The weakest generation? Shocking number of adults are sleeping with stuffed animals
Christopher Tremoglie
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Has America become too soft? It’s a question to ask after recent data showed that more adults in the country are (seemingly) sleeping with stuffed animals than ever before.
Surveys revealed that a considerable number of U.S. adults (Generation Z and millennials) sleep with stuffed animals. Moreover, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, a 2017 poll conducted by Build-A-Bear Workshop, the teddy bear retail company, claimed that “40% of adults” said they slept with stuffed animals.
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Adults use stuffed animals as coping mechanisms to soothe anxieties and other health-related problems, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. Respondents claimed that they used the presence of stuffed animals to (essentially) make their lives easier.
“It adds a little emotional texture to life,” Max Genecov, a Ph.D. candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “And these days, young people are much more open about talking about having animals, and about taking a transitional object — something from childhood to adulthood — comfortably.”
But is this a good thing? Previous generations endured the threat of nuclear extinction, world wars, the Great Depression, extreme poverty, racism, segregation, sexism, a lack of electricity and other luxuries, and many other challenging societal obstacles, but today’s generation suffers from crippling anxiety?
We live in an era of unprecedented wealth, with food and entertainment easily accessible, limitless knowledge, and various methods of communication available at one’s fingertips, but many people need stuffed animals to sleep. How did previous generations ever survive?
I empathize entirely with anyone who suffers from anxiety or has difficulties sleeping. I would be lying if I said I could not relate. And striving to remedy such issues is undoubtedly a positive. However, it seems American society has reached a point where we now discourage any idea of overcoming adversity or perseverance. Instead, we now prioritize the coddling of people.
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About 80 years ago, Americans were parachuting on European beaches, scaling up 35-meter cliffs under heavy gunfire from Nazis to save Western civilization. They are rightfully known as the “Greatest Generation.” Today, Americans need “emotional texture” to cope with everyday life.
An old saying advises, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going.” Now, when the going gets tough, we need to give the weakest generation teddy bears.