Is it possible to see the psychological consequences of growing up in an environment where school shootings and 9/11 had restructured your world around fear of random violence? A world where the Great Recession decimated your savings for the past decade and where your prospects of getting a job were severely hampered by the slow economic recovery that has plagued you for the last ten years. And where climate change is threatening the survival of the Earth’s ecosystems. You also face increasing political polarization and racial strife.
The fascinating book “Generation Disaster” by Karla Vermeulen, State University of New York at New Paltz psychologist is now available. Subtitled The Coming of Age After 9/11 Generating DisasterThe national survey covering people who were born in the period 1990 to 2001 is what underpins this study. Vermeulen examines the effects of growing up in an apocalyptic political and social environment. He also discusses the roles of Boomer and Generation X parents in instilling anxiety. Vermeulen also looks into how technology and media has influenced the views of the generation between 20 and 30.
Vermeulen, a mediator in an age of increasing generational hostility between the older and younger Americans is essential. Her book is, Generating Disaster, is a rich, empathetic portrait of a group too often simply—and wrongly—dismissed as weak, lazy, and entitled.
Image Credits Karla Vrumen; Envato Elements: People walking on Urban City Street. Photo by Clem Onojeghuo. Photo by Nate Olson. Photo by Marvin Meyer. Unsplash. DoD photo taken in U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant. Marianique Santos, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Office of Senator Kamala Harris, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Photo by Mark kassinos on Unsplash; Nicolas Landemard/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; ImageSpace/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Ronen Tivony/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Mark Hertzberg/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; BILL GREENBLATT/UPI/Newscom; Photo by Christopher Ott on Unsplash; Photo by Viktor Talashuk on Unsplash; Photo by Ümit Yıldırım on Unsplash; Photo by Yogendra Singh on Unsplash; Photo by Alex Motoc on Unsplash; Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash; Philwelch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Rowland Scherman, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Prelinger Archives, via Archive.org; Photo by Alexandre Desane on Unsplash; Photo by Eliott Reyna on Unsplash; Photo by Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash; Photo by Jordan on Unsplash; Photo by Marko Beljan on Unsplash; Photo by Holly Mindrup on Unsplash; Photo by Jeff Kingma on Unsplash; Photo by Caleb Woods on Unsplash; Reason Archives, 1990, 2001; Photo by Joe Woods on Unsplash; Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash; Photo by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash; Photo by Alex Iby on Unsplash; Photo by Nsey Benajah on Unsplash; Photo by Aarón Blanco Tejedor on Unsplash; Photo by Patrick Hendry on Unsplash; Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash; Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash; Photo by Antoine GIRET on Unsplash; Photo by Alexis Antoine on Unsplash; Photo by Cristina Gottardi on Unsplash; Photo by Katsiaryna Endruszkiewicz on Unsplash; Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash; Photo by Tanya Pro on Unsplash; Photo by Onur Binay on Unsplash; Photo by Alex Blăjan on Unsplash; Photo by Ma Ti on Unsplash; Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash; Photo by Marvin Meyer on Unsplash; Photo by Ludovic Toinel on Unsplash; Our World in Data; Photo by Bekky Bekks on Unsplash; American Enterprise Institute, Scott Kinship page; Photo by Konstantinos Papadopoulos on Unsplash; Photo by Louis Hansel on Unsplash; CNP/AdMedia/Newscom; Time magazine, 1987; Photo by Mike Von on Unsplash; Photo by Marcel Strauß on Unsplash; Photo by Ma Ti on Unsplash; Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash; Life Magazine, May 17 1968; Anthony Souffle/TNS/Newscom; Carlos Gonzalez/ZUMA Press/Newscom; Mehri Jamshiri/Polaris/Newscom; Alba Cambeiro/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom; Lev Radin/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom
Footage credit: Isaac Reese & NoorGreene
Music credit:“Wild Cat,” Ian Post; and Punch” Oliver Michael via Artlist.io
Regan Taylor produced the video; Isaac Reese created the map; Ian Keyser did audio post-production