The problem isn't the kids, it's the parents

Much has been said about the plight of millennials. We came of age when the financial crash dealt a big knife to the global economy, we were supposed to be less wealthy than our parents' generation, and those of us who dared to try to build a life in big cities are not able to buy a house or have children comfortably. .

We've never experienced sustained economic growth in our working lives, we have to retire later than many before us, and we won't even be the ones to colonize the Moon. Honestly, we got a bad deal, didn't we?

I'm 32 years old and I've written and spoken a lot, both professionally and personally, about how drunk our people are. I've now looked up from my laptop at the generation of people younger than us and the generation of people older than us, and I'm starting to wonder if everything is okay with us after all.

The World Happiness Report was released this week and found that young people in Britain defined as under 30 were less happy than those in Moldova, Kosovo and El Salvador, among others. Britons over 60, on the other hand, were among the happiest in the world.

In the United States, young people are less happy than their older counterparts; in Western Europe, the gap between the two is currently narrowing. In 2010, young people were significantly happier than middle-aged people, but this is no longer the case.

If you think this is all really depressing, maybe consider closing the tab and going off to do something else, maybe drink a tall glass of whiskey or take a long nap.

Otherwise, here's the other side of the coin: another study was published recently, this time by Arizona State University, and found that English people aged 45 to 65 are the loneliest in Europe, and lonelier than previous generations. their age. Who's laughing now, eh, non-millennials? Well, I'm not laughing either, I still can't afford to have kids, but you know.

More seriously, the interesting point to make here is that these miserable middle-aged people are, for the most part, the ones who raised the miserable people under 30. Much ink has been spilled about Gen Z's anxiety and depression, but few have turned to their parents to try to find out what's wrong.

As someone stuck between these two generations, I can only guess what happened there and look to my own, reasonably amusing, upbringing for answers. I had, I would say, some good times growing up, as did my peers. What made our teens and early twenties so good? Easy freedom.

We could leave the house to see our friends without smartphones, because they hadn't been invented yet, and many of us didn't even have physical phones for the most part. When we were outside, there was no way to reach us. We could drink, smoke and fuck anyone and no one would ever find out.

No one, in this context, talks about both parents and the Internet. Our boring old moms and dads didn't know where we were or what we were doing, and there was no Snapchat or Instagram to put instant, potentially mortifying photos and videos on. We were able to make mistakes and start over, which is a crucial part of growing.

Of course, one could argue that the ever-deteriorating economic situation isn't helping, but I'm just not convinced that explains everything. I once had an entire festival with nothing but plain stale bagels and vodka mixed with water. Teenagers have an almost supernatural ability to fend for themselves if they want to. Why don't they want it anymore?

Because, once again, I'm the generational equivalent of Goldilocks mush, in this situation I don't have any great solutions to offer. All I can say is that these investigations must be considered as a whole; we won't be able to fix our children if we don't fix their parents first.