As millennials, we possess a great amount of anxiety. Whether we are completing small tasks for an elective course or traveling across the world to learn and explore, we often bring fear with us. The millennial generation is such an anxious generation in comparison to the rest for a few reasons, but most prominently, we are nervous and uneasy because of the climate we were raised in.

First, we are completely technology reliant meaning that we simply cannot function without an illuminated screen in front of our faces. With this huge reliance on technology, we forget how to act as normal human beings, how to have real conversations in person, but most importantly, we forget how to live a carefree life.

We scroll through Instagram posts and subconsciously compare ourselves to others. We read our Twitter feed and hear about numerous terrorist attacks around the world. We watch our Facebook “friends” post albums of events we weren’t invited to. We constantly check Genesis to make sure our grades are good enough for the competitive community at East. So, why shouldn’t we be anxious? We become insecure and do not want to show our faces at school. We become afraid of our city being the next victim of an attack. We lose hope in our “friends” and begin to think they aren’t really our “friends.” We stress over an 89.4 in a class because it just isn’t good enough. In the atmosphere we were raised in, it is difficult to not possess some type of anxiety.

The increase in technology usage has not only created social anxieties among millennials, but it has created anxiety in the real world. It is important to note that throughout our entire lives, the United States has been at war in the Middle East. We don’t know a life in which the US is in complete peace. In addition, we watch the news or get notifications straight to our phones about bombings, shootings and stabbings in a new city every month, or sometimes every week. Of course it is important that we are being informed of these tragedies, but it makes us afraid, it makes us more anxious. We begin to lose the desire to travel, explore and learn because we find it would be the safest to stay in our bedrooms watching Netflix.

It is important for millennials or the newly coined “anxious generation” to take a deep breath, put our phones down and enjoy life. We cannot lock ourselves in our homes and avoid the world because social media, school or terrorism provide stressors. We have to live our lives.