Future View
By John San Nicolas | July 20th, 2022
Hi All! My name is John San Nicolas. (Fun fact: “Santa Claus” is an anglicization of my last name!) I am a second-year undergrad at UNM, majoring in Religious Studies and Philosophy. I enjoy thinking about life and what it means to live well.
My dad was born in Guam, a little island part of the Marianas. As a US territory, it's cut off from the rest of its archipelago. Occupied by the Spanish, the US, Japan, and the US again, the culture has been suppressed over and over. As someone born in the states, you can imagine what little I know about what it means to be Chamorro! I don't speak the language, I don't know much of the history, and I've never been to Guam.
When people talk about heritage and culture, I don't quite know what they mean. And maybe that's okay! I could have been born to a Polynesian family, or a Hawaiian family, or a Congolese, Russian, or Indian family. Heritage is - in the best sense - an accident of birth. We as individuals are shaped by it, but it ultimately does not define us. We can honor where we come from, to remember and to sustain. We can also choose to forge our own way of life, as a gift to our children and their children, that they can have what we missed out on.
Last month, a producer from Wall Street Journal Opinion reached out to me about their new show, Future View (you can check it out now on Snapchat!). Future View showcases takes from college students, from the ACT to standing for the National Anthem, from gun control to police reform. A submission of mine featured this past Tuesday. The prompt was, “Why is there such a sharp rise in depression and anxiety among Gen Z?” It is an important question, to be sure. Many in our generation, bearing the weight of current events and of the future, are fighting a battle within ourselves.
On the one hand, Gen Z is not alone. Generations before us have been fighting a battle within themselves, too. In ancient literature, sorrow and unease are eloquently expressed by poets and psalmists of old. Though they might not have had the scientific know-how to recognize or treat depression and anxiety, they have experienced and endured it as well.
We are not alone, then, in hardship. On the other hand, that is not to minimize the struggles we might face today. It is exhausting to live through historical events, to feel as though progress and liberation are impossibilities. To know the damage done to the climate, the cruelty committed against animals, the rights denied to people. Even on social media, where it is proper to post only smiles and not sorrows, we compare our experiences, our opinions, our bodies, to strangers that are just as imperfect and unsure as we are. What is it they say about comparison being the thief of joy?
So, why is there such a sharp rise in depression and anxiety amongst Gen Z? Living through historical events might have a part to play, for sure. Perhaps it is the loneliness in which we find ourselves despite a world of online “community.” Perhaps the pressure of having to know what we want to do in the future is too much to handle. Maybe because society in general has moved past absolutes, and, as Nietzsche would say, we must now carry on without gods and prophets showing us the way to go, right from wrong, good from evil. I don’t know the full answer. The answer is certainly anything but simple. But what I do hope is that the rise doesn’t continue into future generations. And that our generation can come together, support one another, cry together, heal, and flourish.
