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BY DEORAO K.

As per a study millennials(Gen-Y) are a lonely and unhappy generation compared with preceding generations such as Silent Generation, Baby Boomers, and Gen-X.

As per the Deloitte Millennials survey 2019,” millennials are not particularly satisfied with their job, financial situation, government, family life, opportunities”.

Now, you must be curious why it is so? Because millennials are living in one of the most advanced eras. Where they have a ton of resources that can be accessed easily.

Today is the best time to achieve success because of advanced facilities, information, and technology. Then what has possibly gone wrong with millennials. Why they are miserable, lonely, and unhappy?

In another survey by Blue Cross Blue Shield millennials has a higher rate of depression and one of the reasons for depression is loneliness, but the good news is millennials are more likely to go for treatment.

Excited? Continue reading,

Though millennials are living in the advanced age of the internet and luxury there are multiple factors that are affecting their life. These factors may not be that significant or may not exist in the time of a silent generation, baby boomers, and Gen-X.

Gen-Y or millennials are children of baby boomers born between 1981-1996. Between the age of 25 to 40 in 2022. Different names are given to the millennial generation by different people such as Eco-Boomers, Generation Me, boomerang generation, and Net Generation due to various reasons.

FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR WHY MILLENNIALS ARE LONELY AND UNHAPPY.

Continue reading to know in detail why millennials are the unhappiest generation,

1.  DISPUTED FAMILIES.

Baby boomers are the first generation who experienced peace and all the riches in life when compared with the previous generation. Because preceding generations were involved in war and recession. But the family dispute has increased among boomers. People started moving out of combined families and getting divorced.

Millennials are mostly raised in nuclear families or by single parents mostly mothers. So. this way they also lost the solid masculine support of their father at an early age. This is responsible to grow them into sensitive people with a lack of self-esteem. Hence disputed families are making millennials lonely and unhappy.

In nuclear families, children lost backing and support from other members of the family that gives children mental strength, confidence, and values.

2. FAILED PARENTING

Failed parenting plays a significant role in the unhappiness of millennials. Fathers from preceding generations failed to transmit that masculine power to their children i.e. to millennials. The reasons are disputed families, increased number of divorces, being raised by single parents mostly the mother, and busy or emotionally unavailable parents.

This is why millennials have become less tough, nicer, and unable to cope with high-stress situations. Failed parenting makig mallenials anxious and unhappy.

3. DESPERATION

Millennials are desperate for things and achievements in life for example jobs, promotions, money, success, and relationship.

often indulge in short-term gratifications as they are impatient and want everything quickly. They want to get rich quickly, achieve success quickly, and want to take the relationship next level as soon as possible.

Desperation makes a person competitive, jealous, nervous, and sad. Though millennials are highly educated, independent, and ambitious they need to slow down in life and on their goals, because good things take time.

Success doesn’t come in handy one needs to grind, work sleepless nights, and be patient to taste real success.

Short-term gratification leads to frustration and unhappiness when not achieved in time and most probably they will give up on a goal or switch it. This is why millennials are lonely and unhappy.

4. ADDICTION

Different types of addiction are increasing in millennials and the succeeding generations, multiple reasons could be responsible for it. For instance, Stress related to work and relationships, money stress, not having control of parents and the elderly because of moving out, and not program to manage ups and sown in life.

Addiction is escapism to hide stress, worry, heartbreaks, and sadness. Addiction to drugs, addiction to social media, and electronic gadgets make them nervous, anxious, lonely, and unhappy.   

5. FAILED RELATIONSHIPS IS WHY MILLENNIALS ARE LONELY AND UNHAPPY.

The rate of Abusive and toxic relationships is high among millennials also, cheating in relationships, breakups, heartbreaks, and divorce is higher than in the previous generations.

The reasons for this could be multifactorial for instance, it becomes hard to find genuine partners, People are going more and more materialistic, money stress, work stress, not having backing from parents, and elderly from family.

These failed relationships with partners are causing millennials frustrated and unhappy.

6. WORK STRESS AND BURNOUT.

Millennials are educated, independent, and ambitious but in the time of cut-throat completion, it becomes hard to find the dream job. They are settling for low-quality jobs instead of being highly educated and deserving.

They are working extra hours to meet their needs and to pay the bills. More work hours and undesirable jobs and workplace burnout put more work-related stress on millennials. This is why millennials are also called as Burnout Generation.

7.  MONEY STRESS.

Financial stress is emotional stress affecting the person due to money crunches. Money stress is significant in making millennials frustrated, anxious, and sad.

Reasons could be various such as going broke due to addiction or buying expensive stuff, unemployment, underpaying job, Lack of financial literacy, high inflation rate, high cost of living, and fear of going homeless because people these days believe in self earning and self-feeding, the desperation to achieve success, and financial independence, need money to pay rents and bills. Increasing cases of money disorder are also contributing to this.

Money stress wasn’t much in the previous generation because of financial backing from parents. Collectively all these things are responsible for money crunches in this generation. This is why the tension of money is making millennials unhappy.

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8. SOCIAL STRESS.

Social stress is also emotional stress arising from a relationship with family, friends, associates, and society. i.e. social stress arises from the social environment around us.

There are several social stressors today compared with baby boomers.

For instance, parental absence, single parent, abusive parents, foster parents, addictions, sexual abuse, bullying at school college, or workplace, toxic work environment, failed relationships, toxic and abusive partners, bad surroundings, and the list goes on.

Millennials are not immune to tolerating so much stress, in such cases either they give up or find escapism like addiction to drugs or alcohol. The inability to manage so much stress makes millennials lonely and unhappy.

9. ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR.

Mobile phones, social media, and other gadgets have become an important part of millennials’ life. It wasn’t there during baby boomers and generation X, they used to spend time hanging out with friends and family and socializing more.

But millennials have a different story they spend more time online and socialize less. They have 5000 friends on Facebook but in real life no one to call for help when in trouble. Because of mobile phones and computers, screen time is greatly increased and social time decreased. This is making millennials antisocial.

As per one survey by YouGov, 30% of millennials admitted feeling lonely which is higher than in previous generations.

Human is a social creature when they stop socializing after some time they feels lonely and sad. Addiction to social media and electronic gadgets makes them anxious and sad. 

10. OBSESSION WITH SUCCESS.

Most Millennials have unrealistic and over-expectations of becoming successful.

Everyone wants to become the next bill gates, stew jobs, or warren buffet. Everyone wants to make an impact on society and nothing wrong with it.

One should be obsessed to become successful but there is a limitation to it. If You have an unrealistic expectation, it will lead to frustration if not achieved.

11. LOW EMOTIONAL TOLERANCE.

Millennials are sensitive and have a low tolerance for intense and overwhelming emotions. Because their parents failed to make them mentally strong and fearless.

Millennials are sensitive, impulsive, and egoistic. They are unable to manage intense emotions like anger, sadness, and overwhelm.

12. THEY DON’T HAVE A CLEAR IDEA OF THEIR WANTS AND NEEDS.

Millennials are not able to figure out what they really want in life. They are likely to take more time in deciding what they want because they don’t have a clearcut idea of what they want to become or what they want to achieve in life.

Many of them are stuck with the job they hate or work they are doing, and feel lost in life because they don’t know why they are doing it.

If one doesn’t know the purpose of why you are doing what you are doing, it eventually leads to frustration and resentment.

13. SEARCHING FOR HAPPINESS IN THE WRONG PLACE.

Millennials are more materialistic than the previous generation. They believe happiness is in looking cool, wearing branded clothes, roaming in expensive cars, using expensive mobile phones, and earning tons of money. Feels good initially but at the end of the day, it feels lonely and sad with these materialistic things.

They need to understand that real happiness is in spending quality time with family and loved ones, hanging out with friends, helping people, and having gratitude for life.

Yes, you must earn money and success but do it for yourself and not to please others, because when people don’t appreciate your branded clothes, expensive car, and house it will make you unhappy.

The feeling of sadness and loneliness is increasing with every succeeding generation ( Gen-Z, Alfa Gen).

CONCLUSION

Newer generations are dealling with newer problems that may or may not existed in the past. And collectivelly all of them are making mallennials lonely and unhappy.