NewsWire: 6/27/2020
- A new piece explores ‘The Millennial Mental-Health Crisis”: the rise in suicide rates and overdoses among young people. Millennials, particularly those without a bachelor’s degree, are struggling with a mismatch between their expectations and reality: They’re striving for adult milestones, but many aren’t in a position to reach them. (The Atlantic)
- NH: This is a great article that cites multiple sources of data on young people’s mental health. It summarizes several sobering trends: Millennials are more likely to die from suicides and overdoses than previous generations of young people, a trend that’s particularly pronounced among those without a college degree. And they report higher rates of anxiety, depression, and loneliness, which--if recent data are any indication--may have only been exacerbated by the pandemic. (See “Distress Levels Skyrocket During Pandemic” and “All the Lonely People.”)
- A big part of Millennials’ distress, as I’ve often discussed, is financial. (See “Millennials and The Economy: A Historical Perspective.”) But the author, Olga Khazan, also touches upon an important mental component that’s making it worse: shame. Growing up, Millennials were told by their parents and grandparents that they could achieve anything. They feel a lot of pressure to impress and to live up to those expectations--a feeling that’s only reinforced by social media, where everyone is always getting promoted or on fabulous vacations.
- Gen Xers didn’t feel these pressures. Their elders expected little from them, which actually gave them more freedom. Without the weight of expectation, one is free to fail and try again. But Millennials haven’t been granted that same freedom, and it’s causing them a lot of pain.
- The author writes: “Therapists who treat Millennials told me that many of their clients feel frustrated and embarrassed that they aren’t able to afford ‘adult things’ such as houses and vacations, either because they don’t earn enough or because they are handcuffed to enormous student loans.” This echoes a TD Ameritrade survey from last year, which found that Millennials are considerably more likely than older generations to say that they dislike talking about their finances because they don’t want others to see them as a failure. (See “Don't Bring Up Personal Finances with Millennials.”) Many young people today are struggling with a huge gap between what was expected of them and what they’ve actually been able to achieve--at the same time that they’re surrounded by daily reminders suggesting that everyone else has it all figured out.
DID YOU KNOW?
- Who Misses Live Sports? Restaurants, gyms, and amusement parks have begun reopening nationwide. But many Americans are still waiting for another staple to return: sports. According to a new poll from Monmouth University, a majority (56%) of Americans describe themselves as professional sports fans. Nearly 6 in 10 say they miss being able to watch live sporting events, with 32% saying they miss them “a lot” and 26% “a little.” The sport typically in season that Americans most want to see back right now is baseball (25%), with basketball not far behind (19%). At the same time, 42% of respondents say they don’t miss pro sports at all, with 18- to 34-year-olds considerably more likely (54%) to say this than 35- to 54-year-olds (34%) or those 55 and older (39%). Ultimately, who’s missing sports the most might not be ordinary Americans but ESPN, which has been forced to pivot to broadcasting offbeat content like cornhole championships in the absence of other live events.
