March 8, 2019
Generation Z is the most stressed-out generation. Gen Z, born between 1995 and 2012, are the kids who have just graduated from college and the ones just now entering high school. We, students at WHHS, are Generation Z.
We are young. We are engaged. We are becoming the future. We’ve been exposed to all types of things, from social media to gun violence, global warming to standardized testing. Our generation is being shaped by things that our older generations couldn’t even have dreamed about.
From day one, we’ve known of our stress. Ask any student at WHHS and they’ll assure you that high school is really just a synonym for pressure. Yet non-Gen Z-ers seemed skeptical of our anxiety.
A recent study published by the American Psychological Association (APA) affirms what we already knew: Gen Z is the most stressed-out generation.
Seventy five percent of Gen Z-ers are stressed about mass shootings, 62 percent are stressed about suicide rates and 58 percent are worried about climate change/global warming, according to the APA survey.
Attitudes at WHHS mirror these numbers. In a survey conducted by The Chatterbox, 47.9 percent of WHHS students are stressed about school, 63 percent are worried about the political state of our world and 57.5 percent are stressed about global warming.
When asked if they thought Gen Z is more stressed than other generations, 67.7 percent of WHHS students said yes.
“So much is expected of us. Many of us are expected to either uphold our family reputations or we are expected to do what the rest of our family couldn’t, [like] college, [a] 4.0 GPA, etc,” Micheal Kennedy, ‘21 explained.
“Being at this school is emotionally and physically demanding, we have so much to do and so little time to do it. Many of us live in fear of our school being shot up. We are left to clean up the mess older generations made. College tuitions are extremely expensive, and the jobs we have available pay minimum wage. Politicians expect us to fix problems such as global warming, world hunger and things of that nature,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy lists some of the many things that cause his stress. He is not alone in his worries. But as a generation, how can we worry less? Can we worry less?
Normally at the end of an article such as this one, a solution is offered. A way to solve the problem discussed, or at the very least a hopeful ending. But I don’t have a solution. There is no way to erase the problems of this generation, and there is no easy way to make sure the next doesn’t face the challenges we do. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be hopeful.
Your donation will support the student journalists of Walnut Hills High School. Your contribution will allow us to purchase equipment, cover our annual website hosting, printing costs and offset competition and conferences fees for students.