'Snowflake generation'

Carl_Scope

Young people are often given a bad rap and I think every generation is compared to the ones before it.

I found this article an interesting read:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqzrz0z4plk1o

"Accusations that the young are a snowflake generation are wrong, the head of an independent review into mental health, ADHD and autism has told the BBC.

Prof Peter Fonagy said in an exclusive interview that there had been a real rise in mental distress among children and young people, with anxiety, depression, self-harm and eating disorders the most common.

He said it was "harder to be young" now given the economic and employment uncertainty young people face, coupled with the challenges presented by social media."

What is your experience? Do you think it's harder to be young now?

Starman

I think there are a few ways of looking at things. I'm 53, and i didn't have a great childhood through circumstances, it was hard at times, but in some ways i'm glad it happened as i think it helped me in adult life. Of course what hasn't changed is just that, as in any era you can't help what you are 'born' into can you, it's hardly your fault as a child what your circumstances are! I wouldn't want to be in my 20's say right now, in some respects i think it is harder than say 20, 30 years ago, socially, economically etc, but then my parents were young children during WW11, and i remember my Mum especially, telling me they had an air raid shelter at the bottom of her garden, and she could hear bombs being dropped not too far away, imagine that?!

I don't think the internet and social media has helped in general, don't get me wrong, some tech advancements are amazing and are beneficial if used properly, but as we all know, certain people will always abuse these things sadly. Just on mental health broadly, i know we know a lot more about these things, which is great, i just don't know whether people did suffer as much from these things years ago, or they just didn't get diagnosed with anything because we know more now? Such an obvious thing to say, but it is a completely different world than it was just 25, 30 years ago, maybe people before then did tend to suffer in silence, or maybe they were more resilient etc, i'm not sure to be honest…….

theme79

snowflake or cripple ?!
each group at a particular time has to struggle to define, defend and change attitudes… but it's an ongoing fight. We thought we'd won at least a big part of that with legislation, independent living and enabling choice for physically and learning impaired people - but neurodiversity and mental health are another type of impairment. We need to fight that on its own terms and definitions. Trying to lump all help/descriptions/policy/benefits etc. under one size fits all is bound to fail. As it is now it makes an easy target.

PIP is the perfect example of a model built on DLA - the wrong model for diversity as it cannot be fairly contained under one system.

Snowflakes - of course not ! Well rarely lol that's just polemic rhetoric and ignorant popularism.

But that is a challenge: to define and advocate for what will enable us to live the best life, in the best way, in our time.

I don't see that yet in a coherent voice, and it is very different from the original foundations of independent living, the DDA and the Equality Act.

66Mustang

I get the impression it's more to do with the fundamental human tendency to look for problems, which is a survival mechanism we've always had.

We're in a position where we don't have to watch out for bombs falling from the sky, plagues coming to wipe half of us out, or widespread famines caused by a poor potato yield. This means we can "afford" to care about things like complex mental health issues, discrimination of extremely niche groups, or whether a celebrity was setting a good example by losing weight.

If we were back 100 years, those modern problems would all still exist, but the existential threats we faced on a daily basis would completely drown them out so we'd have no energy left to worry about them.

The reason we're still alive and not part of the 99.9% of species that are extinct is because it's in our nature to carry on scanning for remaining problems after the previous ones are removed.

I'm saying this as a member of the "snowflake" generation myself 😊