Safetyism got its foot in the door after Gen Z began to enter colleges in 2013
The preoccupation with safetyism is clearest when Gen Z started to enter colleges around 2013 . Psychologist Jean Twenge has shown that Gen Z suffers from far higher rates of anxiety and depression than did Millennials at the same age—and higher rates of suicide. Members of Gen Z are “obsessed with safety,” as Twenge puts it, and define safety as including “emotional safety.” Going into the twenty-first the concept of safety had expanded from physical safety to include emotional safety. Their focus on “emotional safety” leads many of them to believe that, as Twenge describes, “one should be safe not just from car accidents and sexual assault but from people who disagree with you.” Thus safe spaces allow for people to shield themselves from the discomfort of opposing views. The requests for safe spaces and trigger warnings started to spread only when Gen Z began arriving on campus around 2013. The demands for safety and censorship accelerated rapidly over the next four years as the last of the Millennials graduated, to be replaced by Gen Z.
References
- Lukianoff, Greg. Haidt, Jonathan. (2019). The Coddling of the American Mind Chapter 1 The Untruth of Fragility What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Weaker (Epub p. 46). New York, NY: Penguin Random House.
Metadata
Type:🔴 Tags: Demography Status:☀️