Much of Generation Z is heading into adulthood, and we’re realizing that being an adult is hard, a bit scary, and often unenjoyable.

Anxiety and fear are incredibly high among Gen Z-ers, also known as Zoomers. I saw an article last month reporting that 86% of Generation Z has “menu anxiety,” or overwhelming anxiety about eating out.

Another article published in November reports that Gen Z is having difficulty adjusting to the demands of a 9-5 work week.

While most people look at these articles (and other reports about Gen Z) and just shake their heads, I genuinely believe this need to be approached with grace and love. There is something deeper going on here than simple laziness or being anti-social.

It involves the worldview held by much of my generation, coupled with the drastic changes occurring in our world. By the grace of God, Generation Z has had a quiet life. Most of us have grown up during the most peaceful time in the most prosperous country in history.

However, it has also been during a period when our country has decided we don’t need God because we can be our own gods. Now everything is starting to collapse – just look at the news – and Generation Z is terrified. Often we don’t know who to turn to and an overwhelming social media dependence that provides brief flashes of comfort only increases our panic by feeding us all of the wrong answers.

Generation Z has been raised on the internet and without God.

In contrast, those of us who are Christians know that without Christ, chaos is all there is. 

Many of us Gen Z-ers feel incredibly unprepared for the “real world.” I worked with a Zoomer who planned to go to seminary after college because she didn’t know what to do, and it helped push that decision further into the future.

I believe that this sense of purposelessness and a dislike for one’s job comes from a misunderstanding of what life is supposed to be like and where our purpose comes from. A lot of it is fed by social media because social media doesn’t give a realistic view of life.

It’s full of selfish, me-centered advice about what life should be like, and it is saturated with posts and reels showing people living crazy lives and making money based on their hobbies. There is an overemphasis on doing what you love, with how you feel about something being given higher importance than doing something valuable and productive for others.

The problem is that that’s just not how life works and it’s not how God created us to work. When you enter a job with the mindset that your happiness is the end goal, you get hurt and discouraged very easily. It’s one of the reasons Gen Z struggles so much with “adulting.”

Generation Z is also known for its mental health issues.

Zoomers are anxious, scared, depressed, and sad. While I can’t say I fully know the reason, I can say that social media combined with a culture running from God’s design for the world is largely responsible for this. In many ways, we live in a world that values humans not because we’re created by God, in His image, but rather based on skin tone and beliefs (think identity politics and intersectionality theory).

That only adds to anxiety and depression in a generation that doesn’t have a biblical understanding of the world and how they were created.

Covid also really affected my generation. Often I don’t think people realize just how badly Gen Z is scarred from it – both because of the isolation and the fearmongering. One day when I was sitting in class, Covid was mentioned.

I can still hear the pain and frustration in the voices of my classmates as they talked about it.

I can’t claim to be the world’s foremost expert on the psyche of my peers. But I can offer my observations, and hopefully, some advice on how to help. Generation Z needs a reality check, both in terms of truly knowing what life is like and understanding what things ought to be valued.

We also need to understand the truth about the Scriptures and not think about ourselves so much. It would be incredibly helpful for older generations to come alongside us and point these things out in a grace-filled way, remembering that they were once young, too, with different struggles.

As we head into 2024 and the chaos that comes with the election year, anxiety and fear are going to get worse unless we rely on God, knowing that He is sovereign over everything – including elections. Let’s give each other grace and encouragement in the months ahead.