The Snowflake Generation: needlessly sensitive cry-babies or products of our criticism? 17%: this is the amount of students diagnosed with anxiety within the past year. 13.9%: this is the amount of students that were diagnosed with depression, according to a survey by the American College Health Association. A 2012 survey of college counselling centre directors found that 75% of respondents thought that the percentages of students suffering mental health issues had increased from previous years. The Snowflake Generation is a term used to describe people who became adults in the 2010s. This generation is known as ‘less resilient’ and ‘prone to taking more offence’ than previous generations. The word Snowflake that the whole cohort is generalised …show more content…
More positively, social media is a means to voice opinions on a wider platform. Sensitivity has been made into a negative word by older generations. What is so negative about feeling upset when you strongly disagree with something? Their generation has been ridiculed for showing sensitivity, but would be ridiculed if they didn’t show any emotion either, so there isn’t an escape for them. The majority of their generation voted Remain in the EU referendum — and they have a valid reason to be unhappy that their futures will be greatly impacted by the older generation. However, they are told that they need to face reality! Some strongly believe that The Snowflake Generation is a needlessly cry-baby generation because they have such difficulty in the adult world, for example: their struggle with adjusting to university, or their need for trigger warnings if something might upset them. However, this isn’t a reasonable argument because the circumstances they grew up in and their treatment by the older generations is what has caused them to react in an intimidated way. The lengths that parents went through to eliminate risk from their children’s lives and taught them to be less daring and less secure in the real world. The criticism from older generations about hypersensitivity, when they are simply voicing an opinion has led to the insecurity of their generation, but they are not to be