How do we think about the snowflake generation?

The snowflake generation has it harder, not easier than previous generations.

Question: How do we think about the snowflake generation?
Position‹4 of 4: The Snowflake Generation exists in stark contrast to its predecessors
Argument: The snowflake generation has it harder, not easier than previous generations.

The argument

The Snowflake Generation, a nickname for the combined generations of the Millennials and Generation Z, receive their fair share of teasing. The jest often includes references to the heydays of generations past, with ideas that the current, modern world is far easier than the ones that other generations, for instance the Baby Boomers, had to contend with. However, this is an unfair and inaccurate analysis of struggle. By many measures, the Snowflake Generation has it far more difficult than any previous generation. In 2020, this generation has faced immense challenges. As the working and school age population, they have been forced to contend with the heavy impact of COVID-19 all but destroying normal life. Outside of the context of 2020 and coronavirus, life isn’t exactly easier. Yes, there is increased technology, education, and an improving quality of life, but climate change poses an existential threat, the financial markets are increasingly unstable, racial reckonings are occurring throughout the world, and mental health as an epidemic is prevalent. It is incredibly unfair to dismiss or insult the Snowflake Generation before truly understanding their predicament; they exist in one of the most turbulent worlds in memory.

Premises

[P1]The 'Snowflake Generation' — Millennials and Gen Z — is often teased as having it easier than predecessors like the Baby Boomers, but this is an unfair analysis of struggle. [P2] As the working and school-age population, they bore the brunt of COVID-19 destroying normal life in 2020. [P3] Beyond the pandemic, they face an existential climate threat, unstable financial markets, global racial reckonings, and a mental-health epidemic. [C] Therefore, the snowflake generation has it harder, not easier, than previous generations, standing in stark contrast to them.

Counter-arguments

Imagining that their lives are more difficult than they actually are is a characteristic trait of a young snowflake. The world has its problems, and they are real, genuine, inescapable concerns, but such is the fate of every generation. The Snowflake Generation has it much easier due to two main facts. The first being the lack of threat of war or drafting, which marked the experience of every generation beforehand. The second is an increase in access: access to education, to technology, to international opportunities, to other people, to equality. To squander this reality is to disrespect those who worked to improve their lives.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] The premise announces that the comparison is unfair before making it, which leaves the argument asserting what it set out to show. "By many measures" is offered without naming a single measure. [Rejecting P2] Every generation's working and school-age cohort lived through COVID-19, and the heaviest mortality fell on the oldest. Being the working population when a crisis arrives is what any generation is at the time, so this premise cannot distinguish one from its predecessors. [Rejecting P3] This is a list of concerns rather than a comparison, and the counter-argument supplies the missing side: conscription, world war, and far narrower access to education, medicine and travel marked earlier cohorts. The position claims a stark contrast with predecessors, which requires weighing both ledgers — and the premise concedes improved technology, education and quality of life while treating that concession as costless.

Proponents cited

Steven Rattner
“To some, millennials — those urban-dwelling, ride-sharing indefatigable social networkers — are engaged, upbeat and open to change. To others, they are narcissistic, lazy and self-centered.I’m in the first camp, but regardless of your opinion, be fretful over their economic well-being and fearful — oh so fearful — for their prospects. The most educated generation in history is on track to becoming less prosperous, at least financially, than its predecessors.”
Susanna Schrobsdorff
“Adolescents today have a reputation for being more fragile, less resilient and more overwhelmed than their parents were when they were growing up. Sometimes they’re called spoiled or coddled or helicoptered. But a closer look paints a far more heartbreaking portrait of why young people are suffering. Anxiety and depression in high school kids have been on the rise since 2012 after several years of stability. It’s a phenomenon that cuts across all demographics–suburban, urban and rural; those who are college bound and those who aren’t.”