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Capita, a think tank dedicated to the flourishing of families and young children in particular, has written recently on what to expect from Gen Z as they become parents in light of contemporary sociocultural realities. In a presentation geared toward institutions and businesses titled “Are You Gen Z Ready?,” CEO Joe Waters and Openfields Senior Consultant Meghan Chaney anticipate how common characteristics of Gen Z (social justice-oriented digital natives) will inform their future consumption and expectations. Given Capita’s primary objective is to equip institutions to respond to the needs of parents and children, they also speak to how burgeoning demographic shifts will significantly alter the level of social support, available resources, and political clout Gen Z parents can bring to the table over the next twenty years.

It is not good for us to be alone, a small study in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry found among a group of 100 older adults. Measuring how one’s social life influences one’s sense of purpose in life, the researchers asked participants to rate their social interactions three times per day. At the end of each day, they were to evaluate how these interactions contributed to a sense of purpose. Expectedly, the experience of more positive interactions during the day made participants feel a greater sense of purpose by nightfall. The leader of the study, Gabrielle Pfund, noted that while most sense-of-purpose research focuses on a person’s overall orientation toward purpose or non-purpose, her team found that “everyone [experienced] fluctuations relative to their own averages.” Based on previous research, the study team believes that daily positive social interactions enhancing one’s “sense of purpose” provide cognitive and physical health benefits for older adults.

Many are expressing their fear and anger following the decision to reverse Roe v. Wade. University students have been particularly vocal about their distrust of the Supreme Court, their anger at institutions for upholding “patriarchy,” and their worries about the fate of same-sex marriage and contraception. The reactions shared through op-eds and open letters point to a very valid fear on the part of young people that the reversal of Roe v. Wade will not just spell the end of a right to abortion, but also stifle women’s engagement in public life. Some reactions, however, have taken a performative turn – red capes and white bonnets in the style of the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale, red paint splashed across women’s lower halves to represent their allegiance to abortion, verbal violence as well as physical hurled at anyone supportive of the decision. Though we’ve seen tactics like these employed by “woke” factions before, the extremity of these reactions warrant a closer look. 

The New York Times’ Elaine Blair recently lauded a children’s sex education trilogy written by Cory Silverberg, a sex educator and the owner of a “sex-positive sex shop” in Toronto, Canada. Silverberg, the son of a sex therapist who self-identifies as a “queer person” and uses “they” pronouns, claims he is “skeptical” of sex positivity. “For some people sex is great, for some people it’s terrible, for some people it means nothing…I want to phrase things in a way that leaves all those possibilities open.” Though Silverberg professes that he does not want to contribute to any “normative pressures” surrounding sex, it’s hard to imagine that he could do so even if he tried. But if the new normative pressure is precisely to lack of behavioral norms for the sake of inclusion, this spells disaster for children, who need clear and simple boundaries to thrive. At stake is not only the health of their future selves, friendships, and courtships, but the lives of future generations adrift in moral confusion. 

Nearly a decade after Princeton alumna and mom Susan Patton was skewered for urging young women at her alma mater to find husbands before graduation, UK feminist Louise Perry is encouraging young women to get married and stay married against the statistical odds of divorce and feminist animus. “Feminist analysis of marriage,” she writes, “sees it as a method used by men to control female sexuality. And it does do that, but that was never its sole function. There is also a protective function to marriage, but it makes sense only when understood in relation to children.” Perry has no illusions about the limitations of marriage in solving all social ills, but it is precisely her observation that marriage has succeeded in “complex societies” such as in the West that she places her confidence in its ability to improve conditions for women and children. 

These days we hear a lot about “care.” Childcare. Care infrastructure. Caring for our planet. Caring for the elderly. Mental healthcare. Self-care. The fact that we speak so endlessly and passionately about the need for more care, or preserving care, in our world tells us a lot about our society. We all want to care and be cared for, yet something about our culture makes us feel as though it’s lacking. Why – when so many are working overtime to care for each other, for their families and friends, considering policy questions and private programs – do we feel as though no one cares enough?

The month of May marks new beginnings for high school and college students as they celebrate commencement ceremonies and next steps in education or career. For parents, grandparents, and former teachers, the proud moment of witnessing one’s child transform into an independent adult brings back early memories of late nights and hard days, of help with homework and shuttling to after-school activities. It’s no secret that good citizens are made, not born – and the family is the place where first principles about good citizenship, what it means to love, learn, and serve, are learned. Given the benefits of family stability on a child’s overall wellbeing, we’d like to focus on the ways that family structure and relationships make a graduate.

Much has been made of higher education in recent years – whether about safe spaces or snowflakes. Most critics of today’s campus climate point out the undue influence of social justice on college life, recognizing that universities have often exchanged intellectual rigor with diversity, equity, and inclusion standards. Writing for the Claremont Institute’s American Mind, Max Eden argues that the cause of higher education’s decline is due to more than just the potency of bad ideas. For Eden, the university no longer forms students, but is itself formed by students into the image of the “metaversity,” an anti-institution comprised of social media, online forums, and the broader internet. If we are to salvage the university’s mission and students’ minds, then we will need to harness the power of the social internet in a way that inspires critical thought and meaningful conversation.