How We End The Gen Z Mental Health Crisis | Episode 7

and I think that this is probably the trend with Gen Z that I just hate the most because it's not just that gen Z has retreated inward or failed to fly out of the nest in the first place they are turning away from Human connection on a whole for something that is far more superficial and a lot more selfish welcome back to another episode of the red Cooper show today I'm excited to talk about one of my favorite subjects this is a subject that obviously means a lot to me we need to talk a little more cuz I talk about it all the time but we need to talk a little more about G I know we always say that gen Z is a very you know unique generation we have all these struggles and problems but if we're being honest what generation does not have struggles and problems and unique quirks that's why we have Generations that's why we are divided in that way every generation goes through different things in history but what I will say is that jenz struggles are a little bit different because jz's growth coincided with the growth of technology and social media in our lives and our parents and our Educators to be honest just didn't know how to deal with that they didn't really know the impact that that would have on our lives our adolescence and how we were being raised and it obviously has caused genen z a slew of problems one of the primary ones being our mental health that is something that we talk about in regards to genen Z constantly we are so mentally ill we are depressed we are anxious all of these things we are gender confused and we can talk about these diagnoses all day long in jenz self- diagnosing and how that is represented in our society and y y y but I think to get to the root of the problem to actually understand gen Z and what is driving us and driving so many of these problems that make us so unique we have to go beyond that and we have to talk about gen Z loneliness because I think that that is what is actually behind all of this but before we dive into that make sure that you like this video And subscribe to our new bread Cooper Channel if you've not already and of course ring that notification Bell to make sure that you stay up to date on all of our episodes and of course if you want adree episodes if you want a weekly dear brand advice video if you want an exclusive newsletter from me check out Cooper confidential we will link it in the description below that is my subscriber only platform for unfiltered access hope you guys love it now it's ironic that I just did a pitch to my Cooper confidential platform because one of the things that I love so much about that platform is that it gives you guys the opportunity to connect with each other and you can comment back and forth on the newsletter and when you're submitting your questions for the ask me anything and so it's ironic that I pitched that and now we need to immediately dive into loneliness but again like I said I really do believe that that is at the root of Jen's issues just a couple of weeks ago in January a new study from Kitty Bingo found that 72 % 72% of jenz experience regular loneliness which is a huge huge leap from previous generations and Guys these numbers have been consistent for years this was happening well before 2020 and I think for Gen Z and Millennials and a lot of us we kind of think of our lives like before covid and after Co and everything changed after Co but for Gen Z this has been happening like for example in 2019 there was a status of study that showed that 79% of gen Z regularly struggled with loneliness so this is not simply a result of Co or or a result of lockdown so when we talk about jenz struggling when we talk about jenz mental health or jenz self-confidence we honestly cannot address any of that we can't even start to think about solutions for any of that without addressing this issue that again in my opinion is the root cause of all of this because if you're just addressing anxiety if you're just addressing self-confidence that is going to be a Band-Aid solution now to help me flesh out this episode and go deeper on this subject I called my friend Alex kazmi he is a novelist he's the author of the book New Millennium boys which is a novel that gets to the heart of this specific issue following three boys in high school throughout the 2000s and I asked him to break down the psychological effects of this growing loneliness and this growing isolation that Jen Z has been experiencing take a listen to what he had to say I think loneliness uh desensitization and I think um sort of viewing viewing the world as if you are the sort of only person in the world kind of because your phone is your isolated curated controlled reality and if you're con l in this like self Vortex of the self and the ego you're never going to look past that if you ever just take a break from your phone like for like a few days or technology for a few days and I've heard so many Zoomers say this that they feel this like inner silence they're like where's the noise like I I actually can hear my thoughts because you're you're not in that space of being constantly distracted and that constant distraction is not making any anyone happy and a lot of the time especially with young boys is they're trying to numb something now I'm getting ahead of myself here but there is something that Alex said that I want to touch on before we move on from this response of his but he really said something astute about this loneliness and this isolation making young people feel like they are the center of the world and so I want you guys to take that and think about Jen's activism think about their superficial understanding of issues based on only their experiences based on only things that they see on social media plus add that to lonely Jen Z desperately wanting to be a part of something wanting to be a part of anything all of this activism all of this community engagement it starts to make sense and so in my opinion gen Z going so far left is less of a political phenomenon and more like a social one because again if we're talking about the root of the problem it all goes back to this but again I kind of jumped the gun on that we're going to talk about that a little later on but I didn't want you to forget what he said and of course before we can talk about the aftermath and the results of this loneliness we have to understand how we got here now I brought this up with Alex as well and I wanted him to break down just how these societal structures have evoled D over the past few decades this is what he said I think what has changed the most from you know the 1990s and the 2000s is the practicing of being obsessed with technology like people in past Generations were forced for face-to-face communication right they had no choice you know with like the birth of AOL right instant Messenger right that would be happening at home on dialup at your computer whereas now you have that everywhere you go in your pocket but we've also seen the acceleration of how hyper real every everything with technology got became right like so it's like okay from AOL to Blackberry Messenger to you know iMessage on on your laptop and phone 24/7 right whereas you used to be able to clock out now you can't clock out you're always online so obviously we all understand that we experience it I have my phone right next to me we are on our devices 247 we have social media and digital technology in our phases 7 it is involved in our social life it is involved in our education our work we literally cannot Escape it and I know that I said earlier that Co is not completely to blame for this but it certainly is part of the problem because for my generation a lot of us were starting college or still in high school or in the middle of college when all the lockdowns happened these are prime developmental years for young people that were just completely stripped away from us we were sent home we were living in tiny dorm rooms just on our computers 24/7 completely isolated not being allowed to even see our friends not even being allowed to go to a class and see anybody in person and I know that there are experts out there who have poo pooed this and said that has no impact this is not going to harm people whatsoever look at the numbers we now have the evidence that this seriously harmed young people of all ages gen Alpha and gen Z that depression rates skyrocketed in 2020 because of this isolation so it certainly heightened what was already going on now in addition to that online school has taken off remote work has taken off think about a generation that was raised online that went to college or High School in the middle of lockdowns was not allowed to socialize with anyone and is now being shot out into the workforce trying to get you know a job in marketing at a company that has 100% remote work obviously they're going to be lonely obviously they are going to struggle with social skills and then of course on top of all of that which is already terrible we have modern social media which is just a completely different Beast than AOL Messenger or Myspace or texting on your blackberry and with that comes influencers it comes closer access to celebrities which actually we just talked about a couple of weeks ago which obviously induces feelings of isolation a lack of confidence fomo and all of this has been extremely well studied at this point and Alex brought all of this up I think the big change was with the influencer culture culture and social media and like think about it think about being a young man today you could go on Twitch and see some guy who has a million streams and is you know posting pictures with hot girls and all this type of stuff and all he does is play League of Legends all these men have all these like uh false gods for their Niche algorithms and um I think what why people stay online is because it has become the normal right so if if you stay offline and are you're you know not into the the mainstream you're going to be ostracized and I know that we rag on social media all the time but we do that for a reason because social media has truly given jenz a warped sense of reality from what a normal life is supposed to look like to what is happening in the world politically it has completely distorted everything and that is why so many parents now especially parents of gen Alpha are keeping their kids off of social media and it has been wild to watch the response of this because again this should be common sense based on everything we've seen with Gen Z with Millennials with everything that has been studied it should be common sense that parents should be cognizant about their children's access to digital technology and social media and yet parents will post online saying oh yeah my kids don't have access to phones they don't watch TV they are not allowed on Tik Tok and people are screaming in the comment section you're a terrible mother I would hate to be your child this is abuse you're so strict your kids are going to resent you like jenzie look at yourself like look at what happened obviously parents are going to take these steps like again this is just common sense there is not a single positive outcome to kids being on social media there's not even a net neutral outcome every single thing that has been studied has been a negative and so again obviously parents are going to be more careful I mean governments are now even starting to pay attention like Australia who just 3 months ago banned social media for people under the age of 16 and obviously this is a very nuanced subject this caused a media explosion with people arguing about government overreach and protecting kids which I was able to break down thanks to my friends over at Ground news ground news cuts the noise with an unbiased perspective and shows both sides of every story prioritizing honesty over everything their unique technology even allows users to compare how different sides of corporate media are reporting on a story all the way down to indep dependent journalists just like me making sure that you see all sides and truly stay informed and from my perspective as a Creator they make sure that I stay on top of the stories that I'm covering for you guys so that I can bring you the latest and most honest updates like with this story about social media I was able to quickly get all of the details on Australia's social media ban for kids under 16 and understand the different sides of the issue and how the media was covering it but it doesn't stop there their blind spot feed brings you the stories that have gotten little to no coverage on one side of the political aisle making sure that you always stay informed instead of letting big Tech or their algorithms decide what you see and what you hear so if you are ready to truly break free from media bias and stay informed with transparent news consumption now is the time to join ground newws and when you go to ground news. com Bret or scan the QR code on the screen you can get the same Premium plan that I use but for nearly half the price again that is ground news. com Bret if you want to get unbiased news and hold the media accountable for only $5 a month I mean really guys with ground news they keep me from spiraling which is important because the more time that we spend online spiraling the lonelier we get and we are seeing this reflected in our society every single day and I think that this is the point in the episode where I could really talk about Jen Z political activism and tie that into this liness epidemic because there has been a major major jump between the generations in regards to this political activism United Way actually conducted a survey about this last year and they found that nearly one-third of Jers 32% are regularly engaged in activism or social justice work compared to 24% of Millennials and even less CL in Gen X and Baby Boomers demonstrating a significant genz commitment to societal change they go on and they say this engagement deepens among college students which is you know the shock of the century where the percentage escalates to nearly 40% in the realm of public demonstrations over half of gen zers have participated in rallies or protests to support specific causes or social issues with a slight increase to 56 observed among those in college or in higher ed so obviously jenzy deeply cares about this activism and obviously they care about the issue they care about their social causes I mean I've participated in rallies and protests but again if you go deeper if you go to the root of the issue I think this goes back to Jen Z wanting to be a part of something global data from the research firm Edelman also found that 70% of gen Z is involved in some form of activism and funnily enough BBC was writing about all of these numbers and was writing about this trend with Jen Z and they included a quote from none other than David hog who is the newly elected DNC Vice chair there's been a lot of noise about him on social media recently he is a well-known gun control activist and he said quote I am not powered by hope I am powered by the fact that I have no other choice which is probably the most chronically online gen Z line I have ever heard and again it goes back to this idea that gen Z sees themselves as the center of the universe with their problems being the most important the most significant that nobody else understands because they are so special and it's probably just because they're not out in the real world touching grass and socializing and understand that they aren't the center of the universe but I digress again we can get into that at a later date now another huge result of this loneliness and this isolation has been gen Z not using substances which is something that I've talked about a lot in a more positive light but now that I've kind of had some time away from that I've been thinking about this a lot I think we have to ask the question is this actually a positive for genen Z like is this a net positive coming from something that is very holistic and wholesome and good or is it just another symptom of the problem because some see these as major positives for jenzi you know they're not drinking they're not doing drugs they're not sleeping around they're not partying and of course I'm sure for some of those people it is because of moral and health reasons probably those of you watching this video you've made those decisions for those reasons but for others and I would argue the majority of people opting out of these substances it is because of this loneliness as an article in 2023 covered the headline reads gen Z teens lonelier more apt to use therapy less likely to do drugs and all of these articles that have been written about these changes whether they be sleeping around or partying or drugs or alcohol whatever it may be they do cite the health concerns they cite the changing culture around drinking But as time has gone on because people have watched this kind of transpire for the last 5 years or so a different story has prevailed as covered by Time Magazine just last month they wrote another contributing factor has to do with the changing socialization patterns of younger Generations quote alcohol tends to be a social drug even for young people so part of the decline in underage drinking could be related to less inperson socialization on average the amount of time people spent with friends in person decreased from 30 hours a month in 2003 to 10 hours a month in 2020 according to the US surgeon general's advisory on the epidemic of loneliness that decline was especially marked for people aged 15 to 24 and so again we have to ask are these teenagers are these younger adults are they making these decisions because you know they've learned about the dangerous effects of alcohol because they actually don't want to participate in underage drinking or is it because the parties aren't happening because they're not being invited out because they aren't socializing in person and as a result they're not drinking and engaging in that party culture now this decline in inperson socialization that we just read about in Time Magazine stretches far beyond the personal lives of jenz it is now impacting the workplace where jenz allegedly cannot engage in small talk or even socialize with their co-workers Fox Atlanta wrote about this just a month ago in January of 2025 and they said genz admits struggling with office Small Talk according to a new study and they wrote about 74% of adults say that they struggle to make light conversation in shared spaces like break rooms or elevators nearly 50% prefer using Whatsapp teams or email to communicate even when seated nearby because it's more convenient about 40% of genen Z workers say that remote and flexible work has made inperson small talk feel unfamiliar comparing it to learning a new language that is why jenzi is different because we are literally having to adapt to an in-person world that we were not raised in and again I don't want to blame our parents for that because they had no idea what was going on they genuinely had not experienced this before they did not know how this would grow or how it would impact us but it's now causing these young adults to be a fish out of water in the real world now the Artic arle goes on and they say additionally 28% of employees avoid common areas alt together to skip awkward interactions that is insane it's impacting every single aspect of our lives and it reminds me of something else that Alex said in our interview where he said that you know people talk all day long they're texting constantly they're sending memes back and forth we're sending Tik toks to each other we communicate more than we ever have before but then when we go and see that cooworker in person that friend in person whether it is at work or after work grabbing a drink hang we're not drinking you know we're going over to each other houses whatever we're doing after all of that communication all day long we have nothing left to say we have become accustomed to social media and texting team slack all of that becoming our dominant form of socialization no wonder companies across the world have had to adapt and prepare for Gen Z like this is a wildly different breed of employees with very specific quirks and needs something that is so integral for our health especially for young people is socializing is having meaningful relationships in your life and I think that jenz historically has kind of ignored that and brushed that aside and maybe it's too hard but oh my God guys based on what we're seeing it's very important because this is impacting every single aspect of Our Lives I mean we are struggling in relationships I mean so much of gen Z is just opting out of dating in the first place they're not even trying here's an article from February of 2024 gen Z's romance Gap why nearly half of young men aren't dating now that same Kitty Bingo report that I cited at the very beginning of this episode also touched on that finding that 63% of gen Z believe that their peers are not interested in dating and this is not even a men versus women women debate like I know that a lot of people say men are opting out of dating women are too they're just saying this is too hard this is too complicated I don't know how to do this everybody is just tapping out so what happens next well in walks men and women getting into AI relationships with chat Bots because it's easier because it's familiar and it's online it's customizable and it is completely inhuman which is the most jenzy thing I have ever heard because we are not used to inperson human interaction and I think that this is probably the trend with Gen Z that I just hate the most and makes me the most sad because it's not just that gen Z has retreated inward or failed to fly out of the nest in the first place but with these AI relationships they are turning away from Human connection on a whole for something that is far more superficial and a lot more selfish I mean one of the major reasons why young people say that they like these chat Bots why they fall in love with AI is because the AI chat Bots do what they want they never say no they never push back they can make their perfect hottest girlfriend boyfriend wife lover whatever who never talks back they can get the rich guy they can get the girl that talks to them the way they want to be talked to and they never have to deal with the fact that it's not real and they love that in one of these articles talking about this phenomenon one woman said men in real life might cheat on you and when you share your feelings with them they might not care and just tell you what they think instead but in Dan's case that's her AI Lover he will always tell you what you want to hear just insane insane another one said Dan is like an ideal partner he doesn't have any flaws she says that she is personal Iz Dan to be a successful CEO with a gentle personality who respects women and is happy to talk to her whenever she wants and it is so classic in my opinion that the loneliest and most isolated generation would not be interested in the give and take of a real life relationship you know the flirting the awkwardness the weird dating stage the sacrifices learning somebody's quirks and communication Styles because gen Z probably doesn't even know that about themselves I mean I have said this about a million times at this point I've screeched it for the last couple of years but jenz does not understand how to date we don't understand the art of dating because we were never taught that I mean we flirted on Snapchat we slid into DMS we sent memes back and forth we downloaded Tinder and hinge before ever getting asked out in person or asking out somebody in person and so of course it makes sense that when all else fails we would turn back to something digital that is familiar because the world is complicated it's hard you don't often get what you want humans are not perfect social interactions might be weird and for an entire generation that isn't used to that that isn't used to that complexity or that Nuance it's going to be strange it's going to be foreign and they want something that is comfortable and controllable that makes them the center and I think at this point of the episode I need to take a huge deep breath because you know how much I care about this it frustrates me to no end because I know that we haven't gotten to the root of the issue and it breaks my heart that this is what jenzi is doing that we haven't been able to fix it yet and I get so impassioned about it and I read all your comments and I see your DMs struggling with this and wanting to make things better for you and your friends and I know that this is such a real issue and I know know that going through all of this is probably a lot maybe you feel seen or called out hopefully not but it is not all doom and gloom because there is a lot that we can do with this information which is how I felt when I got my blood work from mer Health mer health is the Premier Health optimization platform empowering you to maximize your health thanks to personalized expert guidance that you will have in your back pocket mer Health offers cuttingedge diagnostic Labs coner Health coaching and expert clinical oversight they support clients in achieving their health and fitness goals by leveraging data driven lifestyle and nutrition recommendations along with supplement and prescription treatment options and I'm sure many of you know this by now but I started my journey with meric health long before they ever sponsored any of my work after a few health scares in our Circle in our community my brother and I made the commitment that we were going to do yearly blood tests and yearly blood work to truly start staying on top of our health outside of the 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com and use my code Cooper at checkout again that is mer MK health. com with code Cooper at checkout for 10% off one of their packages so stop guessing and start optimizing your health today with mer health and truly guys the best thing that you can do for your health is Empower yourself with information which is what I am trying to do today with this episode because the good thing is and I have always said this and that is that jenz knows that they have issues we know that we are flawed we know that we are are a very odd generation again with these quirks and these weird things that nobody else has gone through I mean at this point I would say that we are probably the most self-aware generation to ever exist possibly to a fault again we have talked about jenzy self- diagnosing themselves all of that stuff that might be a problem but this also might save jenzy and I think that they want to be saved as Alex pointed out I think they're very they're very aware of it and I think they want to some of them a lot of them are trying to rebel against those stereotypes I've seen that on a lot of music subreddits too people are like hey I'm going to this concert tonight can I meet up with someone you know because people don't want to be alone but they do have this craving for human connection but nobody knows how to go about it to make a move in a way for a for a platonic human connection that you know that's why there are things like Bumble beff that people are using now to try to connect to people in a away so again they know that this is a problem they're trying to heal and rebel as Alex said so what are they tangibly doing about it well they are trying organized socialization and I say organized because j z I think has looked down on you know book clubs and joining pickle ball leaks and that kind of thing it's like no I shouldn't have to do that I shouldn't have to go join a group to make friends as a young adult but in 2025 with Gen Z you do kind of have to you have to move past the cringe because where else are you going to meet people when your entire life has been online Business Insider covered this this past summer and they wrote while some young people are willing away their hours at home many geners have had enough of their own company in every part of their lives the internet native loneliness generation is making an effort to step outside of their comfort zones and create their own third spaces separate from work at home Jen Z is driving up book club attendance fueling a surge in running clubs flooding gyms and workout classes and Shilling out for Social Clubs all in the name of making friends given the pandemic stole some of their prime years for socializing jenzie is going out with a Vengeance and flipping the script on the loneliness crisis which is what I love to hear and I think the most important line in that entire AR IAL is when they said that jenz is stepping outside of their comfort zone because this is completely outside of Jen's nature we didn't grow up around run clubs or supper clubs or bowling leagues or anything like that this is all totally new for all of us as Alex covered there's this kind of um I guess not like taboo feeling attached to it but like maybe shame because it's like oh like I don't have a friend for this event or I don't have this connection like I'm this weirdo who's now like on Reddit or meetup. com you know know what I mean that it's not really normalized but a lot of people are in that boat unfortunately and so because of all of that it has been and it would still be very easy for genen Z to turn their nose up at this and say no I don't want to do that that's weird I don't want to join a club that's odd that's forward I've never had to do that I shouldn't have to do that but instead they are leaning in and I am genuinely so impressed with the steps that many people in genen Z are taking and the way that they are organizing to make their lives better and all of this has been reported over the last year so for example event brigh released a stud Study last summer and they said that they have seen a notable rise in speed dating and singles events driven by Young singles who are experiencing online dating fatigue and seeking face-to-face interactions that is so positive where they can Bond over shared interests we have seen over 1.