> Kids don't learn to deal with setbacks anymore. So the real world overwhelms them.

It doesn't sound like you interact with many "kids" these days. As someone surrounded mostly by them, I can assure you none of this is true. Sad to see this upvoted so highly and especially sad to see people pointing out this is a long brought up conservative talking point with no evidence downvoted. I thought we got over this myth 10 years ago. Yet people still want to yell at Mr. Rodgers for caring about child psychology and being on the forefront of mental health in a real way...

Perhaps one should look to the external world these people are coming into for answers. Climate change, the economy, and the political climate with hateful policies against many people over the world in many countries.

Not to mention that mental health being destigmatized raises statistical reporting rates as people are simply more open about it.

But yeah, let's blame bad parenting that people first accused millennials of when no millennials are even left in the post high school college population.

> Climate change, the economy, and the political climate with hateful policies against many people over the world in many countries...

Because none of that stuff existed in the '50s, '60s, and '70s? /s

Just substitute "nuclear war for "climate change".

I agree with those saying climate change is a huge stressor for young generations. I had the same argument with a friend about fear of nuclear war into the 80's, but she convinced me it wasn't the same. They are both existential fears, but nuclear war was something that only the military could make happen, and as long as it didn't happen, life could go on as usual (well not really, we know now). Whereas climate change is happening slowly but surely all around and everyone will have to change their behavior to avoid it.

My wife and I cannot talk about climate change around our kids because they understand how scary it is and we see their fear about the consequences.

I think this, in some way, can be interpreted in a way favorable to the original parent's comment. Kids being stressed by climate change to the point that their feelings overwhelm all of their coping mechanisms is not an effective strategy for actually fixing the root cause.

Ideally, kids would develop, by trial and error, effective strategies for identifying solvable problems and dealing with them, and not being extremely negatively affected by (directly) unsolvable problems. It would be beneficial for society if people heard about climate change and thought, "Okay, that won't be good, so what are some things I can do in the short term and in the long term to make a positive impact?" The great thing about such an approach is that it's omni-applicable, such as when one's car breaks down on a long drive, etc.

Parents who constantly hover around their kids presumably interfere with this vital process, perhaps because these important lessons can only be discovered, not forcibly taught.

To me this is akin to saying that kids under slavery need to learn coping strategies. Yes, it could help, but there is no reason to think it would counteract the inherent effect of their environment - and it lays the blame in entirely the wrong place.

Nuclear war has a chance of not happening, so I don’t see how it can be substituted for climate change.

If climate change is like nuclear war then we are sending nukes out every day.

It's the same arguement used for smacking a child. "I was smacked and I turned alright...except for my short temper and using that anger to discipline my child the same way my parents did, who could never be wrong, obviously."

I think this is true and very valid criticism against these point "ancient civilizations" had allegedly figuered out, but I do believe that the strive to more safety/control is indeed making people crazy. Not a bit excentric, but batshit accute insane crazy.

There is no rational evaluation of real dangers and this irrationality is one, if not the most prominent, driving factors for policy. Hell, people are scared because of tweets and mass surveillance is implemented with justifications an occult voodoo mom would get a red face for.

What do you expect to get from police checks in front of schools? And people wonder about school shooters? Seriously?

It's the first generation that's going to be less wealthy than their parents. Perhaps that's also a factor.

I think this is a big part of it. If you compared material quality of life among similarly aged groups, you would definitely see a downward trend among young people.

In some ways I think this is due to our ongoing demographic shift. More and more of the US is getting old; old people typically have more assets than young people and need to rely on social security (which young people bear in taxes) and their investments to generate income. I think this is partly contributing to an asset bubble and definitely to the housing shortage (though there are other factors). I don't know if society has ever had a time where more households were not working but still drawing incomes.

There's a lot of talk about comparing your life to others through a false lens. Instagram "influencers" get most of the heat in that discussion.

But I think you're onto one of the core issues - an a much more personal lens. Many (including myself) compare our successes to that of our parents. They were married by 24. Finished Masters degrees by 26. Bought their first house by 30. I can't compare with that.

Anecdotally, it seems a thing among the younger well-off types all the same, e.g. programmers making 6-figures in their early twenties. Perhaps it’s more of a zeitgeist thing than individual outlook?

Regardless, I think as a problem it’s more mosaic, that to reduce it to any one cause is too reductive.

Well, even if you're making 6 figures your friends and family probably aren't all making 6 figures, are they? I've been working in software for over 10 years but most of the people I grew up with or went to school with are having trouble making ends meet. 6 figures isn't enough to help the people you care about and it's not enough to retire early or have a big enough nest egg to tank something like million dollar medical bills. There's plenty left to be stressed about.

> Well, even if you're making 6 figures your friends and family probably aren't all making 6 figures, are they?

Of the (anecdata) pool I'm sampling from, the most anxious / depressed tended to be the most well-off. Personally, coming from the mixed background / lower-middle side, the non-traditional types seemed to fair better, such that I would anecdotally ascribe value to "blue collar suffering" as providing some measure of anti-fragility. But that's far into speculative territory.

In all honesty I'm fairly anxious, but I also can cope or at least mask as necessary. As I've previously expressed, I'm sure it's more a confluence of factors than any one item causing or precluding.

It's much more than not learning to deal with setbacks, it's that we've been robbed of the ability to exercise our will on the world, and we cling to any scrap of meaningful freedom we can find.

Resolving cognitive dissonance through observation, education, reflection and considering the wisdom of others is a necessary step towards inner peace.

For any idea to be meaningful, it should be able to survive challenges. Feelings will betray you. Good and evil are not fundamental universal concepts.

Do you have any recommendations on sources when I can read more about your viewpoint? I craving some inner peace after a month of almost constant fear and anxiety.

I disagree. Parenting is critical but I believe the root is the relationship with smart phones by not only students but everyone else in the students lives (parents/teachers/counselors/other role models). A mixture of constant audio, visual, and social, inputs has lowered our attention spans and rotted our ability to deal with stress in healthy ways (and likely created new stresses simultaneously).

To support this I would cross-reference screen time between 1st world countries and mental health records, normalizing as best I could for all the other variables in the equation.

Smartphones definitely play a role but aren't the main cause. The rise of depression and anxiety started before smartphones were mainstream.

"Comparing groups across generations is admittedly difficult, but the data clearly point to things being far worse now. Trend data clearly suggest increases in levels of stress, depression and anxiety at least since the 1980s. Consider that one study found that the average high school student in the year 2000 has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient did in the 1950s; and those rates have only increased in the last decade. Utilizing the MMPI to assess psychopathology, Twenge and colleagues found five times as many students in 2007 surpassed clinical cutoffs in one or more mental health categories, compared with those who took the measure several decades ago."

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/theory-knowledge/2...

Has there been a generation where the elders haven't accused the kids of some moral fault?

It's very telling you think LGBT+ acceptance is a "trendy movement"

LGBT is propaganda? Good luck with that.

I have no idea what the GP thread wrote, but it seems it was probably off base. In general: Nowadays, I believe there is a subtle and misguided conflation between a rare few, loud, victim-hierarchy-obsessive crybullies trying to impose collective outcomes with selective, collective punishment of "perpetrator groups" (possibly referred to as SJWs) with greater numbers of people who have legitimate, historical persecutions and casual, recurring bias harm (those who needed and try to maintain actual social justice without bothering people beyond what's essential).

There's a setting to turn on flagged/dead comment viewing, which I find very helpful. I feel like many don't realize the underbelly HN has, and I think many should.

This is a conservative talking point that's old as time itself. Uncomfortable discussing what's on the news? Complain about the next generation. Compare these two takes:

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/10/book-review-the-coddl...

https://thebaffler.com/latest/solutionism-for-students-green...

I wouldn't jump to blaming people of a particular political persuasion because complaining about kids, their loud music and them not walking 100 miles, barefoot and naked in the snow is as old as time itself. Right/left is divide-and-conquer nonsense; solidarity amongst regular people is far more important.

I was referring to conservatism in the sense of being reactionary (which is indeed as old as at least technology, one of my favorite books is Fathers and Sons). Many if not most democrats certainly fit the bill. I certainly agree with the need for solidarity!