Issues / Issue 4

When was the last time you heard someone say, ‘youth is wasted on the young’? Been a while hasn’t it.

Even without rose tinted glasses on (and we have a pair each at F&F) it’s hard not to think that youth just used to be better; more free, more sex, less responsibility, less pressure, better drugs, parents who didn’t track your every movement, Andrew Tate didn’t exist…

Today young people, especially those over 18, are the most stressed out, the most depressed, the most anxious and the most lonely people on the planet.

When we meet young people they talk about being unable to find a partner, being too tired to dance, unable to work out their purpose in life, giving up on systemic change, monetizing their every move in the name of hustle, and never being able to afford to have a decent life.

This is what happens when a generation comes of age in a world of disruption, instability and crisis. But perhaps most importantly, a world that feels like it’s coming to some sort of end.

Where youth used to be a time protected from adult responsibilities and dedicated to preparing for adulthood via education, play and experimentation it’s now a time where our kids are bombarded with doom, porn, pressure and hate. And on a screen alone in their bedroom.

Unfortunately the youth experience now is simply wasted.

Welcome to issue 4 of Bones – The Youth Issue..

– Ian Pierpoint