I have seen many videos and memes making fun of these poor Gen Z kids for being "snowflakes" or “marshmallows.” It seems like my generation, Gen X, and the Boomer generation are especially hard on them. I know that we grew up with less materially. I know that we also grew up with less adult supervision. However, we also grew up with less social media.
When we were growing up, we could leave our bullies at school. Unless we ran into them in the wild, for the most part we were free of them during school breaks. These kids do not get that luxury. If they are on social media or have given their number out to the wrong kid, this bullying follows them everywhere they go. Even if they block people, they can be harassed through their friends if the bullies are particularly viscous. We, as adults, need to understand this. We can't just tell these kids that we were once their age and know what it is like because to some extent this is not true.
Our kids are hurting. We need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. There is a reason the suicide rate for these kids is higher than it has ever been. We need to listen to our kids and help them feel loved instead of rejected. Even when they are doing things that are stupid or rude. Have we become so desensitized to other people's feelings that we can't even do this simple thing.
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