WE HAVE EVERYTHING OUR PARENTS NEVER HAD—SO WHY ARE WE STILL STRUGGLING, DEPRESSED AND BROKE?

WE HAVE EVERYTHING OUR PARENTS NEVER HAD—SO WHY ARE WE STILL STRUGGLING, DEPRESSED AND BROKE?

By: Miss Bassey Margaret Ijeoma

A generation raised on the promise of technological progress was supposed to have an easier and more prosperous life. Instead, many millennia’s and younger adults are facing financial insecurity, burnout, loneliness, social pressure and an uncertain future. Did our parents really have it harder—or did we simply inherit a different kind of struggle?

There is something strange about being young today. We are living in a world that our parents once imagined as the future. We have smartphones, fast internet, social media, artificial intelligence, online education, digital banking, online shopping and thousands of entertainment options at our fingertips. We can speak to someone on the other side of the world in seconds. We can learn almost anything without going to a classroom. We can start businesses from our bedrooms and find information with a simple search. Compared with what our parents had when they were young, we clearly have more tools and more convenience. Yet many people in our generation are still struggling to find financial security, peace of mind and a sense of direction. We are connected to thousands of people but can still feel lonely. We have more information but can still feel lost. We have more opportunities but often feel more pressure. So the big question is: if we have so much more than our parents had, why does life sometimes feel harder?

For many years, people believed that each generation would live better than the one before it. Our parents worked hard because they wanted their children to have better opportunities. They imagined that technology would remove many of the difficulties they experienced. In many ways, they were right. Technology has changed our lives dramatically. We can transfer money without visiting a bank, attend meetings without travelling, study from home and communicate instantly with people anywhere in the world. A young person today can learn skills online that could lead to a career or business. These are opportunities previous generations did not have. But we made one mistake: we assumed that having better tools would automatically make us happier and more successful.

Technology makes many things easier, but easier does not always mean better. Our phones save us time, but they can also consume our time. Social media helps us communicate, but it can also make us compare ourselves with strangers. The internet gives us knowledge, but it also gives us endless distractions. Artificial intelligence can help us work faster, but it can also make us dependent on technology. We have created a world where almost everything is available immediately. Food can be ordered with a phone, entertainment is available at any time and information is only seconds away. We have become used to getting things quickly, but real life does not work that way. Building wealth takes time. Building a career takes time. Building a healthy relationship takes time. Becoming good at something takes time. Learning patience in a world that constantly offers instant satisfaction has become one of our biggest challenges.

Another major problem is comparison. Our parents compared themselves with the people around them, but our generation can compare itself with the entire world. Every day, social media shows us people travelling, buying houses, getting married, driving expensive cars, becoming successful and appearing happy. We see their best moments but rarely see their struggles. We see someone’s new car but not the debt they may have taken to buy it. We see someone’s beautiful holiday but not the financial problems they may have at home. We see someone’s business success but not the years of failure that came before it. Yet we compare their best moments with our ordinary lives. This can make a person feel like a failure even when they are actually making progress.

This constant comparison can also make us feel as if we are running out of time. Someone becomes successful at twenty-two, and a twenty-five-year-old begins to feel behind. Someone buys a house at thirty, and another person begins to believe they have failed because they cannot afford one. Someone gets married early, and a single person starts questioning their own life. But there is no universal timetable for success. People start careers at different ages. People recover from difficult situations at different speeds. People come from completely different financial and family backgrounds. Comparing your journey with someone else’s journey can make you forget how far you have already come.

However, we cannot blame everything on social media or technology. There are real economic problems affecting young people. In many places, the cost of living has increased while good jobs can be difficult to find. Young people may spend years getting an education and still struggle to find work that pays enough. Some people work multiple jobs and still cannot save much money. Others are supporting their parents, siblings or children. Some are trying to start businesses without enough money or support. So when people say that our generation is simply lazy, they are ignoring an important part of the story.

At the same time, our generation also has to accept some responsibility. We live in an age of incredible convenience, and too much convenience can make us uncomfortable with ordinary struggle. We want quick results because we are used to getting almost everything quickly. But success rarely happens overnight. We may quit too soon because we do not see immediate results. We may spend money we should be saving because we want to enjoy life now. We may constantly change direction because we expect to discover the perfect career immediately. Sometimes the problem is not that we lack opportunities. Sometimes we lack the patience to stay with an opportunity long enough for it to grow.

This brings us to an uncomfortable question: if our parents had everything we have today, would they have done better? Perhaps some would have. Imagine giving someone who already had discipline and determination access to today’s internet, smartphones, artificial intelligence and global marketplace. They could learn new skills, start businesses, advertise to customers around the world and communicate with people who could help them. But there is another possibility. They could also become distracted by social media, entertainment and the same things that distract us. Technology does not create discipline. A smartphone can be a classroom or a distraction. The internet can make you smarter or simply consume your time. The tool is powerful, but the person using it determines what happens.

This is why calling our generation lazy is too simple, but pretending that we have no personal responsibility is also wrong. Millions of young people are working extremely hard, but many are also struggling with distractions, comparison and unrealistic expectations. We were told that we could become anything. That message sounds inspiring, but it can create pressure. If we believe we can become anything, we may feel like failures when we do not become everything. We see people succeeding at young ages and begin to believe that our own lives are moving too slowly. We are constantly told to improve our careers, bodies, finances, relationships and lifestyles. Even rest can make us feel guilty because we think we should always be doing something productive.

Our parents had their own struggles, and we should not romanticize the past. They experienced poverty, unemployment, difficult relationships, limited technology and fewer opportunities in many areas. Some suffered silently because mental health was not openly discussed. Their lives were not necessarily easier. They simply faced different problems. But there are qualities many of us can learn from previous generations. They often had to wait for things. They repaired things instead of replacing them. They saved before buying expensive items. They depended more on family and neighbours. They had fewer distractions competing for their attention. Their circumstances sometimes forced them to develop patience and resilience.

Perhaps our generation does not need to choose between the past and the present. We can take the best parts of both. We can use modern technology while learning the patience our parents had. We can use social media without allowing it to determine our value. We can use artificial intelligence without allowing it to replace our ability to think. We can pursue money without making money the only measure of success. We can enjoy convenience without becoming unable to tolerate discomfort.

The truth is that having more does not automatically make life better. More technology does not guarantee happiness. More choices do not guarantee direction. More information does not guarantee wisdom. More communication does not guarantee meaningful relationships. And more opportunities do not guarantee that we will know what to do with them.

Maybe our parents did not necessarily have a better life. Maybe they simply lived in a world that demanded different strengths. They had fewer tools but sometimes developed more patience. We have more tools but face more distractions. They had fewer choices but perhaps less pressure to constantly compare themselves with others. We have greater opportunities but also greater expectations.

The real question is therefore not whether our generation is better or worse than our parents’ generation. The real question is whether we are using what we inherited wisely.

We have the technology our parents never had. We have access to knowledge they could not easily reach. We have opportunities they could only dream about. But none of these things can make decisions for us.

We still have to learn discipline.

We still have to learn patience.

We still have to build real relationships.

We still have to learn how to handle failure.

And we still have to decide what kind of life actually makes us happy.

We inherited the future our parents dreamed about. The challenge now is learning how to live in it.