THE PAST YEAR HAS BEEN HARD ON YOUNGER GENERATIONS – BUT IT COULD BE THE MAKING OF THEM
Chloe Combi, author of best-selling book Generation Z: Their Voices, explains why all may not yet be lost for Britain’s teenagers
When we emerge from the wreckage caused by Covid-19, there is going to be a lot of justified concern about the damage it’s done to younger generations; the emotional and financial toll, the loss of opportunities and time. But, after having spent months talking to British teenagers for my new podcast series, You Don’t Know Me, I am not feeling as hopeless as many seem to.
Yes, young people have found the past 12 months restrictive and stressful, but it has also precipitated a much-needed reset that might well have long-term m benefits for Generation Z and those behind them – Generation A. For so long g now, modern parenting and schooling has been geared towards insulating children and teenagers from the knocks and scrapes of life. Parents have been pressured into believing that unless you are managing every aspect of your child’s life, you are a bad parent. This has created a generation – particularly in the comfortable middle – of young people who go through childhood and adolescence without experiencing challenges and rarely taking any risks. But these are a vital part of development, and sheltering children has made them anxious and inclined to believe the world is scarier than it actually is. For many young people, the pandemic represents the first actually frightening thing they have faced that Mum and Dad can’t make disappear. The realisation that they have not only survived, but in a lot of cases thrived, will be good for them.
The last year has demanded patience, resilience and more of a communal spirit from young people than ever before. As Kayleigh, 16, acknowledges, “before, all anyone cared about, especially on social media, was how amazing your life looked. If you look now, much more of the content is about reaching out, and coming up with imaginative ways to manage this new way of living, whether it’s how to have fun or just stay sane. I’m actually enjoying this outlook a lot more. Before, social media feeds just made me feel bad about myself ”.
Kayleigh’s observation is a salient one. The backlash against A-listers and a influencers who have continued bragging in the face of tragedy has meant m millions of young people are hungry for more meaningful role models. It is no surprise that Marcus Rashford, a 23-year-old footballer who has eschewed many of the trappings of that lifestyle in favour of doing good for underprivileged children, has been the real hero of the pandemic.
Young people are b beginning to reevaluate what is most important to them. There are few things that make you realise how much you value something than having it taken away. The absence of human contact, the freedom to go out and the loss of what previously seemed like mundane drudgery: going to school, visiting relatives, taking trips with family, has been a wake-up call for the first digital generation, who were previously opting for screen time over human time. As Albie, 17, says: “I was always intending to go out and then getting lost in a [video] game and not bothering. Being stuck in has definitely highlighted how much more I need to appreciate my mates and family, and how I’ve got to live life outside of my online world a lot more.”
For Allison, 18, the pandemic has had the opposite effect – but has also benefited her mental health and well-being. “The last year has allowed me to embrace the fact I’m a bit of a nerd, and I like staying at home and reading and cooking with my sister. It’s slowed life down,” she says.
What these conversations have revealed is a generation worn down by vanity and obsessive consumption. Covid-19 will have very real consequences, but not all of them need to be bad.
‘Before, all anyone cared about was how you looked on social media’
Chloe’s You Don’t Know Me series is out now and available on all podcast platforms