Home Latest How The Current World Events Are Affecting Millennials Right Now

How The Current World Events Are Affecting Millennials Right Now

Each morning I wake up with a heavy heart from what I see in the news. From war updates to death tolls from the ongoing pandemic — which people are simply ignoring — to freedom fighters who aren’t educated about what they’re fighting for anymore. I’m sick of it all. And I’m sick for those who are experiencing the great tragedies in our world firsthand. 

We millennials are living through fascism, a pandemic, war, poverty, inflation, unattainable rent prices, increasing gas prices, low wages, potentially a pending recession, a climate change crisis, and so many other personal issues. And the scary part is we are expected to be okay and keep grinding through it all.

But I for one, am not. And I don’t know how anyone is.

These are our twenties and thirties — they are supposed to be the best time of our lives. 

But instead, we’re worried to death about losing our jobs because we literally can’t afford not to have one, especially when it’s increasingly difficult to find another. We’re unable to spend money on necessary things out of fear something more expensive will happen and throw us into even more debt. And we’re worried for loved ones who we essentially feel helpless for. Oh, and not to mention feeling the crippling judgment from generations before us. 

I’m 26 years old, almost 27. I’ve witnessed far too much in my generation to handle even from a young age. 

I remember 9/11, even though at the time I didn’t fully understand the significance because I was six years old. I remember the wars overseas and meeting so many new students at my school who came to our country from war-stricken countries for safety, learning about their childhoods and how their families are still over there. 

And I’ve seen my parents and their friends lose their jobs to a recession and starting over in their forties with families still living at home. I’ve understood a lot from a young age, and am not naive that I have it pretty damn good compared to others. 

But now it feels as though these adult issues I witnessed others experience as a child are going to happen to me. I’ve already lost my job and had to go back to a part-time job just to make ends meet. I’m living at home because there’s no way in hell I can afford to live on my own or with a roommate, let alone afford groceries. And now I’m fearing my family will be deployed to go fight another war that could eventually come to my country. 

I’m privileged enough to know that I have not and hopefully will never experience half of the severities of the world, especially right now. 

But I’m sick to my stomach and beyond terrified of what this means for all of humankind. No human should have to live through these tragedies. 

As a generation, we used to read about these wars in textbooks in school growing up, learning these were issues our grandparents and great-grandparents experienced in their youth. Now, we’re seeing pictures that mirror those we saw in those textbooks, and we’re seeing goodbye videos in real-time with audio that mirror what we saw in textbooks. This is becoming our reality. 

And on top of all of this, we live in a culture full of “not enough people are speaking up, we need to raise awareness.” Which is true. However, it’s made the spread of misinformation even worse because people feel compelled to write whatever they can or share the first thing they see out of fear of being shamed, instead of researching through reputable sources. But even then, people are still screaming that the news spreads false statistics and aren’t reliable, so that scares people away too.

We are a generation that just can’t win.

Sure, we are sharing and laughing at semi self-deprecating memes making slight fun of the situation we are in as a coping mechanism. Hell, it’s what we’ve been raised to do. But in all seriousness, we really need to take in what’s going on in the world and how it’s affecting us. 

It’s unpleasant constantly witnessing world history unfolding, and I’m sure our grandchildren in 2088 will look back and think of what a wild time we went through,similarly to how we thought when we  learned about our grandparents’ lives. 

But remember, the panic, fear, and anxiety we are constantly experiencing are normal considering the circumstances. Take a break from social media to free your mind, or read reliable sources to become educated. Either way, just know you are not alone and we’re all in this together, whether our Instagram accounts are showing it or not. 

Featured Image by Katie Godowski from Pexels

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