Question

Every 20-30 years or so a new Generation in society develops. Below are a few descriptions of recent generations and their characteristics.

Traditionalists: Individuals in this generation were born prior to the end of World War II (1925-1942), this group also is referred to as Veterans, Builders of the Nation, or the Silent Generation. Individuals from this group are viewed as stable, conformists, and reliable.

Baby Boomers: Individuals in this generation were born between 1943 and 1964, this generation has experienced many of the societal “firsts.” Issues such as desegregation and integration, as well as other significant political and cultural changes faced the young adults of this generation. They’re now in their 50s and 60s, and are characterized by optimism and a reluctance to grow old.

Generation X: is generally defined as those born from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. The term has also been used in different times and places for a number of different subcultures or countercultures since the 1950s. Gen-Xers also have been called Baby Busters and the 13th Generation. Now in their mid-20s to early 40s, they grew up in the culture created by the Baby Boomers and have been described as self-indulgent, mobile and materialistic. They have been influenced by technology as well as by shifts in family and societal trends including divorce, two-income households and gender, racial and ethnic diversity. Given this worldview, their values tend toward individualism and self-reliance.

These are several examples of past generations, how they’re described, and some of the issues they’ve faced.

For this week's Assignment, Think about today’s young adults and their generation (some, if not most of you are probably in this generation) and Come up with a minimum of 4 issues or themes, and please describe each issue in a well-developed paragraph. Don't just list them.

Answer 1

Today's young adults and the issues of their generation:

• Rise in Mental Ilnesses - Mental health issues like anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and other eating-sleep disorders etc are quite common in this generation compared to the more mentally stable and stronger older generations who did not have to face life issues like financial burdens of student loans and other economic crises at a young age.Boomers were doing quite well in their early 20s compared to the current youths in their early 20s.Openness to mental health topics with GenZ represents an opportunity to start discussions about managing their stress, no matter the cause.Generation Z tends to be more independent, and they view their world with a healthy dose of skepticism,a trait that group-minded baby boomers and millennials may misunderstand.The Internet is what the generation knows; they know how to exploit it, and will use it — they believe — to save the world. Now, teens are exposed to ideas, opportunities, inspiration and issues through YouTube, Instagram, Kickstarter, selfie challenges, Twitter debates and more. Apart from these seeming positive points these platforms also add to social media addictions and negative outlooks on themselves as there is a lot of comparison and perfectionism on these platforms to looks and act a certain way without getting a massive or threatening backlash.From an early age, GenZ has been raised to be empathetic, to spot and stamp out bullying.This group is constantly connected to their digital and offline friends, they value diversity and social justice within a whole new global context and they’ve been raised to learn in teams and work for the collective.These factors may also add to their intolerance towards some harsh realities of their world and issues today currently.
• Economy issues (unemployment)-Individuals of this generation possess a higher education level but are still getting paid lesser than their previous generations by a big margin in the workforce. The 2008 recession will probably have long-lasting effects on the incomes of the current generation of young adults.Being raised in the shadow of the largest economic downturn since the Great Depression, and by Generation X parents who passed along their street-smart sense of self-reliance, Generation Z has become a very pragmatic, entrepreneurial generation. They’ve seen challenging financial issues first-hand from at a young age: the loss of a parent’s job, a foreclosure or the inability for a sibling to find work after college graduation, for instance. This generation will have to work hard to prove themselves and establish careers that offer stability and better futures for them.
• Traditional wants- The traditional wants like leaving home, living in as a couple or getting married and buying a car or house has been delayed by a big margin for this generation. 66% favor financial security.They understand they will need to work hard to get what they want. Since getting to a financially stable level is more difficult now GenZ as well as many Millenials are pushing these wants way ahead in the future. Theyre putting off relationships and marriage for later as they need to be focusing more on the tasks at hand to get where they want or need to. This causes more issues with the instability of iterrelations that they may need which is why dating apps have become a more common way for these generations to find friends, peers and possible mates to spend their leisure time with.
• Stress- This is another major factor that is affecting this generation. Things like racism and terrorism and the news of today's worlds realities do hit this generations youth quite hard. High stress releases cortisol in the brain which highly alerts an individual to take more precautions. But there is isnt just stress there's distress as well faced by these youths today. Social Media addictions and even drugs are hard to refrai from and are usually looked towards when they face an extremely disstressing situation.This may cause the to have difficulty in performing specific routine jobs and also due to having superior qualifications they do not wish to settle for less.GenZ really feels the impact of issues in the news, particularly those issues that may feel beyond their control like the current coronavirus pandemic for example. The pandemic has caused uncertainty and many negative feelings in this young generation. The young are supposed to be out and about socializing and having experiences with their peers in professional and informal environments but due to the pandemic and other such concerns this generation is unable to do so freely. Staying home and utilizing the tech savvyness of their generation new and more creative ways of lining are being created but there is still much distress in this generation. Their struggles may vary from other generation but they face many big concerning issues all at once which clearly makes them easy to give into negativity and worsening mental health at times.

Some of the issues and themes that the young generations of today's generation face are:

• Debt
• Social media
• Drugs
• Economy
• Technology addiction
• Racism / Discrimination
• Wage inequality
• Older generations
• Politics
• Cost of living
• Mental health
• Gun Violence / School Shootings
• Unemployment
• Intolerance

The youth of today are the most ethnically and gender aware cohort, teens are exposed to more, asked to understand more, and driven to fight for more. It’s only natural that teens are passionate about equality and justice of every kind. They fight for themselves, their friends, their classmates and others they see treated unfairly, whether due to issues of gender, sexuality, race, pay, or environmental. There needs to be a lot of change in the worlds policies and ways of going about of things and the young generation next i.e GenZ is entering the workforce which means that their decisions will recreate and take over the workforce slowly making many changes. It is important that this generation is given more attention to and is also given the necessary resources to flourish and not be more degraded by the many issues that they face all at once on their plates.