"In fact, Gen Z might just be the most risk-averse generation on record. Fewer Gen Zers got a driver’s license, drank alcohol, or had sex as teenagers than their parents did. The same young adults now report skyrocketing rates of anxiety and other mental illnesses, with some estimates finding that as many as 1 in 5 18-to-24-year-olds have been diagnosed with depression. Timidity—not to mention self-conscious neuroticism—is increasingly the norm.
“An ongoing study from Montclair State University argues that some of this risk aversion is due to the current political climate—or perhaps young people’s perception of it. “Gen Z’s mental health has deteriorated due to a worldview that the society and environment around them are crumbling,” writes justice studies professor Gabriel Rubin. “Rights are being taken away, the Earth is burning, maniacs could kill you with a gun, and viruses could shut down society again.””
See also, for counterpoint: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markcperna/2024/06/18/gen-z-thriving-entrepreneurship/
We don’t need to take risks, our circumstances are taking all the risk for us.
“Risk averse” = broke as fuck
she cute
Skyrocketing rates of anxiety.
I WONDER WHY THE FUCK THAT IS?
Social media.
If it’s from MSU, it can safely be ignored.
Source: I went there. Gained nothing but a piece of paper. Lost time, money, and effort.
Skill problem.
Forbes is just writing fan fiction for a certain demographic…
People love to scapegoat the parents of the prior generation but I believe we’re gonna find out the plastics or some other environmental toxin had a substantial impact and causal Relationship with this sort of thing.
Yes, or it could be the incredibly obvious fact that it’s a generation that grew up on media and technology that amplified fear and anger for profit and with corporate powers leveraging the most advanced technologies in the world to seek, compete for, gain, and hold attention as much as possible in almost every waking moment.
There’s nothing like “Gen Z” or “Gen X”. Stop this bullshit that’s not more grounded than astrology. There’s cultural development in society, but it’s not restricted to an age cohort.
Perhaps “young people are statistically risk averse. more so than people older than them” would be better.
I dunno, I worked with a Gen Z aged dude that thought blowing his life savings on a down payment for a new Camaro was a sound investment because it was going to be the last ICE Camaro ever made.
I wanted to go into the points that a new car depreciates the second it leaves the lot, the cost of upkeep between now and the years it would take for the car to POSSIBLY gain value, but I knew they wouldn’t listen.
Last time I spoke with him before he was fired he was trying to decide whether it was a better idea to ship his collection of Pokemon cards to California to get professionally graded or to take the trip himself.
Dude definitely took risks. He definitely had some NFTs in his portfolio.
Every generation has dipshits man. I know broke Millennials who even now try to hold onto BMWs they can’t afford to maintain or fuel, just for the clout
What age is it okay to walk a couple miles from your house these days?
18, with a license to do so
A bunch of them helped Trump get back in the WH. Not exactly risk-averse in my book.
I’d prefer the risky sex and drinking to trump any day of the week.
I feel like an old man at 37 being like back in my day we did coke and promiscuous sex and voted for Obama like a proper youth damnit!
Hey look, it’s a description of me! 🙃
Driving cost money (remeber used cars selling for more than new?). They use to get drivers license to hang out (and have sex) with their friends. Now everything moved online.
Alcohol decreases where marajuana is legalized, a safer alternative.
Women saw the right to an abortion disappear- and more than half of gen Z men support it. That plus sex ed leads to low levels of sex.
But, no, it is because all of Gen Z is “Timid”.
It does feel like an accusation, doesn’t it?
Why did they get the black eye I gave them with my status quo?
As a millennial, fuck this article and all of those like it. Now they’re going after Gen Z with their Pro-Boomer attacks. My generation got fucked but Gen Z and Gen α are getting it even worse, without even getting the childhood benefits that we had.
Boomers have stolen the futures from at least two generations, and if you include Gen X, that’s three generations sacrificed on the altar of “Generation Me.”
And all the while they’ve been gaslighting us and spreading their ignorant nonsensical arguments as though they understand anything about anything. It’s beyond frustrating.
Boomers are not a collective hivemind, generations are divisions the rich use to dominate the working class.
Uh didn’t the majority of them just vote in a fascist to fuck up their economy and futures? Risk averse my ass.
No, not a majority, just like 40% of them.
Are you saying 40% of ALL gen Z voted for Trump? Or is it 40% of the ones who did vote, vote for Trump?
40% of the ones who voted. They had relatively low turnout, as per usual for youth votes.
You think Trump is going to fuck things up. His voters presumably think he’s going to fix things.
Aww. One could almost pity them until they remember how screwed they made us all and decide on taking absolute pleasure in them finding out instead.
This conversation was about Gen Z being risk takers or not. We all know we’re screwed under Trump. The trend line of people saying that right now is through the stratosphere. No one here is going to learn anything by you saying it again at this moment. We get it.
Sure, that’s just a really accessible and recent example of them being massively not adverse to risk.
I hate these articles that try to paint entire generations of people with the same brush.
I think there are some things we need to learn about people that grew up on the unregulated internet. I normally hate generation generalizations but Millenials (at least us 80s kids) were the last people who got to grow up without the internet being omnipresent in our lives before we hit puberty.
You make an excellent point.
That’s already a statement that doesn’t apply to me and other “Gen Z” people I know. Which doesn’t make it a false claim or an irrelevant point. The changes between milestones / turning points in the western world aren’t irrelevant, but people often take them as isolated pieces of information and then value them too much. It’s an important aspect about a human being, but it’s only one of many uncountable aspects that is superficial on its own.
Generational theory at best serves as a nice sentimental touch that encourages older rich people to feel less entitled and spoiled, because they “didn’t have the iPhone when they were twelve” (a product that wasn’t available when they were twelve).
All the pussies from that generation are too scared to be older than about 25. They’re all too lazy to be born before around 2000-something.
