It’s a story we have heard before: the youth of today are a cohort of ‘screenagers’, ‘enfeebled youngsters’ and ‘couch potatoes’. Time magazine even labelled their cohort the ‘Me Me Me Generation. Ubiquitous technology and digital platforms are reducing our humanity, connection and spirituality. For this new generation, what does the future hold? The planet and the people on it have a bleak future.

Or do we?

As the first generation to grow up alongside always-on social media and smartphones, today’s young people are carriers of significant changes in social and cultural behaviour. They have had to face pressures like we’ve never seen before and it’s why study after study reports disheartening developments, such as the finding that one in four girls are clinically depressed by the time they hit 14.

But behind the fearful and often hyperbolic reactions of parents, the media and society, there are positives to be celebrated. And while technology might be at the heart of many of the perceived problems of the world today, it’s not the full picture. Technology can also provide pathways to balance, creativity, health confidence and progressiveness.

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The data is right. Young people do spend a lot of time on their smartphones; long-term memory does seem to be reducing; their sexual media diet is on the rise; they’re living with parents for longer; and they’re seriously lacking in meaningful employment. But the story’s not complete until we acknowledge things like the fact their parents also spend lot of time on their phones. Young people can’t live independently because home ownership is a luxury that belongs to previous generations. And as for jobs, “it’s the economy, stupid”. This generation is living in the world that their parents handed down to them, and yet we seem to blame them for it. It’s a disempowering narrative.

What’s the flipside of being a millennial, Generation Y or Generation Z?

From a health perspective, we’re living in a time of dramatically reduced underage drinking and teenage pregnancy. Could it be that these young people are forging new paths of responsible behaviour?

A defining characteristic, though of course it’s impossible to generalise, that’s emerging from the younger generation today is their belief in themselves. As we’ve progressed from the ‘stiff upper lip’ school of parenting to a more holistic and thoughtful model, we’re seeing the welcomed emergence of a strata of society that has an innate and healthy confidence.

When I look at young people, I see a smarter generation, with more progressive outlooks and a better work-life balance

A study that I’ve been involved with – Young Blood – explores modern British youth culture and its results confirm that emerging adults have much to offer the world. For a start, 44 per cent of respondents reported that happiness is what defines success: it looks like we’re moving away from the empty materialism that characterised their parents’ youth. What’s more, health is the new cool, with these youngsters having the confidence to say no to booze, drugs and underage sex. Though much work remains to be done, they also feel more able to speak out about mental health, breaking existing taboos alongside icons of their age – the DJ Black Madonna, producer Motor City Drum Ensemble and DJ and producer Ben Pearce – all of whom have been very open about depression and anxiety.

The younger generations are increasingly shunning alcohol. Image: Club Soda

They’re fluid in their identities and put an emphasis on carving out a way of being that suits them, not their parents. They’re sick of seeing antiquated gender stereotypes in the media. With 68 per cent believing that clothes should not be gender specific, it looks like John Lewis made a savvy move in recently removing ‘girls’ and ‘boys’ labels from children’s clothing.

With climate crisis, animal welfare and ethical consumerism high up on young peoples’ agendas, it’s clear that they are about things other than themselves – not just devoting their lives to self-indulgence and the perfect selfie. And they understand that their online behaviours and wallets have given them a power that they need to wield responsibly.

Though this generation may have to battle against the difficulties of life being enmeshed with technology, let’s embrace the bright side of their burgeoning self-belief and responsibility. Not brash, not rebellious, they have carved out confidence for themselves in a wider world that gave them little. It’s why, when I look at young people, I see a smarter generation, with more progressive outlooks and a better work-life balance. And a time of extreme political polarity, this gives me hope.

Once dismissed as politically apathetic, Brexit, Trump and Corbynism have turned this ‘yoof’ stereotype on its head. What could be the result of a new generation surging through the ranks, heralding a fresh breed of wisdom combined with an acute sense of responsibility? Maybe more progressive governments; new forms of education and entrepreneurialism; a kiss goodbye to gender discrimination; and the pursuit of happiness over materialism. Not bad for a bunch of ineffectual, screen-addicted wasters.

Bexy Cameron is head of insight at marketing agency Amplify

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The post ‘This is no ‘Me Me Me Generation’, the confidence of today’s young people could help shape a more positive future’ appeared first on Positive News.

Over the past decade, speaking to and with thousands of people from all walks of life, I’ve come to believe that our culture is trapped in a dystopian trance. I believe we must have the courage to be idealistic once again.

In 2013, a group of environmental studies students at a US university asked me out for coffee. During our discussion, a young woman leaned across the table and said: “I’m 20 years old, and all my life I’ve been told it’s too late.”

The other students nodded. I had heard this before and realised that she was right. For years, our culture has struggled with two addictions: oil and despair. It’s clear by now that we can’t kick one of those habits without kicking the other. Yet, for many people, perhaps most of us, thinking about the future conjures up grim images from Mad Max or Cormac McCarthy’s The Road: a post-apocalyptic dystopia stripped of nature.

Americans did not fall into this trance overnight. It emerged over several decades, fuelled by entertainment and news media that profited from a negative news bias and fear of the ‘other’. In the US, people’s fear of stranger danger – from terrorists to kidnappers – has skyrocketed along with the 24-hour news cycle.

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Martin Luther King Jr taught us that any movement will fail if it cannot paint a picture of a world that people will want to go to. Our cultural problem isn’t the presence of dystopian images or post-apocalyptic storylines, but the virtual absence of images of a good, decent, beautiful future.

I grew up in Missouri and Kansas, and spent many hours in the woods at the edge of our housing development with my dog. I built treehouses, dug underground forts and collected snakes and turtles. My boys didn’t have the kind of freedom I had as a boy, but my wife and I consciously made sure they had nature in their lives, and often took them fishing, hiking and occasionally camping.

It’s not time to go back to nature, but to go forwards to nature. The more hi-tech our lives become, the more nature we need. I’m not against technology in education, or in our lives, but we do need balance. Time spent in the natural world, whether nearby urban nature or wilderness, provides that.

The ultimate multitasking challenge is to live simultaneously in the digital and the physical worlds, using computers to maximise our powers to process intellectual data, and natural environments to ignite all of our senses and accelerate our ability to learn and to feel. In this way, we would combine the resurfaced ‘primitive’ powers of our ancestors with the digital speed of our teenagers. Today, people who work and learn in a dominating digital environment expend enormous energy blocking out many of the human senses – including ones we don’t even know we have – in order to focus narrowly on the screen in front of our eyes. That’s the very definition of being less alive. What parent wants their child to be less alive? Who among us wants to be less alive?

Our cultural problem isn’t the presence of post-apocalyptic storylines, but the virtual absence of images of a good, decent, beautiful future

I’ve found that smart religious or spiritual people, across boundaries, intuitively understand that all spiritual life begins with a sense of wonder. For children, nature is one of the first windows into wonder. And for many children, that window is in danger of closing. The human spirit is inseparable from the natural world. As the eco-theologian Thomas Berry wrote: “A degraded habitat will produce degraded humans.”

But we’re seeing some change. In the US there is progress among state legislatures, schools and businesses, civic organisations and government agencies. Family nature clubs are proliferating. Regional campaigns are bringing people from across political, religious and economic divides, to connect children to nature. I’m inspired by the enthusiastic young people I’ve met recently and remain hopeful that true cultural change is on the way.

The World Congress of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature has passed a resolution titled The Child’s Right to Connect with Nature and to a Healthy Environment. This connection is, indeed, a human right. And the acknowledgement of that is progress.

Image: Isaac Hernández Herrero

Richard Louv is an author as well as co-founder and chairman emeritus of the Children & Nature Network. His most recent book is Vitamin N: The Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life. He is working on his tenth, about the evolving relationship between humans and other animals.

Main image: Isaac Hernández Herrero
Byline image: Eric B. Dynowski

This article is featured in issue 90 of Positive News magazine. Become a subscriber member to receive Positive News magazine delivered to your door, plus you’ll get access to exclusive member benefits.

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Plans for an innovative new transportation system have been unveiled in the US. Elon Musk, the multi-billionaire founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, organised a competition for engineering students to develop designs for what he calls “the fifth mode of transport”.

Hyperloop refers to metal pods that move through elevated tubes on cushions of air, travelling at 700-800 mph – faster than most aeroplanes. Because the pods and tracks will use renewable energy, net emissions are estimated at zero.

Journeys between Paris and Amsterdam could take half an hour, while a trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco would clock in at 35 minutes. The projected cost of a hyperloop journey is just $20 USD (£14) per passenger.

More than 1,000 engineering students descended on Texas A&M University in February to showcase their hyperloop designs. High school and university engineers came from more than 20 countries, including South Africa, Egypt and Pakistan.

At least 22 of the 120 teams will be invited to test their pods at Musk’s hyperloop track, currently under construction in California.

Image: Delft Hyperloop

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