Yet if people were willing to accept a more basic lifestyle they could easily live off one wage (outside London at least).

If parents became less materialistic I think children would be happier too

To all the posters saying kids have too much time, yes because now a days, school by around half 8, dont finish til at least 3. Then clubs or societies. then homework and assignment for every bloody subject they've and then they must sleep for the reccomended time. Yes somuchtime.

Also social media, what generation created it? Oh wait the ones complaining people are using the stuff they created.

I agree that the boomers had it easier as adults than children today will have. My parents left school without a single qualification but thanks to council housing had a great start in their married life. My mum could afford to stay at home and we lived close to grandparents who could pitch in. We played outside all day without worrying about cars or crime.

Until more affordable housing and childcare is made available life will be a struggle for many people. The pressure on kids to do well at school is very real - if even professionals struggle to pay the bills and keep a roof over their heads, what hope is there for a child now who has no qualifications? And the economic obsession with London/ SE needs urgently addressed to give people outside these areas real opportunities.

I think there is a backlash growing. For some it will be a more minimalist lifestyle where less is seen as more. For others it might take a darker turn as we are already seeing with neo Fascism on the rise across Europe.

this is a very interesting thread.

in some ways things have improved tho like there is more support available for help with certain issues, eg sexual abuse, charities, mental health support stuff like that, in the past all swept under the carpet and not talked about, things are changing there. some projects that are out there are amazing - having said that, that means something has gone wrong in order for someone to access that.

funny i remember my mum utterly hating the internet, she thought it was evil, when i was a teenager, she didnt want me on it, thought it was unnatural, maybe some of her instincts were right if not a bit extreme. she thought it was bad for society as a whole and she thought there was something wrong with me for wanting to go on it!

There are various UN reports showing that the UK comes dead last for childhood wellbeing, among developed nations, and this has been consistently the case for years now. There are various factors included in the surveys (educational achievement, family relationships, risky behaviour etc). They are interesting.

[[An overview of child well-being in rich countries - Unicef
www.unicef.org › files › pdf_01
Unicef report]]

The UK does poorly across all categories, however, it does particularly poorly on family relationships and risky behaviour. Basically, UK children are much more likely to grow up in broken homes, take drugs, get pissed, have sex young, and get pregnant. They are more likely to be materially poor. Interestingly, the UK ranks worse than poorer countries on this last measure, which suggests inadequate support for families.

Schooling is actually one of the UK's stronger measures, such suggests it isn't this that's really the problem.

I don’t really think school is the pressure point for many of the most vulnerable to be honest. I grew up in a poor area where getting a good office job wasn’t on most peoples radar so school pressure would’ve never been an issue because many of the kids wouldn’t have cared anyway. Getting a council house and a job in a shop was normal. Most people didn’t see that kind of future as being for ‘losers’ anyway because we never saw how other people lived.fancy cars, big owned houses etc were what we saw on Dynasty and Duran Duran videos it wasn’t real life to us.

Now these things are in the kids faces all of the time and they still have zero chance of obtaining any of it and if they don’t obtain it they are a loser.

I also seriously believe social media helps fuel this. I also believe the current spate of stabbings are driven by YouTube. I can guarantee that as it’s school holidays, there will currently be about a dozen revenge rap songs, repping their postcode uploaded by rival gangs, trying to wind up rivals. You can easily find them on YouTube. The police don’t have the resources to get them taken down and what will happen is lots of kids in those areas will be watching them, writing comments and winding each other up and so the cycle continues.

I also think some young people just aren't being challenged enough. Their parents give them everything they can, phones, holidays, driving lessons, tutors, paying for uni and think they are doing their best for them but actually there is nothing like the satisfaction of achieving something for yourself!

our schooling system in this country in comparison to others is actually terrible, it's our attitudes to children we just fail so many.