© DIGITAL VISION/PEOPLEIMAGES72 per cent of 16-24 year-olds think the term is unfairly applied
Being called a "snowflake" is damaging to mental health, young people say. Figures show that the majority of young people think the term is unfair - and even more think it could have a negative effect of its own.
The "snowflake generation" is a disparaging term
now commonly used to refer to young people, who are perceived to be over-sensitive and intolerant of disagreement.
But research by insurance firm Aviva found that 72 per cent of 16-24 year-olds think the term is unfairly applied, while 74 per cent think it could have a negative effect on young people's mental health.
The figures also show that young people are more likely to have experienced stress, anxiety and depression in the last year.
Almost half of adults between 16 and 24 said they had experienced stress or anxiety, compared to just over a third of all UK adults.
Young adults were also more likely to be uncomfortable talking about a mental health problem, with one in three saying this compared to 27 per cent of all adults.
13 per cent also said they were experiencing a problem but had not sought help, compared to seven per cent of all adults.
The firm's medical expert, Dr Doug Wright, said the term could cause problems. "
Our findings suggest that young adults are more likely to be experiencing mental health problems, so using a phrase which criticises this age group could add to this issue.
"
Any term used disparagingly to a segment of the population is inherently negative.
© 20TH CENTURY FOXBrad Pitt in Fight Club, which is where the term is thought to have originated
"While young adults in particular appear to take offence to the 'snowflake' label, the majority of adults agree that the term is unfair and unhelpful, so it's important that people consider how such labels are used, and the cumulative effect they could have on their recipients," he said.
The phrase, which originated in America, has particularly come to refer to
universities and students who use "trigger warnings" to alert readers or listeners to potentially distressing material, and "safe spaces", which are meant to be free of certain opinions or ideas.
It is also used to imply that young people are less resilient than older generations and quicker to take offence.
It is thought to originate with US author Chuck Palahniuk's 1996 book
Fight Club, which contains the line
"You are not special. You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake".In an interview earlier this year he took credit for the term, adding: "My friends who teach in high school tell me that their students are very easily offended."
Reader Comments
Flush!
They also seem to have a weird concept of religious freedom because they whine that it is being taken away from THEM every time other people get married among themselves... never able to understand that their religious dogmas and values can and should be applied to *their own* lives, not shoved upon others.
The only way I could agree with you that "christian values" have taken "a hit" is in the sense that secularism has been winning some battles recently (good thing, as the founding fathers intended!) and also, with information easily available on the internet it has become harder for churches to maintain heir mind control over their sheep. It's becoming harder to believe in talking snakes, talking dokeys and men walking over water when you have access to real information at your fingertips. But THAT IS HARDLY A "WAR". And that's the point!
It's like me in tears whining about a "terrible war against me" because the wind is blowing. That's just life!
"Me thinkest thou whine too much."
R.C.