42% of Gen Z diagnosed with a mental health condition, survey reveals

It's certainly an abberation, a denial, a self protective and ultimately self defeating response.

 

Eh, no one is saying teenagers aren't going to participate in rebellious or nihilistic behavior. Teen angst is a thing regardless of generation but comparing vices liking drinking and drugs to "accepted" behaviors like living on social media, image filters, fake lifestyles and body altering is a bit different in my opinion. The damage is much more insidious

 

Have you ever read a survey on here that was unflattering for republicans and just accepted it at face value?

 

Fair points. I would note that the social media behavior, fake lifestyles and body altering isn't limited to Gen Z. I know normal looking women in their 30s and 40s who use image filters and whom I've seen show up with puffy faces and lip injections. I sincerely think it makes them look very strange (not that my opinion matters).

 

I’m looking back wistfully on the days when I thought duckface and pony stance were messed up.

 

I dislike sarcasm but these reasons are right on target. I have 2 grandchildren 18 and 19, and 2 more fast approaching that age range, and observe in them much of what is being discussed. It is terribly discouraging, equal to their own growing pessimism.

 

Don't disagree. And I had a few classmates in Hugh school that had boob jobs back in the 90s but they were a very select wealthy few. Those things you mention that are common with women in their 30s and 40s are now happening with girls in their teens. It's parents that allow it as well but even if they don't they will just get them done when they turn 18 like a few close to me have done. It's not healthy

 

God Bless. You are only as happy as your least happy child (or grandchild)

 

This propensity for women - even teenagers as you posted - to improve their looks through surgical enhancement and other less permanent artifices is a curiosity in this day and age when females demand equal rights and justice for years of oppression and sexual abuses from men.

The great majority of males and females have mutual attraction to one another. Generally speaking it's the way the world swings and repopulates. Throughout history women have enhanced their looks and clothed their bodies in a fashion intended to attract men that best match their requirements in a list of desirable traits in a mate. Men do the same with attractiveness at or near the top of their lists. This interactive exchange has been the game since and where women have had some degree of agency in the process of mate selection. It is an ingrained custom. And yet - women who dress and behave in a way intended to attract masculine attention are appalled and offended when they attract men who overpower and take sexual or professional advantage of them. Charges are filed and lives are irrevocably damaged or destroyed.

I've mused that the observable increase in the numbers of the transgendered and LGBT and their remonstrances for acceptance and equality could perhaps indicate increasing dissatisfaction and confusion over this contradictory exchange between heterosexual men and women. I don't know, just the musings of a old woman who has time on her hands.

 

While physical attraction to and from the opposite and even same sex is still at or near the top of the motivation for this trend of younger and younger body altering, it seems that "celebrity" in the social media world seems to be a major driving force as well. Interesting point about the ideological and cognitive dissonance and it is certainly possible but the motivations just seem more shallow and vacuous in general.

 

We could start by repairing the damage we’ve done to our planet. Alas, it became a partisan issue, rather than one of our species’s survival. I fear we’ll go the way of almost every species which has inhabited our unique orb - to extinction, or nearly so, believing almost to the very end that some benevolent god will spare us.

I’m a real downer, aren’t I?

 

This statement confused me, so I re-read the article to see why you thought it unflattering to Republicans. I saw no politics mentioned at all, so do you think everything you read is a Republican fault issue?

 

That’s what distresses me. It seems they have seen the world we’ve bequeathed them and simply given up hope. The disintegrating planet and the political rancor justifies their pessimism. I share it, and with a great amount of guilt.

 

I was unsure of the point, too, and I’m a dyed in the woolybooger democratic.

 

Youth have been battling issues like catastrophic climate change, economic upheaval (not sure how someone can say that today with a straight face - see Great Depression), and scary fascist/communist/socialist takeovers since the beginning of time.

I know a ton of well adjusted young milenials/gen z living a great life. They just focus on how incredibly lucky they are to be alive at this time right now instead of focusing on the boogeymen in the closet listed above. It's a very sad way to live.

I'm constantly reminding my girls how lucky we are to be living the life God has given us. Truly blessed when you look back in history.

 

Really? That's depressing. Compare now to times when we were drawn and quartered for practicing religion, our elected leaders dueling in the streets, people waiting in breadlines just to get enough food to stay alive, being drafted and sent off to die in Vietnam, living as slaves. The list goes on and on....

People are more giving than ever, we are economically as well off as any place in time, crime is at an all time low. Yeah, we need to be better stewards of our environment but are working in that direction. I think we are leaving our children a pretty badass place to live.

 

For some women who get cosmetic surgery like boob jobs it is as much about extreme insecurity about your body and self confidence vs wanting specifically to attract more dudes. One can argue that isn’t a good reason, but I only say this knowing someone who went through the surgery. Probably not different for guys going bald at an early age.

I think many women dress up like they do to impress other women / peers vs impressing men.

As to trans, my perception, based upon a few anecdotes, is that often these are already confused kids, socially awkward, disproportionality autistic or other mental illness, that just feel different and like they don’t belong. In a weird way they find a community, mostly online when they decide they are trans.

End old man rant. Have some clouds that need shouting at…..

 

that is an extreme version of only looking at 1 side of the balance sheet.

 

Perspective though. Good on you that your kids have been taught to acknowledge and appreciate things but most people live in the moment, or I should say their moment. Social media becomes reality to those consumed and affected by it. Not unlike adults who are consumed with 24hr news and political issues both legitimate or perceived. Turn the TV off and go outside. Life isnt as bad as what the media is reporting. If adults have trouble doing that then it stands to reason that a much younger generation will fall prey to this stuff even moreso.

 

Agreed. It's why we unplug. My outlook is much better since I quit watching the news years ago. It's why I only come here for a day or so every couple of months. Usually Election days. My attitude is in the shitter when I peruse this board. Just so much anger and depression. I can find plenty of places to get depressed but why would I do that voluntarily.