Interesting video.
Are there any millennials here who do
not fit the bill as he describes them (beginning around the 5:00 mark)? If so, in which way?
Bitterly disappointed in this vid. Thought it might be interesting and started to watch it with an open mind however I got to around 16 minutes in and decided not to proceed with listening to his conservative victim blaming bigoted rant.
I disagree almost wholeheartedly with his reasoning.
I do have some genuine claims for why millennials may be so unhappy, some areas he touched on though I'm coming at them from a different angle.
Probably the biggest issue I have with the vid is he seems to (mostly) want to blame the individuals whereas I would lay a large portion of blame at the door of the systems and corps which suppress the masses financially.
There is a complex set of intricate reasons which wax and wane that impact how unhappy millennials are. I will set out some basic claims, not to be confused with a solid argument.
One of the strongest main claims for millennials being unhappy is the vast increase in wealth disparity. The US has the largest in western countries, The Uk is fast catching up. This gives many people less hope for future generations. Millennials are probably more acutely aware of this than previous generations.
I'd also argue that millennials are actually more socially intelligent/aware than previous generations, meaning they have the ability to see the hopelessness more powerfully in relation to themselves.
The rise of consumerism, societal pressures and expectations also plays a part. People are expected to buy more, be happier, look better, build careers faster and achieve higher results if they want to 'suceed' in the eyes of society, all while pretending they are fulfilled and happy. I read a reference to a study (apologies for not citing the source as I don't remember it) in a book about habits showing that while people report to be happier than in previous times, the reasons for this are because people now feel they have to say they are happy even while they are not, confidence and happiness are expected if you want to succeed.
The rise in the over medication of society I do agree with, and I do think that people are less happy and that the medications are not working. But we need to find other solutions, except in extreme cases. One way might be to have classes starting from early education (nursery) in emotional wellbeing.
The spending of western countries goes into the wrong things, e.g spending on prisons rather than education. This is completely the wrong way round. An appropriate expression is 'Spend on the nurseries, save on the prisons'
Also I disagree with the idea that millennials are confused concerning gender identity. I think we are evolving around gender, and hate the right wing attacks on this, so much hate. I think the hate also has an effect on happiness.
Millenials are social media savvy. They are bombarded with commercials, misinformation and propaganda in the west. You only have to view trumps twitter feed to understand this, and this is the person running (or at least the puppet) the US. A good example of this is the spokesperson saying that the trump election had the highest turnout of people turning up to support Trump EVER seen in an election. The media questioned this as they had the video evidence and statistics to prove it was false. When presented to the spokesperson the spokesperson said something along the lines of, depends on which truth you mean. I think my point here is that these millennials feel so powerless and hopeless in all of this.
Also the role of social media. Everyone has to look amazing all the time, through a screen or pic. Millenials have less human contact, eye contact than previous generations. It has helped a lot of people who might otherwise have had zero or close to zero contact but it has also impacted those who would usually have face to face contact, reducing this. Human touch is a de stressor (in the right context) e.g a hug from a friend. A hug emoji, does not quite cut the mustard as a replacement.
I mean I really could go on but will stop here...
main points
Less trust in govt (further right wing govt)
More hatred
Financial instability
Greater wealth disparity
Less human to human contact
Rise of consumerism
Greater societal expectations
Less opportunities
More penalties, greater risk of imprisonment
Less spent on education
Greater awareness of worlds ills (esp own govts) through social media