Report: Young People Say Being Called a “Snowflake” Damages Their Mental Health
“72 percent of 16-24 year-olds think the term is unfairly applied”
Whether they like it or not, young people on the left have developed a reputation for being unable and unwilling to tolerate the views of others with whom they disagree. Speakers are routinely shouted down on college campuses and the views of conservatives are frequently described as dangerous.
The term “snowflake” was entirely self-earned. They built this. So it’s difficult to feel sympathy when they say they don’t like this description of them.
Olivia Rugard of the Telegraph UK points to a recent study:
Don’t call us snowflakes – it damages our mental health, say young people
Being called a “snowflake” is damaging to mental health, young people say. Figures show that the majority of young people think the term is unfair – and even more think it could have a negative effect of its own.
The “snowflake generation” is a disparaging term now commonly used to refer to young people, who are perceived to be over-sensitive and intolerant of disagreement.
But research by insurance firm Aviva found that 72 per cent of 16-24 year-olds think the term is unfairly applied, while 74 per cent think it could have a negative effect on young people’s mental health.
The figures also show that young people are more likely to have experienced stress, anxiety and depression in the last year.
Almost half of adults between 16 and 24 said they had experienced stress or anxiety, compared to just over a third of all UK adults.
Young adults were also more likely to be uncomfortable talking about a mental health problem, with one in three saying this compared to 27 per cent of all adults.
13 per cent also said they were experiencing a problem but had not sought help, compared to seven per cent of all adults.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this study actually reinforce the whole concept of snowflakes? People who are not worthy of being called snowflakes would not claim that doing so causes them mental health issues.
Beth Baumann of Townhall, herself a Millennial, calls the study bogus and offers some perspective:
Bogus Study Perpetuates Millennials’ Snowflake-ism
This study is the epitome of snowflake-ism.
I’m a Millennial and I’m so tired of my peers who are constantly offended by everything. If you voted for Trump, that’s offensive. If you say you’re a Christian, that’s offensive. If you drive a nicer car than someone else, that’s offensive.
My generation has been taught to take into account everyone’s feelings over facts. We no longer say prayer in schools or the Pledge of Allegiance because it might offend someone. We can’t say Merry Christmas. We have to say Happy Holidays.
This study points out one major problem with our America today: we’re losing all of the things that made us so great. Our freedom of religion is gone. Our freedom of expression has been nixed. Every one of us has been expected to be so mindful of other people’s feelings that we’re expected to live politically correct lives.
She also lays the blame on Baby Boomers:
Baby Boomers, this is your fault.
You raised my generation to be selfish. You were so worried about spoiling your children and giving them everything they wanted that you forgot to instill the most important value we, as humans, can have: morality. You were so busy making sure little Harry got the nicest video game and little Sally got the latest and greatest doll out there. You were so busy buying your child’s affection that you taught them that they can demand whatever it is they want. And now, their latest demand is to quit calling them a ‘snowflake’ for being an entitled, egotistical person.
Not all young people fit the description of a snowflake, obviously. A young man who worked at a gas station in my neighborhood recently enlisted in the Marines the day he turned 18. That’s not someone who needs a safe space.
If Millennials and others truly want to shake the term loose, it’s not hard. It doesn’t even require enlisting in the armed forces. The choice is theirs.
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Comments
Would they prefer cupcake?
“Cry Babies” is the traditional label for these losers….
Ironic, that’s what makes them snowflakes.
This reminds me of this cartoon:
https://i2.wp.com/www.thebuggyprofessor.org/uploadImages/Calling%20Us%20Violent.jpg
If you’re bothered by being called a snowflake, then you’re a snowflake. If that does violence to your mental state, then good. Your psyche needs a good ass-kicking.
Now that goes too far. If someone were to call me a snowflake it would bother me, just as would any unjust insult. But it wouldn’t even occur to me to claim that it actually harmed me; making such a claim is the very definition of a snowflake.
“Unjust?”
Methinks your headline is bass ackwards. Their damaged mental health is what causes them to be snowflakes.
And like a dog with worms chasing it’s tail, down the rabbit hole they go
snowflake, snowflake, snowflake, snowflake, snowflake…..takin’ ’em down, one snowflake at a time.
The “mental health” issues are self-inflicted, but I don’t mind helping them along. The schadenfreude is exquisite.
It’s kinda like reading Rag’s latest descent into name-calling. (he’s so adorable and persuasive when he does that)
Well, back to the popcorn machine and another beer from the fridge.
“Don’t call us snowflakes – it damages our mental health, say young people”
So the solution – Keep callin’ ’em “Snowflakes!”
(I wish all problems were this simple to solve)
As though they have a “mind” to damage……..
Heh…they shouldn’t have told us that.
my wife and i sent our children to religious schools. we had holidays and special and national event meals that included prayers.
why did many/most the post WW2 families stop the traditions of faith and family ?
this strikes me as similar to post WW1 behavior as well.
as far as millennials go, the Obama period with it’s lack of jobs, pay freeze, no growth left graduates and their parents with yuge debts and NO jobs commensurate with their education.
With the advent of Trump, we have a possibility of recovering
from this disaster and with it a return to faith (i hope 😉 )
Maybe they could be referred to with greater specificity like, unemployed, incapable, dependent or intellectually incurious?
FWIW, I’d guess that the snowflakes are very small portion of their generation and are probably shunned by the regular folks of their generation who are getting along in life just like the rest of us.
I hope the snowflakes are a small part of their generation.
Boo frickin’ hoo.
My son must be part of the other 28% that makes fun of the kids who get triggered easily.
He’s in middle school and they already talk about who needs a safe space. “Are you triggered, bro?” is an insult.
Doing his part to cause the snowflakes to meltdown already 😉
My youngest son is in Middle School as well and one day he showed his Trump socks at lunch and was told he would be given detention for causing a disruption at school because kids don’t feel safe.
But yes, the “snowflakes” better realize that the world is not always nice and kind and generous.
Years ago my school district (conservative) banned any images or text on clothing, and banned all but a select number of colors. At the time it was called a uniform, although it included considerable variety.
Stores feature acceptable colors and styles.
It was considered pretty severe 20 years ago, but it stuck.
When I went to Catholic schools, we had uniforms and thought it was ok since there was no stress on what to wear. I spent my last two years at a public high school and felt there was also an “uniform” because you had to wear certain clothes & shoes to be acceptable to the in group.
A lot of private and public schools are doing uniforms since it does take the peer pressure off the students.
Do they really want a different label?? I know several that are far more descriptive, but most are not meant for polite company (or this blog). Since most of these protesters are of college age, why not use the infamous picture of Al Franken in diapers as their new symbol?
Because they don’t wear diapers. They spread their fecal matter around insicriminantly.
Hey “snowflake”, if the shoe don’t fit don’t wear it.
It’s the whipped dog that yelps.
My wife of 42 years and I have 8 children. The youngest is 20 years. I can lay claim to being a Baby-Boomer.
1 – Not a single one of my children is a SnowFlake. In fact, they would get up in your face if you told them they were simply by the description of when they were born.
2 – We, valid and certified Baby-Boomers, taught our children honesty, morality, selflessness, decency, and hard work.
One main thing can be gleaned from this:
Don’t classify the behaviors of everyone simply because of their age.
It isn’t so, just because you say it is so!!!
The REAL ‘main thing’ to glean from your comment is you did not subcontract the teaching of personal responsibility (or lack of) to one of the malignant leftist hacks infesting our schools.
Congrats on not depriving your children of that gift.
Standing outdoors screaming like a spoiled child? And you’re worried about being called Snowflake?
So there’s a few million who fit that description, right? They say they want to save the world.
So ship them out to Somalia or Syria or Siberia. They can go fix whatever terrible horrible injustice they were complaining about this week and we can dodge the bullet of a bunch of young entitled twits becoming a generation of old fascist leaders.
Children of a Helicopter Parent, opening in theaters near you.
I think that the parenting habits (or lack of…) is a better indicator of who becomes a “snowflake.”
It would be interesting to do a multi-generational study of families – when you were born, how you were brought up, how you treated your children and then go to the children and ask the same questions and then check with their children in a decade. I’m not sure of the results, but they would be interesting.
How would a Snowflake know anything harmed his or her mental health? Could I detect somebody lighting a match in the middle of a forest fire?
“Almost half of adults between 16 and 24 said they had experienced stress or anxiety, compared to just over a third of all UK adults.” It might be interesting to see how they defined “stress” and “anxiety.” Somehow I’d always assumed stress and anxiety to be part of being alive (and probably not limited to humans). Why is the reported figure not 100%?
Nonetheless, the term “crybully” seems more descriptive than “snowflake,” as “your speech hurt me” is all too often followed by some form of violence.
It seems more likely that what we’re seeing is what happens after one swallows the postmodernist pill and discovers that truth and beauty have become obsolete concepts, having been replaced in all instances with Nietzsche’s Will to Power.
For once one declares that speech is incapable of representing truth (let alone beauty) but can only represent a grab for or assertion of power, why would one not be fully justified in the suppression (by any means necessary) of all speech one finds disagreeable?
For if a Puritan is someone who is horrified at the thought that someone, somewhere might be having fun, think of how enraged our young postmodernists must be every time they realize that someone, somewhere is probably saying something they consider unacceptable even to think, let alone actually say!
“A young man who worked at a gas station in my neighborhood recently enlisted in the Marines the day he turned 18. That’s not someone who needs a safe space.”
Hopefully not. But I knew a LOT of sad little cupcakes back in the 80’s who joined up with me in the service who were there only for the free ride. And, since then, I’ve known more than a handful of today’s millennials in the ranks who do whatever they can to avoid combat tours, or at the very least, get that cushy HQ or AA posting to a general. If those aren’t snowflakes, I don’t know who is.
Snowflake, you are already mentally damaged! You’re Too stupid to realize it.
All great fun, for sure, but it sounds like a crap study.
Lines like “Almost half of adults between 16 and 24 said they had experienced stress or anxiety, compared to just over a third of all UK adults” tend to be reliable indicators of studies unusually high in craptitude. Stressed? There’s “stress” and then there’s STRESS. So what sort is this? The dryer swallowed one of their socks agian? The local bistro is out of arugula? They’re bankrupt, the dog ran off, and Mom’s medication bottle rolled under the sofa? Narrow it down a bit, please.
Paging Joseph Heller. Joseph Heller to the courtesy phone. I doubt any of these snowflakes have read Catch 22, but they’re demonstrating it.
I wonder what the snowflakes think about calling white people “Privileged” or people that think marriage is between a man and a woman “Homophobes”? Or if someone criticizes any person of color for any reason is called a “Racist”? How about the thugs that call themselves “Antifa”? Is that a cool word or is that one that makes them feel uncomfortable too? I suspect that when you delve deep into their twisted minds you will find contradiction after contradiction.
The sad comedy of all this is that snowflakes are the most corrupt group people this side of hillary klinton.
Their deal with the devils indoctrinating them in school has been this: do all the deviant things you want, act like any fool you want, take the easy way out whenever you want: in return, we will pay your small bills, loan you money for the big ones, absolve you of any responsibility in the meantime — if you keep us in power. (The fine print, of course: we will enslave you and your family; and you’ll need to pay back those loans, buddy – if it takes you the rest of your life.)
“Calling me a snowflake hurst me mental health.”
“Sorry kiddo, that ship has sailed.”
In a related incident check out the reactions of these two snowflakes.
https://youtu.be/WtftZPL-k7Y?t=1959
https://youtu.be/WtftZPL-k7Y?t=2938
In the secoond one, you see that person early in the clip so she hung around for about half an hour just to do that.
I would lay the blame on something bigger than baby boomers. The problem is kids not being well raised at all; both parents work. That has been the norm since the late 1970s. As baby boomers were rising in wealth, they were called dinks, dual income no kids. it was the image of couples so bent on wealth they neglected their kids, if any, and would spoil them to assuage their guilt. It was, as we see today, a disastrous social experiment. Compounding that, the school system has gone steadily farther left in the last 50 years, and since the parents are working they don’t have time or inclination to raise instill in their kids the American values and morals they were themselves raised with.
Consequently, today these grown kids (physically) lack the maturity to participate in society in a constructive manner. They act and probably feel like 5 year olds. They don’t even think that their feelings might be their problem, not someone else. They have no idea how to apply critical thought or understand history (probably incorrectly taught by extreme leftist education system),or how to analyze things in depth. They act from their emotions.
This is legitimately hilarious. <3
It’s dogs that can hear a dog-whistle.
She also lays the blame on Baby Boomers:……ok not sure when the “baby boomer” era ended but just guessing I would say around ’65 or so and if that’s the case would there not be another generation in there…..baby boomers would be the grand-parents