Top 3 issues our generation is facing

Every generation faces its own set of issues.  Baby boomers dealt with the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union. Gen X dealt with a combination of student loan debt and job losses, and millennials are currently facing unemployment. These next three issues, while not completely unique to Gen Z — people born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s and who make up 25 percent of the U.S. population — are the biggest issues that our generation is facing in the next decade.  

1. Climate change

Climate change is becoming an increasing part of our daily lives.  According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, if by 2040 humans don’t take immediate action to limit global warming to a 1.5 degrees Celsius increase, there will be no turning back from the effects of climate change. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, climate change is causing more violent weather conditions, cultivating agricultural challenges and acidifying the oceans.

Despite these negative effects of climate change, little is being done on the federal level since 2016. Instead, President Trump’s administration is rolling back on steps meant to combat climate change. Senate Democrats are preparing to make combating climate change a major issue of their 2020 campaigns. If we don’t take steps to mitigate the full effects of climate change soon, our future generations are going to suffer a lack of biodiversity affecting food supply, more extreme weather conditions and less livable land due to rising ocean levels.

2. Mental health

America’s youth is facing a mental health epidemic that our government is ill-equipped to handle. NBC News reports that one in five American children ages three through 17 have a diagnosable mental, emotional or behavioral disorder in a given year, but only 20 percent of those children are ever diagnosed and receive treatment.

Recent research also indicates that serious depression is worsening in teens. Many factors have caused this epidemic, including increased use of electronics and social media, increased performance pressure and greater financial burdens on parents. Greater research is required in order to understand the root causes. If we do not address the growing mental health epidemic, it will only worsen and become even harder to handle.

3. Privacy

The ubiquity of communications services, whether private like Facebook and Google or public like the NSA, creates questions about the use and collection of data. According to BGR, companies such as Ring have been spying on their customers through cameras connected to the Internet. Meanwhile, according to Vox, the data of 87 million Facebook users was given to Cambridge Analytica in order to help the Trump campaign.

Currently, services like Facebook and Ring are still highly unregulated in the United States. Without regulation or consequences, scandals like Cambridge Analytica can and will happen over and over again. Luckily, other countries have taken steps to regulate these services, but more must be done. The U.S. needs to pass more regulations regarding the collection of data to stop companies like Ring from spying on customers and to prevent another Cambridge Analytica.

But the invasion of privacy is not limited to companies. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Security Agency uses the PRISM program as a backdoor into Americans’ private communications without a warrant, therefore violating the Fourth Amendment. The NSA gets its data through services such as Messenger and email.

The only way to stop these invasions of privacy will be to go through the federal courts to restore crucial privacy protections for the millions of Americans.