This week's summary is Teen Grind Culture.
Unlike today’s teenagers, I had the time and freedom to discover who I was during high school and college. There was little internal or external pressure on me as a young man to have it all it figured out and my future path established.
As you’ll see in the article below, today’s teens feel pressure (from parents, social media, themselves) to be on duty all the time with the expectation of excelling in everything (school, sports, social life, appearance, community service).
Consequently, many teens feel that they can’t ever take a breath and relax. It was particularly disturbing to read that some teens feel guilty for doing anything at all for pleasure and enjoyment.
The small percentage of teens who don’t feel this pressure shared similar practices: more sleep, more time outdoors, a less structured daily schedule, and limited activity on social media and with technology.
Fittingly, those habits the healthiest teens possess are what Trinity as an elementary school espouses for its students.
It’s tougher for teens today yet we do have the opportunity to shape our students’ attitudes and habits during these formative years so they’ll perhaps learn to relax a little bit when they reach high school.
Joe
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Like it or not, children and teenagers today are live participants in an unprecedented experiment. Ubiquitous cellphones and hyper-engagement in social media have coincided over the last 15 years with a sharp increase in teen anxiety and depression.
Researchers from Harvard’s Center for Digital Thriving surveyed U.S. teenagers in the fall of 2023.
What emerged was a vivid description of the “grind culture” dominating kids’ lives – “this sense of always needing to be productive, to be striving in all these different areas, even at the expense of your health,” said Center co-director Emily Weinstein.
Some specific findings:
- 56 percent felt “game plan” pressure – to have their future path clear and set
- 53 percent felt pressure to earn impressive grades or excel in sports
- 51 percent to look their best
- 44 percent to have a robust social life
- 41 percent to be available to support friends
- 32 percent to stay informed and do good for their community
All these were more intense for girls. And one in four respondents described symptoms of burnout more common among adults in high-stress jobs.
On the “game plan” pressure, it’s striking that teens said they didn’t have time for the typical adolescent quest to figure out who they are and what they want to be. They seemed to believe that noodling around with new interests and ideas would work to their disadvantage. “Teens literally described feeling guilty for reading a book for pleasure,” says Weinstein.
Where do all these pressures come from? Parents, teachers, teens themselves – and social media. About one in five of those surveyed said they were “almost constantly” on social media, messaging apps, and YouTube. Using Instagram, Tik Tok, and Snapchat intensified the pressures teens felt.
The researchers were struck by the fact that 19 percent of those surveyed said they were not feeling pressure in any of the six areas listed above. Several practices and patterns were common among these outliers:
- They got more sleep
- Were more likely to spend time outdoors
- Had more open schedules
- Watched less television
- Spent less time on social media and the Internet.
The more self-care practices teens engaged in – including seven or more hours of sleep, regular exercise, time in nature, hanging out with a friend, engaging in creative projects – the less likely they were to feel burned out.
