The Snowflake Effect
👉 This is part of A Sensitive World
Trends originating in younger generations are rippling across demographics, encouraging a widespread re-examining of personal experiences. The impact is equipping society at large with the ideas and language to better understand sensitivity.
Evidence A: Mental Health Rising
Mental health is top of the agenda for Gen Z, in turn raising awareness around the topic across society. Tackling stigma by normalising open conversation and language around mental health and seeking treatment, are starting to help older generations to unlearn the ‘get on with it’ attitudes that have kept them in silence for so long. Remember, the term PTSD wasn’t even coined until 1980. Our emotional awareness deepens with every generation.
Evidence B: Sober Curiosity
Dubbed ‘the Sober Generation’, fewer Aussies are drinking alcohol in their teens and 20s - driven by a heightened awareness of the world around them and an associated sense of anxiety and sensitivity towards risky behaviour. With an explosion of non-alc options and greater social acceptance of sobriety, middle aged folks are rethinking their relationship with alcohol too; preferring socialising over hedonism, deeper connection over disinhibition.
Evidence C: New Eyes on Nostalgia
Gen Z hates Friends. This we discovered during the 2021 reunion, to the dismay of those who fondly grew up with it. A new audience highlighted the problematic - fat shaming, homophobia, lack of inclusivity. In a nostalgia obsessed era, we seek the soothing of a carefree past [see Saltburn’s wild popularity] but we’re also confronted with changed social norms as we re-examine the less sensitive sides of history.
Evidence D: Past Me vs. Mini Me
Is your child a dandelion or an orchid? This trend explores different personality types that explain the varying degrees of sensitivity in kids. A dandelion thrives anywhere, whilst an orchid needs particular conditions. This literature also holds a mirror up to parents - identifying a growing number of highly sensitive parents and exploring how this identity shapes their experiences amid the mayhem of parenting.
