The new generation is overly sensitive

Generation Z are those people born between the years 1997 and 2010. So right about now they’re going to be between 25 to 28 years old. Each generation, starting from Baby Boomers, has its weak points, strong points and quirks. I feel that, as new generations emerge, they seem to be getting weaker and odder in their behaviour. They’re more allergic, more sensitive and more scared. When I was growing up I never came across a classmate at school who was allergic to anything. The only allergy I ever saw was an allergy to pollen because those particles were at their height in the UK air in the summer months. But the more recent the generation the more allergies they have. I personally think it’s the parents’ doing and experts do to some extent as well. Now did you know that the Z generation has been given a nickname? In some countries Snowflakes might seem apt for this time of year but now it’s a name also being given to this generation. A snowflake is a person who is overly sensitive or easily offended and generally afraid of everything. Another name is Narcissistic which they are offended by.

The Z generation thinks that the world is scary, especially after the Covid affair. They’re scared of social media yet they use it like nobody’s business. And they think that they’re losing control of everything that impacts them. They see risks as being either there or not there and there’s no in between or grey area. As a result of all this that’s going on in their heads they seem to suffer more mental health issues than any of the previous generations. But this is not just a Z generation problem but a problem for every generation afterward. But why are they like this? When I left the UK in 1995, life for children up until then was very different. There were no mobile phones, no YouTube, no computer games, no computers and just having to work their socks off to pass exams. They were jolly hard to pass and you really had to study hard. Then the GCSEs struck and academic life suddenly became more successful. GCSEs were easier to pass and more students came into universities with very poor English and poor Maths skills. In addition to all of that, parents seem to have changed their parenting behaviour. Kids are so mollycoddled these days because mums and dads are afraid to say no and hurt their feelings. There is a joke on social media: a child in a playground falls and hurts his knee. A parent in the 70s to 90s would yell, ‘Get up and brush yourself off and don’t be a crybaby!’ A parent today would say, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll sue the local council.’

And honestly, this is the truth. The other day, I was in a food court watching a mother and her 3 children at a food outlet. The little boy, perhaps about 7, climbed onto the counter, sat on it and stood on it with his shoes on. That counter is where food is served and yet the boy had his rear and then his shoes all over it, shoes and trousers that had been outside and in the bathroom. Yet his mother said absolutely nothing to him and neither did the staff at the outlet. I won’t be eating there. The result is these generations are hard to employ because everything leads to mental health issues because they’re easily offended by something the supervisor might do or say. They’re barely at work, citing mental health days. Or they quit easily or make unreasonable and baffling demands of employers.

Older generations always knew that the world was not pleasant but they didn’t have time to be scared of it. They just knew they had to get on with life. No one wrote about them being brave and not needing mental health coaches to deal with life’s ups and downs. Even if a trauma had struck them, they just carried on. No therapy! No speaking to someone. Just keeping busy. Yet it’s the older generation that is being shunned for this so-called younger, dynamic crowd.