What age? I've noticed way more young people (teenagers and early 20s) exhibiting signs of anxiety and depression than people my own age (mid 40s). I never knew anyone with anxiety or depression growing up. But that probably has a lot more to do with mental illness not being discussed back than it not being around. But, even among me friend group nobody exhibited the signs that I see so clearly prevalent among my own kids' friend groups. Is it social media? Some chemical that has entered our environment? Is it something having to do with growing up in a post-9/11 world?
I think they would say that their future prospects are a lot dimmer than yours were, precisely because boomers have strip-mined civilization for their own benefit and left your kids' generation holding the bag.
At 37, I'm among the oldest of the millennials and I don't entirely agree with that assessment, but I think that's what they'd say.
Teenagers are sensitive to the cognitive dissonance that accompanies learning how society works and their place in it, even if they're not yet able to articulate those feelings. Some are more precocious than others but anything a college student would be able to tell you about their relationship to society was developing for years beforehand.
I agree with you; however, the interesting thing is that instead of millenials asking boomers why they've gone and strip mined everything, the millenials are mad that there's nothing left to strip mine.
Or maybe the negativity of social media and the popularity of sad music isn't the cause, but the effect? People listen to sad music because they're sad. The news is negative, because the world is going to shit. People "glorify" depression, because they're depressed. A meme about depression might seem like glorification, but it's probably just be a way for depressed people to connect. What you call glorification, could just be people sharing their experiences with people who feel the same way.
I'm in my mid to late 30s and I'm with you on agreeing with Clint Eastwood. I used to joke that I'm 30 going on 60 (with many friends in their 60s and 70s), but these days I've updated the terms so the kids can understand and say that I'm a transboomer.
