Why are most people from Gen Z (including myself sometimes) so lonely, so depressed and anxious and so afraid to take risks?

[Anonymous]

A lot of people from my parents' generation were really outgoing, had big groups, started businesses together, pursued their dreams. Now I see that people from my generation (including myself sometimes, but I'm trying not to be) don't go out as much, don't date as much and they are afraid to do their own thing. They just update their LinkedIn profiles with a lot of bombastic skills to get 9 to 5 jobs in corporations despite the fact that they hate that lifestyle, but at the same time, they are too afraid to lose their feeling of security. They work (sometimes from home) and then they go to the gym or watch Netflix, work again and wait for the weekend. Ok, that's what many people from my parents' generation do now, but in their 20's, they ran businesses together.

[BourbonAndBacon]

Because we had no internet. Nobody had phones. There was no texting, DMing, or chat, we actually had to talk to people so we had to learn how to communicate. Our TV got 15 channels and only 10 of them were clear so we played outside with friends because there was nothing to do inside. If anyone said we were bored, our parents would say only boring people get bored. We weren't afraid of doing dumb things because no one carried a camera with them. If they did have a camera, the film would be processed in the next month or two. Everybody was bullied and we just learned how to deal with it. And if someone had their drivers license and could borrow their parents car then we would load it up and do something. Before I was 30 I had 4 kids and needed more income so I started a 2nd business. I had to risk everything but I didn't have much of a choice because we needed the money and I worked around the clock 7 days a week to get it off the ground. Free time is the enemy and you've got to live a little. Work hard and play hard.

[Asker]

Interesting story. It sounds like you sucked it up and didn't see it as unfairness. People in my generation would not sacrifice their time to make 4 kids and to work all the time to raise them. They would rather have one kid while being able to have some free time.

[Anonymous]

Because of social media, covid and liberal indoctrination in school

[mandyfire98]

I seriously believe social media and the internet plays a huge part in that. My parent's age group were way more social and outgoing and my parents are still more outgoing than a lot of my peers in my age group. Because of things like streaming and dating apps and social media, it's created a mindset of I can just live virtually. I can do most things from home. Why leave if I don't have to? I can just bury myself into tiktok and twitter and Facebook and watch Netflix and Hulu. I can doordash food. I can text my friends instead of calling them. People were kind of forced out amongst each other in society at one point so they socialized more often. Now people don't have to. That's why so many people have issues socializing in the real world now. There's a lot of people in my generation that are just outright awkward unfortunately because of this. They forgot how to pick up on social cues and how to actually interact with real people.

[journmarie]

This is such an interesting topic to me because I’m wondering this myself. Growing up my life was completely different than it is now. My mom put us kids around as many people as possible, she made friends with strangers very easily, we always had play dates and events to go to. Verses my life now which includes me NEVER going out, I never take my kids anywhere and I can’t say I have a single close friend to do anything with or even talk to. It truly is depressing, but every attempt I have ever made to put myself out there always fails to bring me that same joy I had when I was a kid therefore I refuse to go out. I don’t know how my mom did it.

[RageBabe]

Many people have felt this way throughout history, thus it has nothing to do with generational differences. Being human entails this.