Many young men are lonely and struggling
Most young people of Generation Z are more educated and progressive than their parents. But ongoing surveys in America, Europe, and South Korea show that Zoomer men without college are becoming more conservative than even their grandfathers, reversing decades of social trends. The new conservatism is marked by blue collar work and anti-feminist values.
Young women, on the other hand, are becoming more educated than men and are benefiting from growing anti-sexist attitudes among employers. With more income parity, they are embracing newfound autonomy and exhibiting fewer romantic inclinations below their social class.
Competition for progressive men at the top is intense, fomenting resentment among their less educated cohorts and leading to less intimacy and more loneliness for many.
Remarkably, 16 to 31% of Zoomer women consider themselves to fall along the LGBT spectrum.
A Pew Research poll from 2022 found that 30% of adults are neither married, living with a partner nor engaged in a committed relationship. Sixty-three percent of these are men.
Many young unlettered men have lost ambition and consigned themselves to lives of loneliness, menial work, gaming, sports betting, and pornography.
In China, some of the social trends have been made worse by a generation of “one-child” policies that have led to an excess of 34 million men. A growing trend of “sang” culture refers to being depressed and literally “lying flat” on the floor doing as little as possible.
Some young Chinese men work marginal jobs for two or three months a year or just enough to feed themselves. Frequently living with extended family, they spend their time gaming. Chinese officials have outlawed the term “sang” on social media fearing its contribution to economic stagnation.
As young people in the U.S. have fewer children at older ages, funding for Medicare and Social Security will dwindle. As urbanization and climate migration within the country increase, uneducated men will have fewer options and become even more socially isolated.
But college-educated working Zoomers have brighter prospects. Their numbers are almost as great as working boomers and adjusted for taxes and inflation, they make significantly more money than their parents made. They are increasingly pursuing degrees in science, engineering, and medicine and take advantage of their negotiating power with employers. They are more politically active than older generations at their age and have proven adept at workarounds for political obstacles. They are innovative early adopters of technology.
More importantly, they have embraced a multicultural multiracial world view that for millennia has eluded societies around the world. This may represent a milestone for humanity even as they walk a lonelier road.
William Culbert is a retired physician. He lives in Oak Ridge.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Many young men are lonely and struggling
