Daily Star Sunday

CLEAN-LIVING GEN Z ‘OLD BEFORE TIME’

Experts: Young adults anxious with boring lives

- ■ by SIAN HEWITT sian.hewitt@dailystar.co.uk

YOUNG adults are missing out on “vital life lessons” by becoming old before their time.

Generation Z – used to describe people aged 25 and under – are living in a “toosafe comfort zone” which is leading to increased anxiety and a boring life, academics have warned.

“Generation sensible” are too preoccupie­d with social issues, healthy living and not drinking too much alcohol.

But experts say living this way is causing them to miss out on a “wealth of life experience.”

Psychother­apist Natalie Phillips said: “I’m seeing a disproport­ionate increase in referrals for social anxiety, profession­al anxiety, general self-confidence and relationsh­ip issues for this generation when they are confronted with being in an office, nightclub or on a date.

“I sense that [this generation] are missing out on making mistakes and being young. They are old before their time.”

The warnings come after a study, published in the British Journal of Sociology, said Generation Z don’t like drinking alcohol as they don’t like the feeling of “losing control” and are worried about the health consequenc­es. Dr Phillips went on: “They are not in social situations to the same extent that we were generation­s before them.

“There’s a danger that your world becomes inward-looking, and that can then cause self-perpetuati­ng anxiety.

“The outside world is much more scary because you haven’t got the experience to deal with that.”

Generation Z has long come under fire for being bores with a recent study showing that the 18-25 age group “don’t see the point” in drinking.

 ?? ?? SENSIBLE: Young missing life lessons
SENSIBLE: Young missing life lessons

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom