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Except from 2010 - 2015 many teens did feel a crushing sense of economic dread as they dealt with the realities of student loans, an out of reach housing market

Except from 2010 - 2015 many teens did feel a crushing sense of economic dread as they dealt with the realities of student loans, an out of reach housing market, devalued college degrees, the gig economy, promises of no retirement, etc. The article just skims over it with a quick this is why economics couldn’t have been the reason.

cwar 9y ago
I don't think many teens (13-18) are doing much deep thinking about those things. I was a teenager about a bit more about than a decade before this time period, so maybe things were just so great then I didn't consider these things. But it seems like a stretch to me that a middle school or high school student is depressed because they are worried about retirement. Things like that were far too abstract to be contributing factors to my mental state at that age.
- dorfsmay 9y ago
  Currently a father of teens... That is a huge subject of discussion in high schools. Teens do talk a lot about the economy, ROI of different degrees (nursing being the best, law school and engineering giving less chance of jobs and being much harder, everything else being useless), that their passions don't matter, they have to get a degree that leads to jobs, number of years before they can afford living on their own etc...
- eat_veggies 9y ago
  Am teenager. I'm not too worried about my future because I have some decent development skills. However, a lot of my friends are depressed because a lot of these issues really aren't so far in the future as to be "too abstract." It doesn't take a huge mental leap to realize that the college educations we're about to drop $50k+ on might not help us get jobs in the near future, or that working until we die will sort of suck, or that a pregnancy is an instant game-over (but it's okay, because apparently teens don't have sex anymore), or that most of the jobs we're going to end up getting are meaningless and will soon be automated away, so why not just off ourselves right now? It's scary. I sure as hell hope that tech now is the equivalent of the factory jobs of the 40's, so by the time my skills don't matter, I'll be set or dead.
  - cwar 9y ago
    Sounds like you guys are way more in touch with this than we were. I guess it could make sense with how fast information gets around. When I was 13 the only way I would get this information would be through newspaper or TV news, which I didn't have time for.. I was playing hockey with my friends and playing video games if our parents didn't kick us outside. I regret saying too abstract, I intended more to say this stuff was too far into the future that it would really worry me. I figured we were smart enough that by the time I got older we'd figure out a way to make life easier for everyone. Maybe I was just dumb!
    - seem_2211 9y ago
      There are a lot of memes that go around people my age/younger than me (I'm 24), that make reference to depression / the fact that people don't really think that they have a chance at making a decent life. It's a humorous take on it, but it's manifesting a deeper anxiety, and it seems to have become a big thing in the past two years or so. I moved to America about 18 months ago from New Zealand, and noticed that while Americans have more "stuff" they carry a lot more anxiety too. There's a lot less room for error. I think that's the same thing that's happened over generations. We've squeezed the big things - wages, housing prices, middle-class jobs and pumped up our general consumption. So we have more, but less security.
dajt 9y ago
Only the oldest of teens would worry about those things. I agree they're all bad but I'm not convinced they'd have much of an impact on under 17 year olds. I'm extremely hacked off that the high school I'm sending my kids to requires students to have an ipad. It's expensive for me, of no benefit to the student, and makes it difficult for students and parents to figure out what homework is due becuase it's scattered around various websites depending on the teacher's whim. It also means he has a screen to fight with us over that he would not have had otherwise. Then the younger kids get annoyed he has one and they don't. There is no upside. I asked my oldest son why he doesn't invite his friends around more often and he said 'I can talk to them online'.
- matwood 9y ago
  > no benefit to the student No benefit? Maybe you mean that you prefer an Android tablet? I didn't have a computer until I was 18. The internet wasn't much of a thing until I got to college. Every day I think about how amazing it would have been to have access to so much free information when I was a kid.
  - leetcrew 9y ago
    I spent much of my teenage years playing video games, building/overclocking computers, flashing roms on my phones, and devouring wikipedia. my parents were concerned that I was spending too much time online but I'm glad they didn't try to intervene. I was learning tons and by the time I got to college pretty much everything in the CS degree was trivially easy for me (except some of the formal math stuff). on the flip side, I am quite certain that most of my peers spent their hours primarily on youtube, facebook, and aim. they seemed to take pride in how little they understood the workings of their entertainment devices. today I hear a lot of parents talking about how they are putting off getting a family computer/tablet for as long as possible and how they intend to severely limit screen time once they finally get one. it makes me sad to think that these children will miss out on all the great learning experiences I had with my computers, but I'm not sure the parents are necessarily wrong, especially with the current buzz around social media and mental health.
wutbrodo 9y ago
> the realities of student loans, an out of reach housing market, devalued college degrees, the gig economy, promises of no retirement, etc. Have you ever met a teenager? Almost literally zero percent of them think (or need to think) about this stuff, with the possible exception of some of the very oldest teenagers (ie, people in their first or second year of college who are starting to think about the details of the start of their careers).
- bduerst 9y ago
  Yeah, I feel like there's some projection going on with GP and those issues. Teenagers don't stress about mortgages or retirement.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- Namrog84 9y ago
  Although they used teenager. I think most of those things probably more accurately describe a young adult
- yakitori 9y ago
  > Have you ever met a teenager? Yes. And we've all been teenagers. >Almost literally zero percent of them think (or need to think) about this stuff, with the possible exception of some of the very oldest teenagers (ie, people in their first or second year of college who are starting to think about the details of the start of their careers). What? EVERY teenager thinks about it. Not only that, their parents financial situations and the prospects of the future most definitely influences their outlook. What teenager doesn't talk about or think of their future? The entirety of high school is pretty much about preparing for college, finding a job, etc.
  - betenoire 9y ago
    > What teenager doesn't talk about or think of their future? I don't want to get into why, but I didn't. If someone doesn't really think they have a future, what's there to think about?

cwar 9y ago

I don't think many teens (13-18) are doing much deep thinking about those things. I was a teenager about a bit more about than a decade before this time period, so maybe things were just so great then I didn't consider these things. But it seems like a stretch to me that a middle school or high school student is depressed because they are worried about retirement. Things like that were far too abstract to be contributing factors to my mental state at that age.

dorfsmay 9y ago
Currently a father of teens... That is a huge subject of discussion in high schools. Teens do talk a lot about the economy, ROI of different degrees (nursing being the best, law school and engineering giving less chance of jobs and being much harder, everything else being useless), that their passions don't matter, they have to get a degree that leads to jobs, number of years before they can afford living on their own etc...
eat_veggies 9y ago
Am teenager. I'm not too worried about my future because I have some decent development skills. However, a lot of my friends are depressed because a lot of these issues really aren't so far in the future as to be "too abstract." It doesn't take a huge mental leap to realize that the college educations we're about to drop $50k+ on might not help us get jobs in the near future, or that working until we die will sort of suck, or that a pregnancy is an instant game-over (but it's okay, because apparently teens don't have sex anymore), or that most of the jobs we're going to end up getting are meaningless and will soon be automated away, so why not just off ourselves right now? It's scary. I sure as hell hope that tech now is the equivalent of the factory jobs of the 40's, so by the time my skills don't matter, I'll be set or dead.
- cwar 9y ago
  Sounds like you guys are way more in touch with this than we were. I guess it could make sense with how fast information gets around. When I was 13 the only way I would get this information would be through newspaper or TV news, which I didn't have time for.. I was playing hockey with my friends and playing video games if our parents didn't kick us outside. I regret saying too abstract, I intended more to say this stuff was too far into the future that it would really worry me. I figured we were smart enough that by the time I got older we'd figure out a way to make life easier for everyone. Maybe I was just dumb!
  - seem_2211 9y ago
    There are a lot of memes that go around people my age/younger than me (I'm 24), that make reference to depression / the fact that people don't really think that they have a chance at making a decent life. It's a humorous take on it, but it's manifesting a deeper anxiety, and it seems to have become a big thing in the past two years or so. I moved to America about 18 months ago from New Zealand, and noticed that while Americans have more "stuff" they carry a lot more anxiety too. There's a lot less room for error. I think that's the same thing that's happened over generations. We've squeezed the big things - wages, housing prices, middle-class jobs and pumped up our general consumption. So we have more, but less security.

dajt 9y ago

Only the oldest of teens would worry about those things. I agree they're all bad but I'm not convinced they'd have much of an impact on under 17 year olds. I'm extremely hacked off that the high school I'm sending my kids to requires students to have an ipad. It's expensive for me, of no benefit to the student, and makes it difficult for students and parents to figure out what homework is due becuase it's scattered around various websites depending on the teacher's whim. It also means he has a screen to fight with us over that he would not have had otherwise. Then the younger kids get annoyed he has one and they don't. There is no upside. I asked my oldest son why he doesn't invite his friends around more often and he said 'I can talk to them online'.

matwood 9y ago
> no benefit to the student No benefit? Maybe you mean that you prefer an Android tablet? I didn't have a computer until I was 18. The internet wasn't much of a thing until I got to college. Every day I think about how amazing it would have been to have access to so much free information when I was a kid.
- leetcrew 9y ago
  I spent much of my teenage years playing video games, building/overclocking computers, flashing roms on my phones, and devouring wikipedia. my parents were concerned that I was spending too much time online but I'm glad they didn't try to intervene. I was learning tons and by the time I got to college pretty much everything in the CS degree was trivially easy for me (except some of the formal math stuff). on the flip side, I am quite certain that most of my peers spent their hours primarily on youtube, facebook, and aim. they seemed to take pride in how little they understood the workings of their entertainment devices. today I hear a lot of parents talking about how they are putting off getting a family computer/tablet for as long as possible and how they intend to severely limit screen time once they finally get one. it makes me sad to think that these children will miss out on all the great learning experiences I had with my computers, but I'm not sure the parents are necessarily wrong, especially with the current buzz around social media and mental health.

wutbrodo 9y ago

> the realities of student loans, an out of reach housing market, devalued college degrees, the gig economy, promises of no retirement, etc. Have you ever met a teenager? Almost literally zero percent of them think (or need to think) about this stuff, with the possible exception of some of the very oldest teenagers (ie, people in their first or second year of college who are starting to think about the details of the start of their careers).

bduerst 9y ago
Yeah, I feel like there's some projection going on with GP and those issues. Teenagers don't stress about mortgages or retirement.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
Namrog84 9y ago
Although they used teenager. I think most of those things probably more accurately describe a young adult
yakitori 9y ago
> Have you ever met a teenager? Yes. And we've all been teenagers. >Almost literally zero percent of them think (or need to think) about this stuff, with the possible exception of some of the very oldest teenagers (ie, people in their first or second year of college who are starting to think about the details of the start of their careers). What? EVERY teenager thinks about it. Not only that, their parents financial situations and the prospects of the future most definitely influences their outlook. What teenager doesn't talk about or think of their future? The entirety of high school is pretty much about preparing for college, finding a job, etc.
- betenoire 9y ago
  > What teenager doesn't talk about or think of their future? I don't want to get into why, but I didn't. If someone doesn't really think they have a future, what's there to think about?