The Gen Z Spiritual Soul Emergency That Will Change The World

Reports are constantly being updated on millennials and their increasingly staggering mental health crisis. Now, the second-largest generation is experiencing an emergency; a crisis that is hitting their core being. One of the most fascinating discoveries is that Generation Z’s (those born between 1996 and 2015) cannot pinpoint a singular outstanding issue that has caused their crisis. While the global pandemic of COVID-19 has accelerated and elevated the ongoing emergency, Gen Z’s are tough, and this alone was not the cause to their mental health crisis. Gen Z’s grew up on social media. They have never known life without the approval of faceless swipe-righters. 

Dr. Stanley Krippner, an American psychologist, author, and professor of Psychology for nearly 50 years at Saybrook University commented, “having one's spiritual center identified is an anchor in these turbulent times. If one has a viable worldview, [which] I call a personal myth[ology], one is able to navigate more easily.” Personal mythology is Dr. Krippners’ terminology for a variety of beliefs, feelings, images, and rules. In broader terms it’s our identity “Who am I?” our direction “Where am I going?” and our purpose “Why am I going there?” (Feinstein/Krippner Personal Mythology 2008). 

 However, if their spirituality is at loose ends, then that, compounded with other forces Gen Z’s have thrown at them, the personal dystopia turns into a monster storm. 

As a whole, Gen Z’s have suffered the worst with respect to unemployment in America compared to the other generational groups during the current economic recession from the pandemic. The “coronavirus recession” sapped the “grind” out of Gen Z’s who were on the brink of earning their crust. In July 2020, Gen Z’s had an unemployment rate of 18.5%, followed by 11.5% with millennials. Sadly, older Gen Z’s have graduated with college debt and no job prospects. In fact, many of the Gen Z’s aged 18 to 25 have moved back home because of financial needs as well as college and jobs (if they have a job) going to work and school remotely. Pew Research Center found 52% of Generation Z’s living at home. The percentage of adult children living with parents is the largest ever-surpassing the Great Recession as well as the Great Depression.   

Remarkably, Generation Z’s are remaking themselves through a spiritual emergency. This has been a perfect storm brewing for this generation for some time. If we look back, Generation Z’s, for the most part, didn’t have traditional values upheld while growing up. Their parents were too busy having a career and having their children grow up to excel. Religion was not a priority growing up for the Gen Z’s. Most teenagers and young adults are not heavy believers or religious practitioners. Add to this mixture of lax religion, an overabundance of social media, an economy that leads to Gen Z debt and unemployment plus a pandemic to deliver fear and an uncertain future plus isolation and you have Generation Z’s panic. But it’s more than panic. It’s Gen Z’s inner core wondering what we are all doing. Generation Z’s having a John Lennon moment of what is worth living in this world? Where did our priorities go? How did we get to this point? 

It’s simply a simple answer. We lack connections. We lack a higher power to stabilize our daily lives and to seek out during a personal crisis. Finally, we lack love for ourselves and for others. According to former pastor turned love coach and author, Byron Jamal, “no creation can know themselves before first know their creator and the creators’ intention for their life. Once you find appreciation for who you are and how you were created, you’ll understand you were made by love, with love, and to love and that love is outwardly to other people.”

But what about Generation Z’s conflict with religion and their spirituality- the whole unseeing, wondering about our soul moments? Jamal’s comeback to the Gen Z conflict, “It’s ok to be conflicted. Many of us are conflicted about falling off a bed but gravity is still real.” 

Presidential Candidate Joe Biden has taken his campaign for America as the “Battle for America’s soul.” President Trump banters back with tweets of Biden “not a savior of America’s soul.” In many ways, we have lost our basic core. Our sense of what our ancestors came to America for but also the ability to think and feel for the common good of all people. Generation Z’s are possibly the largest generation questioning all this because they see outside forces have controlled their past and now their future. They doubt a better America. They doubt a future. They doubt the purpose of the life they are living now. 

According to Dr. Darlene B. Viggiano, marriage and family therapist, this is a very anxiety-provoking and depressing time due to the perfect storm of not being able to know what’s really happening, not being able to predict what’s likely to happen next or when, and not being able to launch from home in the ritualized ways that Americans have been coming of age in the most recent generation previously. “ Although she feels Gen Z’s are not any more susceptible to spiritual emergencies, they are the generation that will ultimately have the longest effect from this soul searching. 

In many ways, this is the beginning of a paradigm shift with everyone’s soul. All of a sudden we now as a country and as individuals seek comfort for our soul. Generation Z’s are re-thinking what’s important in life. The crisis of the individual may bond the whole because of Generation Z’s soul crisis.