Being ‘young’ today in Australia brings with it a great deal of pressure to perform, conform, be different, rage-against-the-machine, socialise and be successful - all at considerable cost both physically and emotionally.
Last month we conducted a survey of 1,200 respondents aged between 25 and 60 years of age. Asked whether they thought young people today were better off, worse off or about the same as they were when they were growing up, only 11% said better off; 61% said worse off; 12% said the same; 16% didn’t know.
This is quite surprising in view of the relative affluence in which these young people are now growing up. When we looked at this 61% saying ‘worse off’ qualitatively we found that what most of these respondents were referring to was not financially related - they were referring to social, political and emotional factors. In fact, it was to the social and political issues that they were mostly referring.
The sorts of issues that even some as young as 25 years believed are being faced by young people were the expectations of Australian society to perform - in career; in relationships; in community; in a society that these older people saw as increasingly hostile to the young. Why? For one reason, they saw that today’s pace of living is far greater than when they were growing up. They saw that Australia (like the rest of the world) is infected with a type of ‘hurry’ sickness. We now spend our lives rushing from task to task; meeting to meeting; appointment to appointment.
So, it seems, the answer by 61% that young people growing up today have it worse off than in earlier times could be a reflection of just how anxious and rushed the respondents saw their own lives. When we ask people in our focus groups to tell us (apart from money) what do they want more of in their lives, the response is ‘time’ in over 90% of cases.
Did you know that the elevator button needing replacement most often is the ‘Door Close’? We are so impatient that new elevators can come fitted with a ‘psychological waiting time’ application whereby when you press the call button a program determines the closest car to you and then lights up the appropriate signal to let you know which one will be there.
Young people suffer performance anxiety at a rate far greater than ever before.
Although it can be argued that we Australians have always placed great importance upon career; relationships; education; health and so on, why now do so many people think it’s tougher these days?
Answer: lack of time. Instead of helping better manage time, technology has caused the need to multi-task; forced the need for instant responses to SMS and emails; taken us to a point of never-ending, seamless communication.
Answer: lack of time. Instead of helping better manage time, technology has caused the need to multi-task; forced the need for instant responses to SMS and emails; taken us to a point of never-ending, seamless communication.
This accelerated pace is clearly visible in the big cities - young people are literally rushing off their feet to get things done - work, study, friendships, sex, drugs, parties, drinking and so on it goes.
They feel the need to ‘perform’ at all these things far more acutely than ever before because there is so much more to do and get done. They rarely get time or take time to stop and smell the roses. This could be partly the reason that one in five suffer an emotional disorder requiring treatment before the age of 20 years of age. It could also account for the dramatic increase in the use of anti-depressants amongst the young over the past five years. It could account for the rise and rise of binge drinking and illicit drug use amongst teenagers (one in every three teens has ‘tried’ a form of illicit drug; many as young as 12 years old) - surely a sign that they are having difficulty coping.
They feel the need to ‘perform’ at all these things far more acutely than ever before because there is so much more to do and get done. They rarely get time or take time to stop and smell the roses. This could be partly the reason that one in five suffer an emotional disorder requiring treatment before the age of 20 years of age. It could also account for the dramatic increase in the use of anti-depressants amongst the young over the past five years. It could account for the rise and rise of binge drinking and illicit drug use amongst teenagers (one in every three teens has ‘tried’ a form of illicit drug; many as young as 12 years old) - surely a sign that they are having difficulty coping.
It’s hard to imagine that the pace of life is going to slow, so we need to be teaching our kids ways of coping without necessarily resorting to drugs or alcohol.
Parents are vital to this issue - really they are the determining factor in the ways in which their children will cope.
Parents are vital to this issue - really they are the determining factor in the ways in which their children will cope.
‘I’m going to kill myself. I should go to Paris and jump off the Eiffel Tower. You know, if I get the Concorde I could be dead three hours earlier. Wait a minute, with the time change I could be alive for six hours in New York but dead for three hours in Paris. I could get things done and also be dead.’ Woody Allen.
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