Upended education
Although consumers around the world are feeling the weight Covid-19 has placed on their shoulders, this mindset is intensified for Generation Z, whose path to adulthood has been greatly disrupted.
Many should be attending university, an experience often sold as a crash course in identity formation. ‘Disrupting that plan can feel like a sense of loss, almost as if students are grieving their entire future,’ Jessi Gold, a professor at Washington University, tells Teen Vogue. With students fcing this loss of purpose, younger teenagers are reassessing whether this compromised experience is worth their time and money. Spotify recently found that one-in-three global consumers under 17 may not go to university at all.
Instead, many young people have been pushed back into dependent living. The pandemic has forced a fifth of British renters aged 18-24 to move back in with their parents. In Australia, this boomerang generation comprises over 330,000 people (source: YouGov, Finder). With socialising integral to human happiness, this digression is impacting their already fragile mental health. According to Handshake, almost half (49%) of students report increased anxiety due to the current economic climate.
New educational schemes are stepping in to fill this gap in emotional support, such as The Hopenclass. The think tank is billed as a space to unlearn, exploring a range of intersectional courses that centre pop culture to tackle humanities, STEM and business, focusing on developing emotional intelligence among students.
