Those that lived in caves were undoubtedly stressed about having to venture out to hunt or catch their food each day. They also had to worry about what danger might confront them while they looked for that food. It also had to stress them wondering whether that new berry they found might actually poison them rather than sustain them. And knowing that if they got sick there was no doctor or hospital to go to. They were on their own. There was no end to stress factors in their lives.
My father, who grew up in the Depression, had different stress factors in his life. His father was killed when he was the oldest of three at age 5. There was no insurance and no Social Security survivor benefits. He worried about his mother finding and keeping a job, when it was not easy for anyone to find a job, let alone a woman. He worried about having enough to eat or having clothes on this back. He had no hopes of going to college. It was simply unaffordable for him. There were no student loan programs. He graduated from high school and went to work in a plant manufacturing washing machines. He later stressed as he was on a troop transport heading to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese. Would he ever return?
I was fortunate to avoid a lot of the stress factors that my father dealt with. He and my mother provided a relatively stable home life for me but for the necessity of 5 moves in my 12 years of schooling. In those days, corporate transfers were a way of life. You went where your company told you to go. You did not make lifestyle choices. My generation also had the Vietnam War and a military draft hanging over everyone's head. 58,220 served and did not return. When we were in the same age range as Millennials today, we saw an unemployment rate of over 11% (today it is 3.7%), inflation of 13% (today it 2.0%) and a 30-year home mortgage rate of 18% (today it is 4.0%-4.5%)
Considering the history above I could not help but chuckle when I saw this recent headline.
That's right, more than half of Millennials believe that life today is more stressful than it has ever been before!
One-third of Millennials actually believe that their lives are more stressful than the average person's life today. I guess they must not be familiar with Baby Boomers who are entering their retirement years with little in savings, the 50 years olds caught in the "sandwich generation" caring for children at home and parents in a retirement home, or the single mother trying to care for a couple of children while working two jobs.
What is an example of a "stressor" in the lives of Millennials today?
Almost 1 in 5 said that getting zero "likes" on a social media post is a stress-inducing experience.
However, that pales in comparison to losing their phone (44%), slow WiFi (42%) or a dead phone battery (40%) as "stressors" in their lives.
Although neither made the top 10 list of stressors, Millennials actually are more stressed out by being the first to arrive at a party than going for a job interview. That is a far different from how my grandmother felt in the 1930's and the stress my fellow Baby Boomers went through in the early 1980's on their job interviews. That interview might have determined whether they had a roof over their head in a month.
If you don't believe times have changed, look no further than this survey and the list above. No where on this list is there any mention of stress about having enough to eat, finding a job, paying for college, or being drafted and going off to war.
60% of the Millennial generation seriously believes that life is more stressful today than ever before?
Isn't it also interesting that half of the top 10 stressors all have something to do with their phone?
Does that suggest that losing their phone might actually take half their stress away? There would be so much less to be stressed about after they got over the loss of the phone. No stress about slow Wifi, the phone battery dying or forgetting the charger.
Do a Millennial you love a favor and send them this blog post with the suggestion that they might want to count their blessings. If this is as bad as it ever gets for them in their lives, they are a very fortunate generation. For their sake, I hope it is.
In meantime, I suggest they might want to stress less and chill more.
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