The myth of the glass generation
"Young people today can't stand anything." "They're drowning in a glass of water." "They're too spoiled." "They live like kings." Young people often hear these phrases in their daily lives, in informal conversations, on social networks or even in educational and work spaces; and they are often accompanied by a quick social diagnosis: "They 're a generation of glass ."
But when you closely accompany the discomforts that many young people live with, this discourse dismantles itself. It's not that they are weaker, what happens is that they live in an increasingly complex, faster world , with many stimuli, with many changes and with fewer spaces where they can be without filters or demands. A world where they often don't have time to breathe, to make mistakes or to build their identity without fear of being judged.
Youthful emotional discomfort is not new, what is certain is that now there is more awareness, more words and more desire to understand them. Everything that was previously hidden in silence is now coming to light. And this is not a symptom of weakness, but a sign of emotional maturity and courage.
The dictatorship of constant happiness
The unseen context: a complex and demanding society
When we talk about the emotional distress of young people, we often forget something fundamental: we cannot understand them without taking into account the context they live in (social and cultural). It is not that the current generation has fewer resources, but rather that they live immersed in a more complex, more unstable reality with fewer guarantees for the future.
Academic pressure begins at increasingly early ages and increases during adolescence, with educational paths marked by competitiveness, an obsession with performance and good grades. Added to this is job insecurity that generates a lot of uncertainty, difficulties in emancipation, a fixation on productivity and a loss of trust in the system . How can they imagine a future when the present is already a daily challenge?
Everything that was previously hidden in silence now comes to light. And this is not a symptom of weakness, but a sign of emotional maturity and courage.
Social media has become a space where self-esteem and image are at stake. While they can be tools for connection, they can also act to create comparison, aesthetic pressure and a feeling of not being enough. And often, when emotions flare up, the message they receive is that they are exaggerating, dramatizing or that they have no real reason to be feeling bad.
But the reality is that they do have reasons. Many. And although they can't always express them clearly, their discomfort is present : the lack of safe spaces, the fear of failure, emotional isolation and a system that often demands a lot from them, but does little to support them.
The value of asking for help
In a culture that glorifies self-reliance and silent resistance, asking for help remains a radical act. Especially for young people, who often find themselves caught between the desire to appear strong and the deep need to be heard .
When a young person says "I can't take it anymore", "I don't know what's wrong with me", "I need to talk to someone", they are not showing weakness. They are taking a very important step. They are breaking a silence that has hurt a lot for a long time. It says enough about a normalization of the suffering that has forced them to endure alone. When they feel listened to with respect, without judgment or paternalism, young people regain the ability to name what they feel and begin to process it. And this, in many cases, is more transformative than any advice or quick solution.
Guidelines for practicing empathetic listening
But it must be taken into account that not all young people have the same conditions to ask for help or the same ease of accessing certain resources. Social, economic and cultural barriers can make this step even more difficult. Therefore, as a society, we have the challenge of promoting the creation of accessible, welcoming and stigma-free spaces , where taking care of yourself is not seen as a defeat, but as a form of resistance and self-knowledge.
The stigma is still alive (and it affects young people)
Despite the advances in awareness, the stigma in mental health continues to weigh heavily , especially when the person expressing their discomfort is a young person. Even today, when an adolescent or young person says that they feel bad, they often receive a response such as "it'll happen to you", "that's just your age", "you have no reason to be like this". These responses not only do not help, but even more intensify the feeling of loneliness and incomprehension . We also often find that stigma does not come from the outside, but has already been internalized. This is when we talk about self-stigma: young people who feel ashamed of being sad, who think that they have no right to feel bad because "there are people who are worse off". This silent self-demand can be very hard and cause a lot of suffering.
We have the opportunity and responsibility to change the way we look at young people's discomfort: listening instead of judging, accompanying instead of correcting, and trusting instead of ridiculing.
This is why it is important to offer validating perspectives and create spaces where they can express themselves freely. When a young person sees that they are not alone, that what is happening to them makes sense, that they are not the only one who feels this way and that asking for help does not make them less valid , they begin to rebuild a relationship with themselves that is kinder, more honest and less marked by self-judgment.
Changing the focus: from complaint to understanding
It is very easy to fall into quick judgment. When faced with a young person who is irritable, apathetic or who expresses his discomfort intensely, the temptation for most people is to think that he "complains too much", that he is "seeking attention" or that he "needs to mature". But these types of reactions say more about the difficulty of the listener in sustaining the other person's emotion than about what the person in front of us really needs.
What if instead of judging, we asked what's wrong with them? What do they need? What if instead of correcting, we listened? What if we understood that many behaviors are ways of asking for help?
Young people are not a fragile generation, they are a generation that dares to name what they feel and that is not content to repeat patterns that no longer work.
Changing the focus implies understanding that not all discomforts are pathological, but all deserve to be heard and that, often, the simple fact of feeling recognized, validated and accompanied can make a difference . This is a collective challenge that involves schools, institutions, the media, families, professionals and the whole of society. Young people have the right to grow up in an environment that not only demands them, but also supports them.
Learning from young people in...
- Naming what we feel: being able to speak openly about the emotions we feel and not repress them like previous generations. Putting words to discomfort is a first step to understanding and moving through it.
- Ask for help: assume that we have limits and that we can't always do everything, that asking for support is not a sign of weakness, but a way of taking care of yourself.
- Questioning the system: not accepting things because "they've always been done this way", but questioning established norms, discourses and structures. A critical view of things is the engine of change in today's society.
- Not being satisfied: looking for meaning in the things we do and not being satisfied.
- Breaking the silence: breaking taboos about the things that hurt us, about what weighs on us, what makes us uncomfortable, etc. Making visible what other generations have kept quiet about for a long time.
- Taking care of ourselves collectively: understanding that well-being is a shared responsibility. Creating bonds, networks and spaces of mutual support that serve to take care of ourselves and each other.
Why is it so important to validate our children's emotions?
Conclusion
In conclusion, today's young people are not a fragile generation , they are a generation that dares to name what they feel, that seeks meaning amidst the noise and that is not content to repeat patterns that no longer work; and all of this requires courage, awareness and a great opportunity for self-criticism .
As professionals, families, educators, teachers, etc., we have the opportunity and responsibility to change the way we look at their discomfort: we must listen instead of judge , accompany instead of correct, and trust instead of ridicule.
Young people need us to be by their side as they learn to find strategies to face the challenges they encounter in their day-to-day lives, in their own way and in their own time. And all this will only be possible if we stop minimizing their discomfort and start asking ourselves how we can contribute to making them feel better.