Children of the XXI century are not like us at all. They are different. And their phobias are different, incomprehensible to us born in the last century.
Generation Z are children born after 2000. Whatever they called them: indigo, digital, network children, aliens. These are completely new people who, since school, do not consider themselves children. Instead of books, they will choose to read political news, sit on benches, they will prefer rallies on the street, instead of intimate conversations in the kitchen, they communicate on the Internet, play games where they become leaders along with adult participants. They seem to be not afraid of anything, but new children have fears. And it is not the dark room and the gray top under the bed that scare them. Woman’s Day has collected 15 of the scariest things that children of the millennial are afraid of.
1. The biggest fear of millennials is to be without the Internet and Wi-Fi… They live and learn online. Their entire social set: friends, entertainment, communication, information flows – on phone screens, on pages in VKontakte, Instagram, Facebook. Hence their next fear.
2. Break (break) the phone or computer. Children need information flow like air. A child is not able to refuse it even for half an hour – at breakfast time, for example.
3. Be unloved. This is a classic form of fear. But today, children especially feel a lack of attention from their parents. Hence the fear of being unloved, unnecessary for parents. At the same time, some modern children simply do not need heart-to-heart conversations in large volumes, they need the very concept – parents are nearby.
4. One of the more popular modern fears is the fear of strangers. This is due to the fact that in the current criminal situation in the world and the increasing incidence of crimes committed against children, parents are trying to prevent such misfortunes. They constantly repeat to their child the rules of behavior with strangers. And the child begins to be frightened by the very fact of a possible meeting with a person who wishes him harm.
5. Disasters and natural phenomena. Aerophobia is often in the first place in Generation Z. Every day, streams of information about crashed planes, floods, plane crashes are poured into the network. If we have not seen such photos before, now the place of the accident or the plane crash can be viewed online.
6. Fear of completeness. Yes, modern girls and some boys are afraid of getting fat. The naked eye can see what standard of beauty is now being promoted. Refusing to accept themselves as they are, adolescents often look through the pages of plastic surgeons, already at the age of 15-16 dreaming of changing something in themselves.
7. Fear of running out of money… The desire to start earning as early as possible, and preferably without leaving home. They sell, create pages, make jewelry, write music, programs. Examples of successful children’s business are in one way or another related to information technology.
8. Fear of being like everyone else… And the fear of not being like everyone else. A teenager dreams of having his own special gift, talent, something to stand out, to be the coolest. On the other hand, he is afraid to become a black sheep, to be misunderstood by his peers. And these two fears are fighting in the child.
9. Fear of school, Unified State Exam… Modern children get along very poorly in the old education system. What the teacher can give in the classroom in two months, the child will fully study at the computer in a week, using video lessons and chips from the Internet. In the classroom, children are bored. They are offended by a bad mark for not having a notebook – they rightly believe that only knowledge should be evaluated. But if a modern, interesting, creative teacher appears at school, teenagers are happy to learn the subject.
10. Fear of verbalism… They get tired of explaining things that others don’t understand. Moreover, modern children do not really know how to do it. They are not taught to speak now – neither by their parents, nor by the school. The former are too busy to talk to the child, and the teachers are not too interested.
11. Fear of disappointment in a person. They do not tolerate falsehood. It is alien to them to say one thing, to think another and to do a third.
12. Fear of making the wrong decision. They think fast. Make decisions quickly.
13. Fear of growing up and becoming nothing… They are revolutionaries. They want to change the world. Adults treat this desire with disdain. From here, bitterness grows.
14. Fear that their opinions will not be taken into account. They need their own right to make a decision.
15. Fear of real life. Children want quick results. And they get them. Not in the real world. In the real world, everything is slow and difficult. And they don’t like it. Both learning and intimate-personal communication are increasingly flowing into online. More technogenic, less human. Gen Z is difficult for parents to communicate with. The communicative distance between them increases.
What should parents do
We have created a society when it is simply difficult for us, parents, to pass on something practically meaningful to our children. We, to put it mildly, do not bring anything useful for our children except love and help. In such a society, the younger generation is able to transfer some knowledge to the older one. And it seems to us that we are not an authority for our own children. This is wrong. Generation Z really needs family, support and understanding. They are very vulnerable. Scandals, punishments, conflicts send them even more into their networked world. Where there are no real fears of this world, but there is only one: my mother did not pay for the Internet.
You must learn the main thing: in order to reduce the fears of a child of generation Z, you must always, every minute and second, keep an emotional connection with him!
For reference. Generation theory:
Generation GI heroes (born 1900-1923);
Silent generation, winners (born 1923−1943);
The Baby Boomer generation, superpower optimists (born 1943-1963);
Generation X, independent individualists (born in 1963-1984);
Generation Millennium, or Y, moralists (born 1984-2000);
Generation Z (since 2000).