Anonymous
05/22/2025 09:03
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ7A8-YgFHM/
This is sad to see. Although it's interesting to me that older people seem to be happier than people in middle age. Is that true? I thought there was an elderly mental health crisis. Rise in suicide rates among elderly etc
Myself am ncreasingly depressed to see that my children are set to inherit a world that is deepening in inequity and loss of opportunity and rise in social media which only makes everything worse. Kids have it tough these days.
I really, really don't think this outlook helps. At all. Did you read The Anxious Generation? Attitudes like this are basically reverse cognitive behavioral therapy, conditioning our kids to be anxious and depressed. Tell them the world is terrible and there's nothing they can do to change it and of course they'll hate everything.
Studies show the number one way to give people happiness is to give them a sense of purpose in the world. Community of course helps find purpose - it's a rare person who thinks a solitary life is a purposeful one, though it happens occasionally.
Anonymous
05/22/2025 09:00
Subject: Re:Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:We destroyed childhood and young adulthood. We made it competitive, stressful, and pressure filled. You used to be allowed to be lazy and idle in your youth, to experiment and try stuff out without major consequences.
...
We destroyed childhood. We destroyed summer, we destroyed after school, we ruined school sports and activities. We ruined academics with a fixation on test taking and benchmarking over wholistic learning, sustained attention, and deep learning. Oh yeah, and we addicted everyone to personal device screens which numb and distract but actually diminish happiness as they replace interpersonal interactions and physical activity, which are both known to boost endorphins and happiness.
We messed it up folks, but it's not too late. We can fix it. But step one is to acknowledge we have a problem.
To say you were allowed to be lazy and idle is to have a very short view of history. Early 20th century and before young people were largely doing chores on the family farm from a very young age. And go back even further and they weren't even really allowed to have much of a teenagehood - they were getting factory jobs or starting families. In hunter gatherer situations 8 year olds were raising 2 year olds in a pack of kids, and that kind of situation lasted until the late 19th century in some communities (read Lark Rise to Candleford to see it described in 1890s rural England).
Anonymous
05/22/2025 08:53
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ7A8-YgFHM/
This is sad to see. Although it's interesting to me that older people seem to be happier than people in middle age. Is that true? I thought there was an elderly mental health crisis. Rise in suicide rates among elderly etc
Myself am ncreasingly depressed to see that my children are set to inherit a world that is deepening in inequity and loss of opportunity and rise in social media which only makes everything worse. Kids have it tough these days.
It is the phones and social media.
Delay it for as loooooong as you can!
This 100%. We have created a generation that is addicted to dopamine. Attention spans are seconds, inability to entertain themself without a screen and a general lack of awareness. Look at every kid with a phone watching some stupid video while at the mall or in a store. Imagine what it is when they are at home.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 19:50
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Make your teens actually go on dates and experience “getting to know someone” via talking in person.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 19:49
Subject: Re:Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We destroyed childhood and young adulthood. We made it competitive, stressful, and pressure filled. You used to be allowed to be lazy and idle in your youth, to experiment and try stuff out without major consequences.
Now kids are told at a very young age that their grades and test scores even starting in elementary school can have lifelong impacts (for admission to G&T programs or magnet schools). College has become absolutely essential even for many fields that didn't use to require it, at the same time that it's become prohibitively expensive and it's increasingly competitive to get into even average state colleges (because everyone feels pressure to go). The rise of the two-income family has coincided with intensifying job expectations and constant connectivity to work, so families that used to have real downtime where kids could be home with one or both parents with few demands on anyone, now have intense schedules coordinating childcare, two jobs, kid's activities and academic commitments (remember you can't slack, you have to be go go go or you might never get a college degree and thus never get a job).
We've also totally privatized childrearing. Kids don't play in the street or at the neighborhood park anymore, they no longer have more cohesive community through their schools. They are in private childcare or activities, public schools are overwhelmed and don't perform the community role they used to. Fewer families go to church so they don't get that support there. So now these parents, who are working more than ever, are also independently responsible for teaching their kids how to be people and navigate the world, either personally or via people they pay to do it.
We destroyed childhood. We destroyed summer, we destroyed after school, we ruined school sports and activities. We ruined academics with a fixation on test taking and benchmarking over wholistic learning, sustained attention, and deep learning. Oh yeah, and we addicted everyone to personal device screens which numb and distract but actually diminish happiness as they replace interpersonal interactions and physical activity, which are both known to boost endorphins and happiness.
We messed it up folks, but it's not too late. We can fix it. But step one is to acknowledge we have a problem.
Ok but how? Be specific.
DP but I’m going to take a page from the culture and places I’ve lived over the past 20 years:
Private schools without 3-5 standardized tests a year
Continue rec sports into middle school
No phones or smart watches 8am- 3pm dismissal, for k-12
Regulate social media and its age groups the same way China does.
No screens or chromebooks or iPads in classrooms. At all. Use text books, not krap posted in google classroom.
Stop having “travel teams” of subpar abilities, move to local and rec again.
Tell your kids to “go hang out” or go out a okay three times a week.
Bring back the arts into k-12 more.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 19:42
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:Too bad they will never see the article since it isn't in on tiktok.
Or in video form since no one reads anymore
Anonymous
05/21/2025 19:42
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:Lack of community
Social media and screen addicts led to Lack of community, lack of active parenting, lack of in person socializing or skills.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 19:29
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ7A8-YgFHM/
This is sad to see. Although it's interesting to me that older people seem to be happier than people in middle age. Is that true? I thought there was an elderly mental health crisis. Rise in suicide rates among elderly etc
Myself am ncreasingly depressed to see that my children are set to inherit a world that is deepening in inequity and loss of opportunity and rise in social media which only makes everything worse. Kids have it tough these days.
Hours and hours a day on BS social media, chat rooms and shallow SMs threads would depress anyone, of any age. They just happen to lap it up. Depressing indeed.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 19:08
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
I think it is this simple - kids need more freedom where they figure stuff out on their own, make their own choices and mistakes, and socialize without social media. It can be done - parents are in the driver seat here.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 18:25
Subject: Re:Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:We destroyed childhood and young adulthood. We made it competitive, stressful, and pressure filled. You used to be allowed to be lazy and idle in your youth, to experiment and try stuff out without major consequences.
Now kids are told at a very young age that their grades and test scores even starting in elementary school can have lifelong impacts (for admission to G&T programs or magnet schools). College has become absolutely essential even for many fields that didn't use to require it, at the same time that it's become prohibitively expensive and it's increasingly competitive to get into even average state colleges (because everyone feels pressure to go). The rise of the two-income family has coincided with intensifying job expectations and constant connectivity to work, so families that used to have real downtime where kids could be home with one or both parents with few demands on anyone, now have intense schedules coordinating childcare, two jobs, kid's activities and academic commitments (remember you can't slack, you have to be go go go or you might never get a college degree and thus never get a job).
We've also totally privatized childrearing. Kids don't play in the street or at the neighborhood park anymore, they no longer have more cohesive community through their schools. They are in private childcare or activities, public schools are overwhelmed and don't perform the community role they used to. Fewer families go to church so they don't get that support there. So now these parents, who are working more than ever, are also independently responsible for teaching their kids how to be people and navigate the world, either personally or via people they pay to do it.
We destroyed childhood. We destroyed summer, we destroyed after school, we ruined school sports and activities. We ruined academics with a fixation on test taking and benchmarking over wholistic learning, sustained attention, and deep learning. Oh yeah, and we addicted everyone to personal device screens which numb and distract but actually diminish happiness as they replace interpersonal interactions and physical activity, which are both known to boost endorphins and happiness.
We messed it up folks, but it's not too late. We can fix it. But step one is to acknowledge we have a problem.
X1000 YES
Anonymous
05/21/2025 16:19
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
I was surprised by the senior class lamenting life and all openly accepting their depressing outlooks. They say depressing things but also smile and laugh together. I remember more of a "hope for the future" outlook in the 90s and especially our personal futures. I think its trendy to be grim right now.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 16:08
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ7A8-YgFHM/
This is sad to see. Although it's interesting to me that older people seem to be happier than people in middle age. Is that true? I thought there was an elderly mental health crisis. Rise in suicide rates among elderly etc
Myself am ncreasingly depressed to see that my children are set to inherit a world that is deepening in inequity and loss of opportunity and rise in social media which only makes everything worse. Kids have it tough these days.
this generation is a bunch of whiny little sissies.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 16:07
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Social media is evil. It really is, and when you spend all of your time on it then you are bathed in badness. Doom scrolling, etc. Parents also pay a big part here, and I am not talking about taking away technology. I'm talking about being better role models. Such as, putting your own phone on airplane mode after, say, 7 pm so you can be undistracted and really talk to your kids. So many teens are basically performing circus animals. All their parents care about are their grades, but they don't really even know their kids.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 16:06
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Liberals are scared of everything including the wrong pronouns. Of course their kids are a mess.
Anonymous
05/21/2025 16:03
Subject: Younger people everywhere are unhappier — NYT
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Parents that continually inundate their children with apocryphal notions of danger from the climate, the government and the justice system are the reason younger people are unhappy.
No
NP. This should be a yes, and you'd only say no if you're defensive that you did just that to your kids.
Stop sockpuppeting. You can always rely on a Trumper to show up with a nonsense post.