Are Millennials And Gen Z Doomed?

And is the internet to blame?

There is a loneliness epidemic that started with my generation (the millennials) and has been passed down to Gen Z like some kind of sick genetic disorder.

And this loneliness isn’t helped by the nihilism of knowing too much. We know the world is full of shit. We know the details or at least can recite a semi-accurate summary of why things are the way they are.

Worst of all, no matter how knowledgeable we are of how the world truly is, we can’t really afford to live in it. Many of us are stuck with roommates, resentment and a lack of meaningful relationships.

And we’re bearing the brunt of it. Not just mentally, physically too. Millennials are dying faster than any other generation since World War 2. Everything from cancer to heart disease are popping up in greater numbers of young adults (18-34) than it ever had before.

Gen Z has the worst mental health ever recorded in American history. That’s not hyperbolic, several studies show Gen Z having higher rates of depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia and other mental health related issues than previous generations.

It’s hard to be a big fish in a small pond, but it’s even harder to be an invisible fish in an infinite pond. And that’s what we are — invisible and unending. Millennials came of age during the early stages of the internet. I still remember dial-up modems and America Online free starter CDs at the checkout stands of grocery stores. We watched the world transition from a primarily physical place to a digital one.

What happened next was the entire world left reality for something they could curate. Why be the guy in your small town when you can manifest a better version of yourself online? In the short term, this was pretty fuckin’ cool. I loved the internet back then. I found Insane Clown Posse forums and made friends with people all over the world who had similar interests.

Attention became currency, and as more of us participated in the digital revolution, the scarcity that ultimately gave us our value diminished. Millennials have the benefit of remembering what life was like before. However, most of us are too deeply entrenched and connected to ever go back to third places that defined us in our childhoods.

And where does that leave us? Lost.

The Millennials are in a constant state of trying to recreate what we loved in the world before we realized we were meaningless. We created a nostalgia economy where corporations sells us pieces of our past. And we choose to live in that past because we know as the cruel march of time continues, we’ll fade even further into obscurity…

Gen Z, or the “Zillennials” don’t even have that. They’re digitally native. Their lives, friendships and fondest memories are all likely connected to screens in some shape, way or form. They were born in a world of infinite options for increasingly finite people without any guidance on what to choose or who to become.

And where does that leave them? Empty.

To fill the void, they hyper fixate on silly ideas and fleeting identities. This permeates into all aspects of life. You have kids on screens, living in leafy green suburbs that lean left saying Mao did nothing wrong but will have a complete mental collapse if they hear a word they don’t like. And then you have the Reddit right wingers who have never been in a fight speaking as if they’re ready to join the Spartan army because they watched an Andrew Tate video.

When they step outside, they don’t have the social confidence to uphold the ideals they espouse online, so they hate themselves.

So yeah, we are fucked. The internet did fuck us. The Millennials cling to a past that didn’t exist and Gen Z can barely conceptualize themselves in the present, let alone in the future.

And that’s where I’m going to end this article. I have to go. My self-help book about overcoming social anxiety that I bought on Amazon was just delivered by a drone and I don’t want anyone at the nearby homeless encampment to steal it…