Jean M. Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University, has been analyzing generational data going back to the 1930s. In a thoughtful—and thought-provoking—article in the September issue of the Atlantic, she turns her gaze on today’s teens. “The aim of generational study,” she writes, “is not to succumb to nostalgia for the way things used to be; it’s to understand how they are now.” And how are they? Not good:
Even when a seismic event—a war, a technological leap, a free concert in the mud—plays an outsize role in shaping a group of young people, no single factor ever defines a generation. Parenting styles continue to change, as do school curricula and culture, and these things matter. But the twin rise of the smartphone and social media has caused an earthquake of a magnitude we’ve not seen in a very long time, if ever. There is compelling evidence that the devices we’ve placed in young people’s hands are having profound effects on their lives—and making them seriously unhappy.
The “lonely, dislocated generation” is in trouble. But Twenge sees some hopeful signs. Read the whole thing.
