“Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol’ days, when our momma sang us to sleep but now we’re stressed out.” These are the famous lyrics to the song, “Stressed Out” by Twenty One Pilots. Each person has their own fair share of stressors. Yet, when it comes to the Millennial generation, also known as Generation Y, it seems to have become a trend to be the most stressed out generation. So, what makes Generation Y so stressed out?

One leading factor to the rise in stress is social media. Social media depicts a false reality. The saying “looks are deceiving” speaks true when it comes to this. For instance, with Instagram, people are constantly “following” people that they find interesting or strive to be like. However, many of these accounts are fake, specifically, models, actresses, fitness blogs, even food! The amount of Photoshop, “good lighting,” filters, and countless amounts of editing that goes into those photos which make them look too good to be true, in reality are truly too good to be true. Some may argue that you should not let yourself be influenced by social media, however, according to the article, "Psychological Stress and Social Media Issues," “These technologies are said to takeover people’s lives, creating time and social pressures that put people at risk for the negative physical and psychological health effects that can result from stress” (Hampton, Lu, Purcell, Rainie, Shin). Due to the fact that there is more information constantly flowing into people’s lives now than ever, it gives way to more time for interruptions and distractions in our daily lives. These social pressures cause an unwanted and unnecessary stress in everyday life.

Another factor includes the amount of options and lenience that Millennials have had given to them. What exactly does that mean? Generation Y grew up with the sayings, “Follow your heart” and “The sky’s the limit.” As stated in the article, “Why Millennials Are So Stressed—and What to Do about It,” “Our attitude growing up was perhaps therefore not so much “I deserve it” but rather “I can have it’” (Beaton). Millennials have been given opportunities that generations prior have not heard of. Although that is not necessarily a bad thing, Millennials tend to overthink every little factor in their lives, and those opportunities tend to become a curse. As a member of the Millennial generation, I have a first-hand account of this disposition. For instance, I catch myself overthinking to the point that I cannot even remember what I worried about in the first place. Beaton also mentions that “we often see limiting our options as limiting ourselves. In fact, the opposite is true: When we don’t agonize over our endless selection, we capitalize on our choices, value their outcomes more, and trigger better decisions.” To put it simply, less is more.

Thirdly, one of (if not the biggest) stressors for Generation Y is work since it is limited. 76 percent of Millennials have reported this to be a significant stressor as opposed to 62 percent of Baby Boomers and 39 percent of Matures (Huffington). As stated by Katherine Nordal of the APA, “Many of these young people have come out of college or graduate school with horrendous student debt into a job market where there are not very many jobs. This has put their life plans, probably, on hiatus.” Not only having limited access to jobs, especially the majority of careers that are specific to one’s major, but financial hardships as well, the Millennials are caught in between a rock and a hard place. The hunt for a steady job has been on the rise since California’s recession back in 2008. This epidemic has become more prominent nowadays more than ever. You can see it anywhere. More and more Millennials have moved back home after university, or some do not even move out, making the new “coming of age” around 25. As crazy as that may seem, it has become the new reality. This ties with marriage and starting families. How can someone expect to support a spouse, more so a family, when that person cannot even support oneself? Work serves as a major stressor since it is a foundation for the future. Going to school for 13+ years, obtaining a degree, to find yourself back home with mom and dad, jobless, does not seem like the ideal situation. Working towards a future without a promising career does not seem like a bright future after all. The stress of finding the right career path is just the tip of the iceberg. This plays into many underlying factors. From personal experience, I have recognized that when Millennials are given a reason to not succeed, many do give up. To play into work, if the ideal job is not going their way, Generation Y tends to give up on everything that had to do with it. For example, from changing majors to dropping out of school to not even starting higher education entirely because would pursuing that career really be worth it? We have developed the mind set of “what’s the point?”

Given these points, it is safe to say that the Millennials, Generation Y, or even Generation “Stressed Out” have valid reasons for their rise in stress. From social media portraying a false reality, to the amount of leniency and options given by mom and dad, and lastly the constant pressure for a perfect job to achieve a promising future, all correlate with the trend of stress for Millennials that is on the rise. To put it briefly, I believe that I can speak on behalf of myself and my generation that Twenty One Pilots said it best by saying, “Wish we could turn back time, to the good ol’ days, when our momma sang us to sleep but now we’re stressed out.”