Print 
PDF
Survey after survey is finding that young Americans---our next generation-- is "unhappy, depressed, and even suicidal."
In fact, 70% of them think anxiety and depression are worse problems then bullying and drug addiction among their peers.
With suicide rates up among this group, parents and grandparents must be informed.
A closer look---at the problem, its causes and the solution.
What's the matter with our kids today?
The problem.
Monitoring the Future Survey has found that kids (18-25) who feel unhappy have crept up from 13% to 18%, and General Social Survey has found the number to be 11% to 17%.
However, these small increases under-represent the growing group of young people for whom life has become unbearable.
A recent survey from PEW Research found that 70% of teenagers think anxiety and hopelessness are among the greatest problems among their peers, often giving rise to thoughts of, or plans for, suicide.
One recent survey found that the number of kids 5 to 17 being admitted to hospitals for "self-inflicted harm" and suicide attempts doubled between 2008 and 2015.
Even more troubling is the rising rate of actual suicide among this age group.
Why?
Some of the causes.
Most studies and surveys (Wa. Free Beacon) blame trends in socialization, technology, and education.
1. Socialization
We need other people in our lives to make the connections which give our lives meaning. Americans, by all surveys I've seen, are making less social connections, not more.
This is the first generation to have less, not more human socialization.
Teenagers are generally thought to be outgoing and unrestricted, But Pew found that today's average teen spends about 16 minutes less per day socializing than 10 years ago. The average teen boy spends about as much time eating as socializing, while the average teen girl spends about as much time on her homework.
Interestingly, 12th graders are 11% less likely to have a driver's license than in 1999, there is a 20% drop in the number of teens who have ever worked for pay, and 15% fewer teens have summer jobs compared to 20 years ago.
Surveys show that 13% identify as atheists, more than twice the number of those over 18.
Marriage has changed dramatically. About 9% of 18 to 25-year-olds were married in 2018, compared to 13% 10 years ago, and 16% 20 years ago.
A recent far Left Atlantic Magazine article actually acknowledged that unmarried teens are having less sexual relations, and although they are offsetting lost marriage relationships and sex outside of marriage with closer ties to friends, it doesn't give young Americans the happiness of marital sexual relations previous generations have had.
The Atlantic says 75% of married young people are happier than there unmarried peers.
Atlantic says there is a "sex drought." And it's taking a toll on the happiness of this generation.
2. Social Media
Essentially 100% of young people are on social media, with 54% thinking they are on it "too much," yet 72% say their phone is the first thing they look at when they wake up in the morning. Some surveys show the sudden, sharp rise in depressive symptoms occurred at almost exactly the same time that smartphones became ubiquitous and in-person interaction plummeted.
Politico wrote that "time online is negatively correlated with time socializing offline."
3. Education
Current Population Survey has found that 95% of teens today say it's important to them to have a job or career they enjoy.
The importance of college has been elevated in recent years. Most studies show that a college grad today makes about 80% more than a high school grad.
This has created a "do or die" attitude regarding "making it in college." The pressure to perform in college is beginning to show up as a reason kids are unhappy or depressed in high school and in college.
Some psychologists have found that college campuses have created an overbearing cultural of campus safety---or safe zones, which are having a negative effect on kids because it reduces young people's ability to fend for themselves mentally.
There is another factor: $1.5 trillion are in student debt. Americans aged 19 to 34 hold substantially more debt than their parents. The colleges get their money through student and parent loans. The personal education loans are permanent and cannot be forgiven, even through bankruptcy.
The direct effect on kids is: Less marriage, later home buying, and later and much less child bearing, and worse-- mental health issues, all of which make young adults unhappy.
This generation is leaning more to the Left than previous generations. About 61% have a favorable view of the word "socialism," 73% support universal healthcare, and 50% would prefer to live in a socialist country.
These various surveys, polls, and studies all point to a failure in public education and the Christian Church, even though they don't openly identify it as such.
Takeaway
Public education---government-run schools---no longer teach objective or unbiased education. Instead, schools are centers of radical left-wing indoctrination for Cultural Marxism, identity politics and other anti-American ideas. Students are told what to think, rather than being taught how to think.
Our public school system is producing activists who are not equipped to do anything accept protest.
After completing 16 years (K-College) of indoctrination on anti-Americanism, anti-biblical Christianity, identity politics, and how to fight against white supremacy, too many of this generation of kids emerge on the streets of "real life" not knowing how to build anything, create anything, or even do anything that can earn a living for themselves and a family.
Progressives have scrubbed the public schools of God and religion---especially Christianity, and have rewritten American history textbooks to downplay patriotism--calling it white nationalism (which it isn't), and prepare children to be global citizens and protest for open US borders, with no understanding of the consequences of such insanity. They have spent endless hours in the classroom introducing 5-year-olds to the notion of fluid gender identity and are destroying the lives of thousands of kids who are receiving hormone therapy.
Even a cursory look at John Dewey's writing reveals that progressives have seized control of government-run education, they have purposely dumbed down and indoctrinated a generation to embrace the hollow claims of progressivism. And socialism. And atheism.
And too many Christian churches have remained silent as America's children have been stolen by the enemy within.
Churches have tried, under the guise of reaching the culture, to relate to the culture in such a way, that now, the culture can't tell the difference between the church and the culture.
When the Church and the pulpit regain its rightful place in the culture and lead rather than follow, the culture will begin to be restored.
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.