I am a little bit inclined to agree because as a GenX kid I remember that before they called us “GenX” they called us the “Slackers”.
On the other hand, there is something very wrong with the kids. In broad strokes, they are fat, unhealthy, entitled, easily offended, obsessed with computers, and possessed by radical ideas about climate change, leftist economics, etc. I say broad strokes because there are good kids that will do us all proud. I like to think my own, which all fall in the Gen Z range will be among those.
Fifty years of following the food pyramid have been disastrous for health on all generations. This generation AND their parents grew up on it so potential for epigenetic effects. I large proportion of these kids would have been the “fat kid” when I was in school. Obesity and chronic infalmation do a bad number on physical and mental health.
Computers take up an inordinate amount of their attention. I fight this with my own kids wanting to play computer games all the time. My kids are not allowed free access, but most kids have Tictok, Google and Instagram/Facebook constantly feeding dopamine as well through smartphones and every other device. This creates a constant state of distraction that is not conducive to getting work done.
Then there is the ideology rampant in the social media and schools/colleges. Liberals had de facto control of these things when I was young, but they tended to be more restrained and at least pretend to present both sides. Now academia and media are hard left controlled and not only have no pretenses about being unbiased. Schools at all levels are actively biased against anything that doesn’t fit leftist orthodoxy.
The three things that have grown in cost the most as a factor of the economy are college, health care and government. Kids are raised to believe they cannot succeed without college, and they cannot get through that without absorbing and spouting leftism. Health care is so expensive that people keep jobs they are unhappy with so that one trip to the emergency room won’t take away all their savings ad bankrupt them and the only remotely affordable way to get coverage is through employers.
And the government is spending their futures. 7% of GDP is government debt spending. Government employees are like the mandarins of imperial China believing that have the right to rule and that they don’t need to answer to the elected leadership. Ind the leftists have convinced the kids that the incredible and growing burden of regulation is neeeded.
I can’t disagree with what you say.
I remember watching a new video from some Asian country last year. A kid maybe 5 years old cooked a complete stirred veg rice meal on a wok. He collected the firewood, matches, oil EVERYTHING and was watching his toddler brother simultaneously.
It actually depressed me as I realized my intelligent young grandkids are only working on mastering the next level on some stupid non-reality video game.