{"id":16921,"date":"2025-10-12T15:56:49","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T22:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16921"},"modified":"2025-10-16T16:03:38","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T23:03:38","slug":"a-generation-in-crisis-why-young-people-are-so-unhappy-el-pais","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=16921","title":{"rendered":"“A generation in crisis: Why young people are so unhappy”, EL PA\u00cdS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DANIEL SOUFI<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

OCT<\/abbr>\u00a012, 2025<\/a>, Madrid<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This stage of life, which should be full of opportunity, has become a period of uncertainty and struggle. Heightened mental health awareness, social media\u2013driven anxiety, and poorer economic prospects than previous generations make it harder to plan a future. How can we turn things around?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crisis
ANA GALVA\u00d1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Young people\u00a0are in a bad way<\/a>; they feel very sad, completely depressed. The worst thing isn\u2019t the anxiety, or being glued to their phones, or feeling lonely, or being unemployed, or even knowing that it\u2019s impossible for them to buy a house; the worst part is that, until just a few years ago, none of them expected to find themselves in this situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In August, an article published in the U.S. scientific journal PLOS One<\/em><\/a> reported that there is currently no age group more dissatisfied than young people. Until recently, the curve of happiness followed a clear pattern: it started high in childhood and youth, dipped in middle age, and rose again in old age. Young people, who used to be the second happiest group, are now the only ones whose happiness has dropped. The most affected are teenagers and young adults, between the ages of 12 and 24. The study is based on surveys of millions of people across more than 40 countries. And while it\u2019s always wise to be cautious with survey-based conclusions, the trend is hard to dispute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are young people overly sensitive? The so-called \u201csnowflake generation\u201d goes to therapy more often than their parents or grandparents did and easily uses terms like OCD, ADHD, burnout, and imposter syndrome. Has this greater awareness of mental health affected their overall mood? \u201cNot necessarily, but it\u2019s clear that the idea of happiness isn\u2019t the same for a 20-year-old as it is for their grandmother,\u201d says Alejandro Cencerrado<\/a>, a physicist, analyst at the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, and author of En defensa de la infelicidad<\/em> (In Defense of Unhappiness<\/em>). \u201cIf someone born at the beginning of the 20th century had been asked at some point in their life if they had depression, they wouldn\u2019t even have known how to answer. And they were living in very difficult situations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world changes, and qualities once considered essential to being intelligent \u2014 like having an encyclopedic memory \u2014 are no longer the ones that help people navigate and overcome challenges today. Similarly, the factors that defined happiness<\/a> 50 years ago, such as having a traditional family or a strong relationship with God, differ from those that shape well-being now. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to compare the responses of a kid who spends his day on TikTok with those of two people who lived through a war. Everyone values things differently.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happiness only began to be measured systematically in the 1970s. In 1972, Bhutan introduced the concept of Gross National Happiness, and soon after, surveys like the World Values Survey<\/em>began asking about life satisfaction. The big leap came over the past two decades, with large-scale international surveys \u2014 evidence that we\u2019ve never been so intent on quantifying our own well-being. \u201cThe paradox is that the more obsessed we become with measuring happiness, the more sensitive we are to mental health problems like depression,\u201d says Cencerrado.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, there are more objective indicators than self-reported happiness surveys. In the United States, the suicide rate among teenagers aged 12 to 17 rose by 70% between 2008 and 2020. The European Union has seen a similar increase, with Spain going from 1.99 to 2.94 deaths per 100,000 young people aged 15 to 19 between 2011 and 2022. Hospital admissions for mental health disorders among minors and the use of psychiatric medications have also risen. In the United Kingdom, for instance, antidepressant prescriptions for teenagers aged 12 to 17 doubled between 2005 and 2017 \u2014 amid growing concern among doctors about overmedication<\/a>, not only among young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the PLOS One<\/em> report, youth unhappiness began to rise sharply around 2012. What happened then that could have had a global impact that is still felt today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first hypothesis links this \u201cquarter-life crisis\u201d to the rise of social media and smartphones. Sociologist Jonathan Haidt<\/a>, author of The Anxious Generation<\/em>, explains via video call that there are now too many studies \u2014 of many different kinds \u2014 to deny a causal link between these technologies and the deterioration of young people\u2019s mental health. \u201cSocial media is a substantial cause \u2014 not just a small correlation \u2014 of depression and anxiety, and therefore of the behaviors associated with those disorders, including self-harm and suicide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haidt argues that the problem isn\u2019t just the anxiety or isolation caused by platforms like Instagram or TikTok, but that these networks have completely reshaped how young people socialize. That\u2019s why, he warns, if a teenager were to quit social media to protect their mental health, they might actually feel worse \u2014 because they\u2019d be cut off from their peer group\u2019s social life. Haidt calls this the \u201cnetwork and cohort effect\u201d: an entire generation trapped in a system where everyone would be better off if they disconnected, but where anyone who does so by themselves ends up isolated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something as essential to well-being as sleep has also been disrupted by smartphones. In Spain, 83% of young adults aged 18 to 34 show symptoms of insomnia, and around 13% meet the criteria for a chronic disorder. Only one in four say they sleep well and enough, according to the 2024 report Habits and Prevalence of Sleep Disorders in Spain<\/em>. Sleep problems have worsened over the past two decades \u2014 20 years ago, chronic insomnia affected only half as many people. Those under 35 have suffered the greatest decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sleep expert Dr. Javier Albares<\/a>, author of Generaci\u00f3n Zombi <\/em>(Zombie<\/em> Generation<\/em>), warns that the overuse of phones and tablets is shaping a \u201cgeneration trapped in a spiral of overstimulation, addiction, and chronic sleep deprivation.\u201d Screens, he explains, not only steal hours of rest but also fragment it: \u201cThey increase the number of awakenings during the night, and as a result, both the quality and quantity of rest decline.\u201d He notes that half of teenagers reply to messages during the night, and a similar percentage check their phones at least once in the middle of the night. \u201cThis lack of sleep translates into fatigue, poorer academic performance, irritability, and greater risk of anxiety or depression.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Haidt acknowledges that such a global trend stems from multiple factors. Another, he argues, is the \u201coverprotection of children in the real world.\u201d In recent decades, children have lost the freedom to play outside unsupervised, in mixed groups, with a healthy degree of risk \u2014something once common and crucial to developing resilience<\/a>, autonomy, and the ability to handle uncertainty. He sums it up neatly: today there is overprotection in the real world and underprotection in the virtual one. \u201cChildren\u2019s freedom outside the home is increasingly restricted, while they\u2019re left completely exposed online and on social media,\u201d he warns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings on declining happiness don\u2019t surprise philosopher and literature professor Jes\u00fas G. Maestro, whose YouTube channel enjoys huge popularity among young viewers. He sees it every time he walks into a classroom. But he rejects the idea that millennials are an overprotected generation: \u201cThat\u2019s false \u2014 they\u2019re the most unprotected generation in decades,\u201d he says over the phone. \u201cYou can\u2019t call a generation \u2018protected\u2019 when it\u2019s been deprived of essential knowledge for facing life and left unshielded on the internet and social media, where the psychological pressure is enormous \u2014 and many simply can\u2019t withstand it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Maestro, the author of Una filosof\u00eda para sobrevivir en el siglo XXI<\/em> (A Philosophy for Surviving the 21st Century<\/em>), the malaise among young people has a very specific cause: their parents\u2019 idealism. \u201cIt\u2019s a generation that was promised everything and has found nothing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Maestro,the boomers raised their children to face a world that no longer exists. \u201cEducation should be geared toward making human beings compatible with reality. And reality is that of a predatory world governed by market logic<\/a>.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maestro criticizes the harshness with which this generation is often judged: \u201cMillennials are spoken of very badly without knowing what they\u2019re talking about. They are portrayed as lazy, stupid, or useless. The worst has been heaped on them. And you can\u2019t help a person if you\u2019ve misunderstood them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rotterdam\"\/
A young man on a street in Rotterdam, Netherlands, on September 9.MICHAEL NGUYEN (NURPHOTO\/GETTY IMAGES)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Maestro points out, many young people grew up with the promise that adulthood would bring a better world than that of their parents, full of opportunities for personal fulfillment and happiness. Yet the reality facing today\u2019s high school and university graduates is bleak. Young people\u2019s economic situation is far worse than that of the previous generation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Spain\u2019s National Statistics Institute (INE), in 2004, those of retirement age were the group at highest risk of poverty (30%); last year, that figure had fallen to 16.8%, while poverty is hitting young people (21%) and children (29%) hardest. At the same time, the average wealth of a young family was cut in half between 2002 and 2022. Youth unemployment, while at its lowest level since 2008, still hovers around 25%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a sense of discouragement,\u201d says sociologist Patricia Castro, author of Tu precariedad y cada d\u00eda la de m\u00e1s gente<\/em> (Your Precarity and That of Increasingly More People<\/em>). \u201cOur parents\u2019 generation, even if they came from poverty, had the perception of life moving forward \u2014 that if you studied, your life could improve and you could land a better job. To a large extent, that hope has been lost.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spain is actually one of the countries where the social mobility is the worst<\/a>: more than 35% of income inequality is determined by background factors \u2014 mainly parents\u2019 socioeconomic level \u2014 one of the highest figures in the OECD. This situation has sparked a recent debate between boomers and young people, with the latter arguing that they are living worse than their parents did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Castro argues that new generations suffer from a \u201clight nihilism,\u201d having lost faith in the possibility of fighting for a world with better conditions. \u201cMoreover, society makes them feel that the responsibility for their precarious situation lies with them. It\u2019s a kind of inward self-destruction: you blame yourself for your situation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She adds that young people live in an increasingly atomized world, where the sense of community has been lost. \u201cThey don\u2019t feel they can achieve anything together,\u201d she says. Castro agrees with Maestro that the previous generation has judged young people too harshly: their addiction to new technologies, their difficulty making a living, even the recent rise of conservatism. \u201cPeople who haven\u2019t even had the opportunity to screw up have been blamed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experts propose various solutions to reverse youth unhappiness and make adolescence one of life\u2019s most fulfilling stages again. One of the most frequently mentioned is ensuring access to mental health treatment. According to the White Paper on Psychiatry in Spain<\/em>, published by the Spanish Society of Psychiatry and Mental Health (SEPSM), there are only 10 professionals for every 100,000 children under 14 \u2014 a figure significantly below the rates seen in other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan Haidt suggests delaying access to social media<\/a> until age 14 and warns that the rise of artificial intelligence could prove even more harmful to young people than social networks themselves. And, though obvious, improving economic conditions \u2014 especially in work and housing \u2014 would certainly help. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Patricia Castro, the key is strengthening social bonds: \u201cNot all of us are going to have the job of our dreams or live in the city center, but there is no shortage of people in the world.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jes\u00fas G. Maestro, true to his vocation as a literature professor, proposes a very concrete remedy: \u201cRead Don Quixote<\/em>. If anything, it teaches that idealism leads to failure.\u201d And he warns: \u201cIf you don\u2019t take care of young people, you ruin the future of society.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sign up for <\/em>our weekly newsletter<\/em><\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANIEL SOUFI OCT\u00a012, 2025, Madrid This stage of life, which should be full of opportunity, has become a period of uncertainty and struggle. Heightened mental health awareness, social media\u2013driven anxiety, and poorer economic prospects than previous generations make it harder to plan a future. How can we turn things around? Young people\u00a0are in a bad […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16921"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16921"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16921\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16922,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16921\/revisions\/16922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}