- for Americans, the numerous wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and in other countries - not to mention 9/11 itself which hit right as many of my generation were in childhood and old enough to understand what is going on in the news
- the financial crisis 2008ff which will leave those who graduated around it with lifetime lower earnings (https://www.pymnts.com/economy/2020/millennials-facing-secon...)
- for the Europeans, the Euro crisis not soon after, same effect if not worse, given the devastation it caused in Southern Europe / PIIGS states
- for Europeans, dealing with the refugees that all the wars in Africa and Asia caused, culminating in the 2015ff migration crisis
- worldwide, anyone not completely ignorant already sees the catastrophic effects of climate change and the utter inaction of our politicians. We see that the world is figuratively speeding with 200 km/h against a rapidly upcoming brick wall, we see that instead of applying the brakes, the 1% of rich and elites instead maxes out the throttle, and we know that we are going to take the beginning of its effects in 30 years and our children face the full impact. Old people complain why the youngest are on strike on Fridays instead of going to school - well, they are aware that no amount of education can help them if the planet is nearing inhabitability!
- and on top of that, we have a new crisis looming in the form of Russia destabilizing Western governments by propaganda and cyberwars, and China taking parts right out of the NSDAP playbook and acting like a schoolyard bully in the Pacific region all the way to Australia.
- did I already mention that my and the later generations will face significantly less earnings than the generation of Boomers, and that income and wealth inequality also has risen constantly over the last decades?
- as a result, home ownership is ever more inachievable, in contrast to our parents we have to regularly be on the move and uproot ourselves (thus, losing our meatspace social network) every couple of years because the only way to achieve wage raises is to move companies
- and on top of all of what I mentioned, we have the aftermath of the Covid crisis that showed just how fundamentally broken our societies and economies are, how incompetent and reckless our politicians are, how utterly ignorant politics and society acted when it came to the needs of the young (we sacrificed our youth for the at-risk population, and got rewarded with anti-vaxxers and police smashing outdoor parties as a thank-you), that wrecked entire economies beyond belief and many of us lost people held dearly under sometimes egregious circumstances!
All of this is a permanent mental load, in some cases (especially when it comes to Covid) we are crossing into trauma territory. I'm seriously interested in the first psychological research dealing with stress influence of the last two decades.