103rd Edition
The anxiety of youth
I’ve been reading numerous articles lately about the preponderance of anxiety in today’s youth. The issue seems to surface all the time. We talk about it in Sunday School class, read about it in the Wall Street Journal, and of course it’s a hot topic on social media. There have been several books written about it, including “The Coddling of the American Mind” by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt as well as “The Anxious Generation” also by Haidt.
A few of the reasons for this epidemic, which the above-mentioned authors cite in a recent Wall Street Journal article by Emily Finley, are too much technology and a distorted imagination. Not to be left out are helicopter parents’ obsession with removing all challenges and hardships while insisting upon equal playing time and participation trophies for all. Structured activities, play dates, and fenced-in soccer fields have replaced neighborhood backyards and just going out to play free and unsupervised. Explore, imagine, and discover have been replaced by just google it, or ask Siri.
Is there any connection between heightened anxiety and academic underperformance, particularly in math and reading? It’s hard to imagine there isn’t a correlation. So, what can we or should we do about all this?
Currently there is growing pushback against social media, cell phone use, and other electronic devices. That’s a step in the right direction, but it is going to be a major challenge to change behavior enough to produce meaningful results. But it can’t hurt to try.
In the meantime, kids today need more and better role models. Instead of searching for answers to life’s questions through AI, or the Internet, or worse, kids need to be able to talk face to face with a wise and caring adult. A grandfather or grandmother might fit the bill perfectly. My wife and I are blessed to have a nine-month-old granddaughter. I hope she will learn more from us than she does from her cell phone. Instead of turning to Google or Siri, I hope she will sit with me and share her dreams as well as her fears, then ask me any question that pops into her head. At our house, when our granddaughter is visiting, there will be books and wiffle balls, walks in the woods, and we’ll let the dog lick our faces. The TV will be off, cell phones put away, and all devices silenced. It will be quiet enough to hear our own breaths and the birds chirping nearby. Skinned knees will be celebrated and cared for with a band-aid and perhaps an ice cream cone.
She will learn from us (as she also will from her parents) that she is unconditionally loved by us and by God. She will learn that she is as good as anyone else, but no better, in God’s eyes. Beyond that we will encourage her not to turn to false gods in her life, which may in fact be the common thread within this anxious generation.
There is no magical cure for the problem of anxiety in today’s youth. The answer isn’t a new iPhone App. It certainly isn’t a new, breakthrough medication, in my humble and non-medical opinion. The answer may be very simple and might begin with a reordered heart. A spirit-filled person, young or old, rarely suffers from anxiety or fear. Such a person has a peace that transcends all understanding. A spirit-filled grandfather will know the exact moment when a hug, a friendly wink, or word of encouragement is needed. A spirit-filled youth will know when to help grandpa get up out of the chair and when to be patient and let him do it ever so slowly himself. They both will know that being together means everything, even when they are doing practically nothing.
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Michael Kayes
*These views are my personal opinions and are not the viewpoints of any company or organization.