{"id":161007,"date":"2023-06-14T22:07:41","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T05:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161007"},"modified":"2023-06-14T22:07:41","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T05:07:41","slug":"generations-the-real-differences-between-gen-z-millennials-gen-x-boomers-and-silents%e2%80%95and-what-they-mean-for-americas-future-by-jean-m-twenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/?p=161007","title":{"rendered":"Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents\u2015and What They Mean for America’s Future By Jean M. Twenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents\u2015and What They Mean for America’s Future By Jean M. Twenge<\/h1>\n

Reviewed by Mike Males | June 8, 2023<\/a><\/h2>\n

2 Out of 5 Stars: Leaves Out Huge Issues\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Generations sounds at least the hundredth alarm in the last hundred years proclaiming a \u201cnew mental health crisis\u201d among teenagers (did you know 75% of 1930s \u201cGreatest Generation\u201d boys tested mentally defective \u201cdue to anxiety\u201d?). Alan (Closing of the American Mind,<\/a> 1987) Bloom lambasted Jean Twenge\u2019s and endorser Jonathan (Coddling of the American Mind, 2018) Haidt\u2019s 1980s Gen X as mentally disturbed, intolerant, and pop-media warped (plus uneducable and unemployable), Now, Twenge and Haidt find Gen Z troubling.<\/p>\n

Still, Twenge is right: \u201cGen Z is different.\u201d That signals caution in how we clueless old folks assess it. Her and others\u2019 traditional interpretations of Gen Z\u2019s self-reported depression, anxiety, social media use<\/a>, etc., risk serious misunderstanding \u2013 just as Twenge\u2019s 2006 Generation Me<\/a> misinterpreted narcissism scales (they now track social disadvantage) and confused pop-culture quips with \u201cevidence,\u201d producing disastrously wrong forecasts. Twenge-2006 predicted youthful epidemics of social disorder, school failure, disconnection, \u201chooking up,\u201d dishonesty, and \u201cdangers that were once unknown.\u201d Twenge-2023 now admits these never happened.<\/p>\n

Generations is much better, with interesting generational surveys (which can dictate answers that may not reflect respondents\u2019 true choices) and detailings of Gen Z\u2019s gender fluidity and rejection of traditional milestones. Unfortunately, Generations suffers from Twenge\u2019s usual refusal to engage major facts that challenge her thesis. \u201cNo other plausible culprit has emerged,\u201d Twenge declares, for\u00a0 the \u201cvery large and sudden changes in mental health\u201d among teenagers other than \u201ctechnology, especially social media\u201d (p. 401).<\/p>\n

Yes, culprits have emerged. Big, obvious ones, requiring much effort to overlook.<\/p>\n

The same CDC survey<\/a> reporting increased teenage depression and anxiety also reported a doubling in violent abuses and a quadrupling in emotional abuses \u2013 the latter victimizing a staggering 55% of youths<\/a>\u2013 inflicted by parents and other household adults. Grownup violence and bullying toward teenagers at home exploded over the last decade <\/a>to levels far higher than teens experience at school or online<\/a> \u2013 all to deafening silence by Twenge, Haidt, and social-media blamers.<\/p>\n

Additionally, depression tripled among parent-aged grownups<\/a> to diagnostic levels<\/a> higher than among adolescents. Among ages 25-54, deaths<\/a> from suicides, drug\/alcohol overdose, and guns soared from 35,635 (2000)<\/a> to 110,184 (2021)<\/a> as Gen Z grew up, a tripling in per-capita rates and an increase 1.7 times faster than among teens. By 2021, parents\u2019 risks of dying from self-destructive causes increased to four times higher, and criminal arrest rates to twice as high, as among high-school-age teens; plus 130,000 more parent-age COVID deaths.<\/p>\n

Generations<\/em> spends scores of pages on mental health, yet \u201cabuse\u201d doesn\u2019t appear in Twenge\u2019s index. Twenge\u2019s 515-page book dismisses sexual harassment and assault in scant sentences as something only celebrities or young peers do. In fact, household adults\u2019 1+ million sexual abuses victimizing children and teens substantiated by the Administration on Children and Families<\/a> as Gen Z grew up argues otherwise. (Twenge\u2019s Generation Me likewise deployed one idiotic Wavy Gravy quip to dismiss the mammoth Boomer drug scourge.)<\/p>\n

Twenge, Haidt, and other academics and professionals \u2013 who should brand their own Xers and Boomers the \u201cyou can\u2019t say that!\u201d and \u201cstay safe\u201d generations \u2013 owe their popularity to ignoring and downplaying parents\u2019 and grownups\u2019 skyrocketing, widespread depression, addiction, self-destructive deaths, and violent and emotional abuses victimizing teenagers. While studies blaming social media are conflicting and methodologically limited<\/a>, an overwhelming research consensus links parental abuses<\/a> and troubles to teens\u2019 depression, anxiety, and other ills.<\/p>\n

Twenge hints at but fails to present what a profound revolution younger Millennials and Gen Z are bringing. Remember the terrors teenagers traditionally were lambasted for? Crime, shootings, school dropout, \u201cteen pregnancy,\u201d stealing, vandalizing, all-around savagery. Gen Z has all but abolished that teenager. Using consistently reliable California statistics and comparing 2021<\/a> to 1995 and 1970<\/a> (that is, Gen Zers versus Xers and Boomers), the trends are astonishing: Rates of criminal arrest: down 96%, down 92%,<\/a> respectively. Violence arrest<\/a>: down 81%, down 83%. Gun deaths, down 35%, down 69%. Suicide: down 11%, down 18%. Juvenile probation referrals: down 93%, down 92%. Youth incarcerations: down 80%, down 88%. \u201cTeenage\u201d births: down 89%, down 84%.<\/p>\n

A Gen Z<\/a> that has sharply reduced its school dropout<\/a> (by 70%), increased its college attendance and graduation rates<\/a> (by 30%, despite larcenous costs), and sharply boosted political activism and voting is not \u201cstruggling with mental health,\u201d as Twenge and others insist. A better interpretation is that the depression and anxiety expressed by today\u2019s youth are logical, healthy, even motivating responses to the anxiety-driving conditions they experience.<\/p>\n

Proof that external conditions, not internal mental processes, are paramount is the biggest reasons younger Millennials and Gen Z show such dramatic behavior improvements: the 75% reduction in child poverty<\/a> fostered by increased tax credits for poor families, and the 95% reduction in children\u2019s neurotoxic lead levels<\/a> due to environmental regulations since 1990. When economic and environmental conditions improved, youth behaviors improved astonishingly. Imagine 16-year-olds with lower crime rates than 46-year-olds\u2026 that\u2019s Gen Z.<\/p>\n

The massive, definitive 2022 Pew study<\/a> (more pivotal research Twenge fails to engage, possibly because it challenges her claims) found teens use social media to connect and find support during tough times. That liberal and (recently) more educated modern populations are more anxious and depressed indicates more realistic comprehension of the crises we face.<\/p>\n

Twenge, Haidt, and others readily judge and prescribe even as they ignore younger Millennials\u2019 and Gen Z\u2019s most crucial features \u2013 their parent generations\u2019 extraordinary troubles alongside youths\u2019 spectacular improvements (are these related?). Teens were accused of growing up too fast and taking too many risks; now they\u2019re growing up too slowly and risking too little. Like Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cMister Jones,\u201d we older folks don\u2019t know what is happening here, and fear and self-superiority fueled by works like these too easily resonate with us. We need to leave those kids alone and fix our own grownup problems.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Generations: The Real Differences Between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers, and Silents\u2015and What They Mean for America’s Future By Jean M. Twenge Reviewed by Mike Males | June 8, 2023 2 Out of 5 Stars: Leaves Out Huge Issues\u00a0 Generations sounds at least the hundredth alarm in the last hundred years proclaiming a \u201cnew […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=161007"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":161008,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161007\/revisions\/161008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=161007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=161007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.youthfacts.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=161007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}