Why Is Gen Z Now More Vulnerable?

Source: iStock

Gen Z marks a big transition from old-fashioned traits of older generations to something more open-minded and modern. Gen Z members appear more confident and fearless superficially. But some studies indicated that they look more vulnerable than thought.

Why does this case happen? The blog post digs into the roots.

As a millennial who faced emotional trauma in the past, I want to write this blog post for those who cares about younger generations, especially Gen Z.

This blog post is motivated by a few tragedies in Vietnam and by the novel called Red, White & Royal Blue.

Tragic Story in Vietnam

A few months ago, social media in Vietnam was shaken by continuous suicide cases among Gen Z persons. They mostly chose to commit suicide by jumping out of high-rise apartments.

What they left behind is their family's suffering and even criticism of unknown people on social networks, typically Facebook.

"Depression" and "Stress" are two common words explaining reasons why they acted like that.

Some sessions, albeit online or offline, were held to analyze such reasons from an angle of adults.

Some known newspaper or Facebook page wrote some posts discussing their cases. Some comments left below showed either sympathy or criticism like "Why did they act that selfishly?"

Some solutions emerged. Many parents tended to compromise with their children. Adults chose to follow their demands or pamper them unconditionally with hope for their absence of "stress" or "depression".

But they consequently go with limited impacts.

Also, such tragedies lost media and people's attention after a while. Everything comes back to where it starts. No better solutions come up to solve Gen Z's problems. And tragic events happen again one day.

But It's Not Only a Common Issue in Vietnam

APA, the largest US organization of psychology, reported that Gen Z were more likely to confront poor mental health than other generations.

Source: apa.org

Plethora of surveys and interviews by McKinsey in 2022 also proved that fact. The general report suggested that Gen Z were had the least positive attitudes towards life. They felt more emotionally and socially distressed than older generations.

Why Is Gen Z Now More Vulnerable?

So data show Gen Z are more vulnerable than other generations.

Why is that so? Psych2Go has a "soft-voiced" video talking about this.

Besides that, I think we need to consider two other important reasons:

Suffering at Early Stage

Seeing a rise in suicide cases in Vietnam, many people wonder why “only such pressure” could lead teenagers to that decision.

One small detail in the novel Read, White & Royal Blue gave me a better sight of the reason behind.

The book is a romance novel between two men: one is Alex, a son of the first female US president and the other is Henry, a Wales prince.

Henry seemed to be often in status of worry and strain. When Alex asked Henry's older sister for the reason, here's what he got:

So, imagine we're all born with a set of feelings. Some are broader or deeper than others, but for everyone, there's that ground floor, a bottom crust of the pie. That's the maximum depth of feeling you're experienced.

And then, the worst thing happens to you. The thing you had nightmares about as a child, and you thought, it's all right because that thing will happen to me when I'm older and wiser, and I'll have felt so many feelings by then that this worst feeling won't seem so terrible.

But this happens to you when you're young. It happens when your brain isn't even fully done cooking, when you've barely experienced anything.

...

And because you're still young, and it's one of the first big things in your life, you'll carry it inside you.

Source: Every Health

It's true that Gen Z's lack of experience is to blame for their depression.

But like Henry, Gen Z are facing problems at earlier age than older generations, partly due to social media.

A 20-year-old one can find 4/10 in Maths insignificant. But a 10-year-old boy feels that score is a nightmare.

"Reaching to a certain age, you'll find that having no money is much worse than getting bad scores. So cheer up!" That's what the older student can tell the younger to motivate him. But does it work?

Each generation has their own problems. But adults forget that Gen Z are facing so many challenges (e.g. global pandemic, economic insecurity or unanticipated loneliness) that older generations were not facing at the same age.

"Kids those days have poorer endurance to problems, lack hard work or require more than what they deserve."

Do you find something like that similar? That's called "kids those days" phenomenon. The previous generation often said those words to us, millennials. And now millennials re-use those words for Gen Z. Why do we say the same words we found annoying with the later generation?

We often think younger generations are getting worse. Even when John Protzko asked professional psychologists to predict whether the younger were better or worse. Surprisingly, 84% picked the latter although they were wrong. Why does this happen?

Some studies indicated about 10% of our thoughts got involved in comparison. To make the comparison more precise, people should compare modern Gen Z with themselves at the same age. But their memory does not allow them to remember how they were.

As a result, older people use information of themselves at present: those with more experience and better endurance to compare with modern-day kids.

In other words, we are judging the later generation from an objective viewpoint of our modern-day self, not of our past-self.

Social Media: Another Important Reason behind Vulnerable Gen Z

Source: Healthline

All generations have their pressure.

Traditionally, Asian millennials like me often fall into severe depression mainly because of our family's high expectations about:

• Academic performance

My cousin has to face offensive words and physical violence from his father. Because he sometimes only got 8/10 in Maths.

Looking through a series of articles, you can also imagine how terrible the university entrance exam is. High school is not the final destination of many Asian students. Their parents expect them to pass with flying colors and enter one of the prestigious universities.

• Succeed at Early Age

After graduation, they are expected to get well-paid jobs in famous companies, then buy houses or cars before 30.

But the booming of social media now make such pressure on Gen Z more severe. For example, TikTok opens opportunities for young people to become KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) in a faster way. They earn huge money from short videos and become successful at early age; I mean in 20s or even teens.

But not all Gen Z can do so.

According to Maslow's hierarchy of five demand levels, the fourth one, Esteem Needs, describes needs of being respected by others or self-assessed. Whether deliberately or not, social media increasingly strengthen this need.

Many Gen Z can push themselves into stress of succeeding as early as their peers. Or they may suffer much pressure from close relatives or acquaintances for that.

In some Western countries, there are some similarities found in reasons. But apart from that, current news about worldwide or national uncertainties stress them. Typically, you can count:

• The spread of Covid-19 and Monkeypox

• Mass school shootings in the US

• War between Russia and Ukraine, leading to price soar in even necessities

And social networks support the spread of such information faster than ever.

I don’t know whether the world in the past was as full of uncertainties as now. But definitely, the younger see “more” bad news than ever before.

Final Words

Gen Z members now are more open-minded. They raise their voice more confidently to talk about their needs and concerns.

But they are also the most anxious and depressed generation. They are more vulnerable than stronger, to be honest.

There are so many internal and external factors behind this case. But human psychology is something always complicated. And what I mentioned herein is like a drop in the ocean.

And if you ask my opinion about whether there is any solution for that. The answer is YES. Each generation, each person needs to learn to understand and tolerate others. But doing so is much harder than living in Mars.

However, I think if we do nothing, Gen Z and even its later generations may have much lower levels of emotional and social well-being.

You don’t need to learn to understand all Gen Z members. But for those who you care (e.g. children), you should try to listen to, understand, accept, share and tolerate others.