Generation Z, Helen Jeys

Generation Z Helen Jeys asks if this is really the snowflake generation

The teenagers of today are often cast in a really negative light. In a recent assembly, I reassured the girls at my school that the same was true during my own teenage years. I was a member of the so-called ‘Generation X’. Born between 1961 and 1981, I was apparently over-exposed to television and was the stereotypical ‘Latch Key’ child, born of the generation of ‘Boomers’ who were keen to explore careers of their own. Douglas Hurd, the then Home Secretary, said of us in 1988, that we had ‘too little selfdiscipline and too little notion of the care and responsibility that [we] owe to others.’ It seems that little has changed! Teenagers are still stereotyped and maligned by those who purport to know better. Today’s generation is, nevertheless, ‘different’ in what they are exposed to and what they have to face. The so-called ‘Millenials’ – those born between 1980 and 1996 - have grown up with computers, social media and huge technological advancement. This is nothing like, however, the digital natives of ‘Generation Z’ (those born after 1997) on whom sociologists are still drawing their conclusions. Generation Z are the true ‘wired generation’. They gather information quickly, they are global in their perspective, they are multi-tasking entrepreneurs who focus on the importance of individuality but they are also seen to be too concerned with political correctness; as ‘snowflakes’, they are easily offended, lack resilience and are emotionally vulnerable.

However, there is so much more to the current generation than this stereotype. For instance, the risky behaviours usually associated with teenagers have reduced over the years. Cigarette smoking is at a historic low since peaking in the mid 1990s. Teen pregnancies are also at record low levels as well as teen driving fatalities and far more teenagers are likely to practise safe sex. Reports from 1980 suggest that about 55% of young

people used contraception for their first sexual encounter, now it is over 80%.

All good!

Indeed, Julie Lythcott-Hasims, the author of ‘How to Raise an Adult’ notes that even the possible negatives of social-media involvement have an upside:

‘I think we must contemplate that technology is having the exact opposite effect than we perceived … we see the negatives of not going outside, can’t look people in the eye, don’t have to go through the effort of making a phone call. There are ways we see the deficiencies that social media has offered, but there are obviously tremendous upsides and positives as well.’

Indeed, social media can and has been used for real good in recent years and can be associated with outstanding examples of young people who we can use as potential role-models for our current students. For instance, after the high-school shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February 2018, Emma Gonzalez, became the leading light in the US of the #NeverAgain movement, protesting against gun violence. Such movements have rallied young people, united them in protest against a common cause and at a recent rally in Washington in support of this movement, Yolanda Renee King, the eldest granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr even revisited the famous speech of her grandfather, stating that:

‘I have a dream that enough is enough … And that this should be a gun-free world, period.’

Neil Howe, the American author and historian supports the view that this current generation will be one that will be remembered for positive reasons. He comments that ‘they’re very good at using rules to make their point, and they’re absolutely excellent at negotiating with their parents and negotiating in a reasonable way about how to bend these rules in a way that will make them more effective and give them more space … This is not a ‘throw the brick through the window and burn stuff down’ group of kids at all. They’re working very constructively, armin-arm with older people they trust, to make big institutions work better and make them stronger and more effective.’

Inevitably, this is not the view of all, however. Many commentators are less positive about our current teenage generation, for instance even stating, as Jean Twenge, a psychology professor at San Diego State University does, that the fact that teens are less likely to drink alcohol and have unsafe sex is not because of greater

maturity but rather because of reduced levels of maturity. She notes that teens are now more comfortable in their bedrooms or on smartphones than at a party, and are therefore ‘taking longer to grow up.’ She comments that the current generation is indeed physically safer than past generations, but not mentally so. Many of us would agree that because of what young people are currently exposed to via the internet – particularly with increased knowledge of and access to the dark web - the risk for young people now can be seen in increased rates of teen depression and suicide. ‘It’s not an exaggeration’, she states, ‘to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.’

We all know that anything used to excess - drugs, alcohol or phones - can be damaging to health, both physical and mental. I would agree that the potential impact of the overuse and exposure to filtered technology does lead young people to feel an incredible amount of pressure to fit in, to conform to the expectations society seems to have of them. But this is not the only worry for our current teen generation. We have all seen in the news the increased prevalence of gangs and knife crime. This is impacting young people of all backgrounds and all areas; not just the concern of inner-city London but also of leafy suburbia in all areas of the UK. A BBC article published in February 2019 reported that 27,000 children are in gangs and, since 2014, the number of knife possession offences committed by 10-17 year olds has increased by 70%. Furthermore, the rise of County Lines has increased concerns of children being pulled into and exploited by drug gangs. The National Crime Agency estimates that the number of dedicated phone lines for taking drug orders increased from about 720 to 2000 between 2017 and 2018.

I wish that I knew how we can solve these issues, concerns that I will be continuing to address, not only with my students, but also with their parents. Parents need to be warned about the dangers that can be faced by their children and that they can be exposed to via the internet. I remember being told by a senior

member of CEOP a few years ago, that allowing your child to have free access to the internet in their room was as dangerous as allowing them to walk through Manchester on their own in the early hours of Saturday morning. And, although rather a cliché now, I wonder whether we are still reminding our parents of the threats their children are facing, potentially on a daily basis. We need to encourage our parents to take a hard line if we are going to protect teens through these precious formative years, particularly when parents are often scared to take such a stance with their children. This becomes even more problematic when we acknowledge that people are also incredibly busy and many parents do not and, perhaps, cannot participate in the lives of their children as much as they used to. Phillip Blond, of Cumbria University, notes that ‘children see less of their parents than at any time in the last 100 years and since nobody has any free time, civic life has virtually vanished.’ I am not saying (as a full time working mother of two) that we should return to the idealistic notion of working father and at-home mother, but our intent to create independent children who work on their own in their rooms, potentially exposed to uncensored material on the internet has, I think, gone too far the other way. I found myself inwardly smiling at the Sky News anchor, Colin Brazier’s, recent tweet where he states ‘somewhere in the field, off this balcony, is my teenage daughter’s recently-hurled smartphone. I’m sure a more constructive dialogue was possible…’

The youth of today have amazing qualities and are a joy to be around. However, life has become complicated, and using the tools of the past to measure their alleged ‘success’ as young people will never work, particularly when they are faced with a unique set of challenges. Rather we need to focus on these issues – both with them and their parents - and do all we can to support them through the chaos. There is no quick fix, but it would be wise for us to remember the African proverb that it does, indeed, take an entire community to raise a child.

Helen Jeys is the Headmistress of Alderley Edge School for Girls