Fear is one of our most basic emotions, and it is a necessary element of our existence. However, we often wonder if fear and anxiety are becoming more of a hindrance to thriving than a help to survive in modern times. The numerous ups and downs of being terrified are explored by authors in this issue.
The suicide rate among the 15-24 age group has nearly doubled since 2007, when it was at an all-time low. This finding is consistent with a generation that reports poor mental health as the norm, anxiety symptoms as practically universal, and mass violence as a big concern. Our generation was supposed to grow up empowered by technology and a changing, globalizing world, but the picture is starting to blur; we're destroying ourselves with our thoughts.
Every generation has had to deal with stress. Humanity has survived rampant epidemics, famines, and natural disasters that we, as citizens of a modernizing world, do not have to deal with. This observation is not meant to minimize the difficulties we endure, but it does suggest that there is more going on in our generation than a mere reaction to circumstance. Of course, we have good reason to be stressed; our generation is confronted with a slew of social and environmental problems. Changes in the way we communicate are underpinning and aggravating these "main" stressors, serving to exacerbate — even universalize — emotions of worry among us. The great technical promise of the twenty-first century has turned on us and wreaked havoc on the systems we use to keep our brains safe; its power to eliminate barriers has turned on us and wreaked havoc on the systems we use to keep our minds secure.
It's becoming increasingly impossible to maintain any sort of compartmentalization in our lives and in our subjects of attention, thanks to the smartphone, social media, and the 24-hour news cycle. The technology tsunami is eroding our individual agency; even checking the time risks being disrupted by a harsh SMS or disturbing news. Our publications have replaced our watches and notepads, our clubs have replaced our workplaces and therapists, and our friends and bullies have replaced our anxieties. We brace ourselves every time we look at our phones. On a definitional level, the introduction of these small moments of risk into our life is stressful.
The power of social media serves as a good case study in technologically induced stress. Since our species became aware, bullying, emotions of exclusion and distinction, and the desire to be a "individual" have all existed in some form. Because of its ability to track us everywhere, social media has militarized these emotions. We're constantly bombarded with images of our friends' and idols' lives — lives that are usually tailored to fit the image of themselves that individuals want to project. People now regularly retain two Instagram accounts: a secret account for just the closest of friends (finsta) where one's actual feelings are aired and a public, generally more "presentable" one available to the broader public (rinsta). This divide between a "happy" society and the unhappy self is reinforced by regular contact with it, with you being the only one who is different.
Technology is an effective delivery channel for the world's stresses to reach my generation, and my generation is under a lot of pressure. Multiple strains of anxiety are created by gun violence, climate change, growing economic inequalities, rising educational costs, rampant sexual, racial, and economic discrimination, and a globalizing (and thus increasingly competitive) planet, carried to us like never before by our digital paraphernalia. Despite our covert desire to remain in a state of ignorance, structural inequities may now be recognized virtually without effort. Our digital platforms, where everything is accessible and debatable, amplify the pathologies of a broken society.
Of course, people who utilize technology the most and those who are in developing periods of life – Generation Z in both cases – are the most affected by this rifting and bombardment. Whereas earlier generations lived before the flood, we are being moulded by it; our formative years coincide with the technological revolution, a confluence that appears to be instilling us with dread on a deeper level than ever before.
Where does the cycle come to an end? Is the final point a state of anomie, where the barrage of information and the fracturing of the self-world relationship leads to nihilism? The soft illumination and occasional buzzing sounds of my smartphone remain in the background while I go off to sleep late at night. Should you check now or wait until the morning to find out what's behind the door? The query keeps me awake at night.