You have to give it to them, Gen Z are brilliant wordsmiths. Social media has given rise to a whole new vernacular and slang moves at lightning speed, leaving poor folk from the previous millennium endlessly Googling things like “what is rawdogging?”. The youth of today have helped me (a geriatric Gen Z who lived to see the 1990s) understand feelings I’d never been able to put into words — to whomever coined “the ick”, I tip my hat.
While they are inventing new language all the time, Gen Z also love labelling and codifying things, particularly to do with mental health. This has led to a generation of armchair psychologists who are diagnosing themselves.
Social media often creates the impression that everyone has a condition or is on some sort of spectrum
I was scrolling through TikTok the other week and saw a video of a North Sea oil rig being buffeted by enormous waves, set to a weirdly sinister pirate song. The comments were full of people saying “my thalassophobia can not deal with this”. Thalassophobia, for the uninitiated, is fear of the sea — and it seems that a disproportionate number of young TikTok users have it. Similarly, an AI clip of people with ugly holes in their skin triggers people’s “trypophobia”, while another video promises to test whether you have “megalophobia” (fear of large objects) by showing a series of images including a girl sitting on the ledge of a skyscraper and people swimming through giant trenches, Finding Nemo style. Everyone in the comments assents about their newfound megalophobia. The thing is, it’s not irrational to feel fear in any of these scenarios. Underwater trenches and 50ft waves are scary. But I wonder if repeated exposure to this kind of content does lead to a genuine aversion to taking a dip at the beach.
This obsession with pathologising can have a serious impact. A teacher friend of mine says almost every child in her class identifies as being neurodivergent, although many have not been tested. In some areas of England the NHS has years-long waiting lists for ADHD and autism screenings, so really who can blame a young person for using a dodgy TikTok test to see for themselves?
The diagnosis of a mental health disorder or neurological issue can be life-changing, but social media often creates the impression that everyone has a condition or is on some sort of spectrum. Not only does this dilute the meaning of these terms, but it creates a generation of neurotic youngsters who attach all sorts of acronyms to themselves, when really they might just need to put their phones down.
