2023-12-17 14:59:23
A few weeks ago, the rapper and composer Duki spoke about mental health in the middle of a recital and called for people to show their feelings if they are sad or to cry if that is what they feel, especially men, who still have the mandate to “men do not cry”. Something similar was done before by other young public figures like Tini Stoessel, for example, who spoke about the pressures she suffers on social networks. These expressions of young people who expose their fragility as a positive value, coexist with all kinds of jokes, memes and even criticism that this generation is too fragile, not only in personal matters but at work for example: that they do not give everything for work or demand less, etc. The journalist María Julia Olivan referred to this a few months ago: “There is a crystal generation whose cat dies and misses work.” We speak precisely of the “glass generation” to name a phenomenon of “emotional fragility” that would seem to encompass people born since the late 90s but also people who have other values that question those of previous generations, among other characteristics. In this article, specialists try to explain why we talk about the “glass generation” and what their beliefs, values and practices are.
At the beginning of December, after experiencing a moment of anguish at a press conference, Duki referred to the issue in the middle of a concert on the River Plate field. He called on those suffering from “anxiety problems, mental problems” to “move forward.” In a short speech he gave several definitions: “I am a man and I have cried since I was born. And I lived sad all my life and that’s how I became strong”; “If they have anxiety problems, mental problems, crazy, the way is to get ahead”; “If you have to cry, cry. If they have to be sad, they say it”; “And if they call you a shit, you say shit, it’s you for not wanting to show it, gil.” His “confession” earned the applause of his fans.
Sofía Calvo has a degree in psychology and author of the book The Crystal Generation. Society, family and other ties of the 21st century. She herself wrote in the first person about this matter. In dialogue with Página / 12 she said that this generation comes to question “concepts that were previously immovable.” “We are in a moment where aspects that were previously only accepted or taken for granted are being questioned socially. Like the idea of having children, of getting married, of tolerating a job that costs us our mental health, of not talking about what happens to us. Among others,” she added.
There is a consensus that this generation expresses greater sensitivity, concern for the environment or what they eat, knows their rights and prioritizes their personal well-being over other values, among other things. Although these aspects could be seen as positive, talking about the “crystal generation” seems to have negative connotations if we think about it as people who are too susceptible, cannot overcome the obstacles that arise in life or do not accept frustrations. “There are always opposing or complementary positions in any social analysis. It is impossible for there to be a homogeneous consensus, and it is not enriching or necessary either. Sensitivity can be taken as something positive because it allows us to empathize or delve deeper into certain topics, or it can be thought of as weakness. I choose to be in the first group, in which sensitivity is understood as a fundamental tool to participate in the necessary changes in the world. This generation comes to put a definitive end to things that have been questioned for a long time, and the system does not like this at all. Every new current generates a countercurrent or resistance to change and that is why we try to dismiss it. But it does not mean that they are actually weak or their ideas are wrong. The analysis is much more complex,” said Calvo.
Some of these changes, such as, for example, moving away from the stereotype of the man who does not cry, have been promoted for a long time by feminisms and gender studies, which could give some clues about why and those who question the “glass generation.” . In that sense, Calvo said that the changes are accepted and celebrated by those who are on the path of deconstruction, understanding them as political acts necessary for the identification of other people. That is, demystify some issues, start talking about others, give it the influence it has on mental health. But for those who don’t, they will simply remain signs of weakness. There is a very wrong idea of what weakness is. And feminism and the progressive sectors of society understand that.”
The term “glass generation” was coined by the Spanish philosopher Montserrat Nebrera to describe the emotional fragility, the management of feelings, the boiling susceptibility, the overprotection of their upbringing and the low tolerance for frustrations of young people born from late of the 90s. Although there is no academic consensus to speak of this term, specialists approximate definitions based on what could be considered modes of subjectivation characteristic of this era. Although the quasi-marketing intention of seeking to label people based on their age may be questioned, the term is popularly circulating and based on that, the experts consulted try to make some approximations to the phenomenon.
Marcela Altschul, psychopedagogue and psychoanalyst, reflects in dialogue with this newspaper about other aspects of what it also means to be part of the “glass generation”: “There is a significant difficulty in sustaining the effort involved in any process or short-term goal, medium or long term. It would seem that the starting point is the conviction that it is their turn to enjoy all the benefits without having to work to achieve it,” she said. He also shared some experiences collected in his office, in which adolescent and young patients consider that what was built or achieved by their parents is their own merit, ignoring the effort and experience involved: for example, Sara, eighteen years old, presents herself as “ almost a psychologist”: “A month ago I started my degree, but, above all, because my mother is a psychologist so, from living my whole life with her, I almost am.”
A large part of those who gave Javier Milei the victory as president are part of this generation. That is why it is also worth asking how the “glass generation” experiences the political changes, right-wing or ultra-right-wing in our country and the world. “It is one of the weak points of the generation. But as in everything, there are no absolutes. We have a militant youth aware of what the right represents, but they are also those who consume TikTok or networks where the extreme right did a great job of marketing, which in my opinion was the key to their political success. It is essential to work on awareness and the construction of critical thinking that goes beyond social networks because otherwise the masses become increasingly weaker and malleable thanks to speeches or slogans that little represent what they actually come for. ”, said Calvo.
On the other hand, Altschul proposed to understand this generation from how mothers and fathers conceived their upbringing, in which effort and instances of possible frustration were avoided at all costs: “Many families share a discourse that highlights the refusal of any demand that can be made towards the little ones, as well as the conviction that all learning must be presented and experienced from pleasure, ideally in a playful way, almost as if it were harmful for children to realize that there is a certain expectation of improvement. to them”.
“We can link this difficulty with a low tolerance for frustration: if they have never had to sustain the effort in the face of new challenges and unforeseen obstacles, they will hardly know how to handle the disappointment or setbacks they encounter,” he added. Thus, what so many mothers and fathers conceived as an act of protection “can deprive them of the experience of enjoying the satisfaction of achieving an achievement, thanks to their own effort and perseverance. In this way, protection shows its other side when the time comes to face an autonomy that, in many cases, is only in appearance, since they have not gone through the necessary experiences to build their own resources that enable them to face the outside.
For her, faced with this generation born digital native, we must also ask ourselves about their relationship with information technologies and the exposure of intimacy in search of social acceptance. On the other hand, as part of this phenomenon she pointed out that “until a couple of decades ago there was a clear differentiation in the way of speaking or dressing depending on the place or interlocutor we were addressing. From this generation, many times the treatment towards others is very similar regardless of the degree of confidence or age and, in relation to clothing, strongly questioning when attempts are made to regulate, for example, that they cannot go to school with flip-flops or transparencies. . Many rules or regulations are resisted because they are experienced as repressive, losing the dimension of the need for social agreements and coexistence.” She was also very concerned about the tendency to publicly expose such intimate/private aspects as mental health: “Just as we see that the rights of many children are violated by parading them through the media to explain what their own diagnostic condition (supposed autism, dyslexia, etc.), we hear journalists and communicators confess in public their anguish for having discovered at that precise moment, or shortly before, that they suffered from a certain syndrome or disorder (as an inference from the above by the little guest or a mental health professional). And he considered that this movement goes hand in hand with the so-called “emotional education” that was installed “wildly in schools, exposing children from the first classrooms of initial education, to talk about their emotions with teachers who do not necessarily have the ability to handle situations that may arise, in front of groups of peers who are part of their public world.”
Like any generational section, looking at this generation allows general approximations that take into account positive and negative qualities, just as it could be done in relation to other generations. The fact that these characteristics transcend the individual to become a common trait with people of similar ages is not intended to stereotype the group but rather to make social analysis more complex. As Calvo said: “each society creates its own symptoms and this generation is not exempt from this.”
Taken from Page 12
Cover photo: EYES
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