Hanging out with other unemployed friends is fun. Getting high and going to the beach is fun. How is a 1970s slacker fundamentally different from 2005 slacker? I'd argue they are not.
Life has always been hard. Slackers have been around for ever. Are there fundamentally more today? Adjusted for unemployment levels? I don't think so.
They're not, they're just a lot easier. The effort that it takes to get high and go to the beach with friends is massive compared to the effort it takes load a video game and join a server.
When I was an aimless teenager type in the late 80s/early-mid 90s, people would eventually stop hanging out due to fatigue, and the idea that getting a job and going to work every day might be easier than running the streets hustling up something to break the boredom of existence. The notable exceptions to this were binge drinkers and drug addicts, who, if they had a steady way to score, would end up stuck in that life for the next 20 years.
>Slackers have been around for ever. Are there fundamentally more today?
Who knows? Sounds like a research question rather than just an opportunity for handwaving.