To say that the next generation is primarily screwed in terms of resilience

[Namechangechangeobv]

And WTF do we do about it?

Obviously many young people are wonderfully resilient but the overall trend I’ve seen in my line of work (behavioural education) is that there are vast, and I mean VAST numbers of young adults who cannot leave the house, come into a classroom, look someone in the eye, make a phone call, speak infront of the class (if they make it in), cry when pronouns are wrong (daily occurrence), take responsibility to revise/get a job/learn to drive.

What is going to happen to these humans in the future?

No - other students usually. Although at times staff. We have a number of young people who change their gender and pronouns on a semi-regular basis. It can be very difficult to remember.

I think the trauma of school is what has made me so resilient.

I'm not sure what it is. Things like making phone calls are basic life skills. I have taught my children how to do these things. I do wonder how good my young adults are at it though, because they just don't have to do it. So many places allow communication by text, messages, emails, online bookings. There is little need to make phone calls, so they don't get the practice.

Then again, I've often made phone calls in my marriage because my husband, who is clearly older than the younger generation, has always had an anxiety about it. So it's not just young people.

True. My friends and I showed a lot of resilience in our teens and never caused a fuss/seemed normal.

But now:
-one is dead by suicide
-one has a severe eating disorder
-one is on long term antidepressants and in weekly therapy
-one has a bad drug and alcohol habit/criminal record
-other two "appear" fine

Stress/distress/trauma can be buried but it will always resurface somewhere. Better to talk about it at the time and move on.

I think it's a perfect storm of social media immersion from an early age x Covid

I would say this is an example where communication has evolved.

It is important to be able to speak on the phone, but there are so many other ways to communicate. Speaking on the phone now often involves long waits and 'click 1 for...'.

I’ve seen more resilience in war torn countries than here in younger generations. Stop using covid as an excuse.

Being completely honest it has become fashionable to have issues and a grey line between what is a mental issue and an emotion there is a big big difference between having a social anxiety disorder and feeling anxious having PTSD and experiencing a traumatic event feeling depressed and having a depression disorder. People refuse to categorise problems and instead insist everything is on a spectrum when it just isn't.

in the last 16 years I have seen a divide between the confidence and intelligence of the youth and young adults it's cool not to be normal.

I could go on and on about what is wrong and how we got there but the bottom line is responsiblity and consequences neither apply anymore.

Im not using covid as an excuse but as part of the piece of the puzzle

Many people including some on the thread have observed a problem get worse since covid

Denying this by keep quoting people in other countries which also have understandable mental health issues will not solve the problem

Its as much use as telling a child with ARFID that children are starving in other countries

I agree completely.

I do think there is an element of oppression Olympics at play. Perhaps even unconsciously so.

I've worked with children from all backgrounds for 18 years and fully agree with op. Its absolutely horrendous. For many, they can hardly function day to day, compared to a few years ago.

Everything is a 'trigger' and 'gives them anxiety'. Everyone needs a fidget toy to help their anxiety and need constant breaks and 'room to breathe'.. I've never seen anything like it before and its getting worse.

Well my son did this and it made his anxiety worse, not better. Ended up having a breakdown. It's not a one size fits all strategy.

I work closely with seconday aged children and most of them have complete apathy and a severe lack of motivation for anything other than social media activity. Its horribly sad.
Boys never really gave a crap about how they looked during a school day but now they constantly take hairbrushes out and obsessively comb their hair, all day. Even primary aged lads.

I think this is basically it ^. We will look back in horror at the collective grooming of young people. Or maybe we won’t. That’s what scares me the most. I really feel the human race is becoming so so stupid.

This is extremely offensive

I agree that we need to be taught some of these skills, and I daresay my parents taught me. However, when I started my working life, many decades ago, I hated having to phone people. No-one helped me with this, and it had to be done, and so I did it and it really didn't take long for me to be able to deal with it. I used to be shy, once again I just had to overcome it, which I did. These days it seems many young people, if they don't like doing something and no-one spoon feeds them, then they just claim "anxiety" and refuse to do it. Everyone feels worried or anxious about things, but we just have to get on with it, whether we are helped by others or not.

Obviously there are still lots of wonderful young people, and I see them every day, but I do agree that resilience is lacking in others and it is worrying.

mass global experiment of parents happily giving very young children a glowing box to carry round with them at all times, with which they can access all the world's problems, be sent pictures of penises by adults, be harassed by their peers and adults to send pictures of their intimate parts, and have their attention spans fried by games, websites and apps, deliberately designed to make them addicted and grind down their self esteem?

Agree. Its horrifying.

If this is accurate then they're going to get taken over by some tougher middle Eastern country/Russia.

I do think it's an issue. Maybe we as parents are being more 'caring' and that doesn't help build resilience. Anecdotal evidence suggests that younger people joining the workforce are much more entitled and less able to knuckle down and get on with stuff. I'm all for standing up for yourself but the employment contract works both ways.....

Covid has definitely caused huge issues and MH problems, but as OP says I think it was happening anyway. I'm torn - I definitely think we are enabling a generation of less resilient kids, by being too 'oh poor you, how dreadful' which isn't necessarily a bad thing. But equally, they do need to learn resilience and how to cope with shit, and perhaps we are failing on that front.

But the youngsters nowadays do have so much more to worry about than we ever did. Exam pressures, uni expectations (and subsequent debt) and the almost impossible chance of getting on the housing ladder, are hideous concerns that I never had to think about. Plus work is so much more more challenging - no such thing as a job for life or a decent pension.

It's a real worry - from both perspectives.

They need more freedom to make mistakes and take risks earlier on in life. Our social norms now are more towards keeping children safe at all costs, including ironically making them damagingly dependant.
Add to that social media, looming climate crisis and the imo damaging policy of school closures during lockdown you have the present situation.

I mean...that's pretty inevitable.

it's cool not to be normal

I think this is actually a huge part of it. DC is just part of this generation, and has decided that it's preferable to be different.

Yep, social media/Internet and their access to it plays a role.

We do so much internet safety lesson and deal with so many incidents of online bullying yet every lesson they love listing the multiple apps and websites they use. Which they are nowhere near the age guidelines for. Half of the class will be on screens for 4+ hours a day in primary. And that's a weeknight.