The Voice of #nextgen: Mental Resilience Is Important. We Need to Find More Good in Every Bad Situation

Some obstacles we overcome as a society, while others are specific to the younger generation. We asked participants of the Impact Summit #nextgen programme what specific skills are required to live a fulfilling life in today’s world. Resilience in the face of information overload and the potential harms of social media emerged as key themes, alongside objective criticism of their own generation. 

In our survey, they answered the question: What types of resilience does Generation Z need to demonstrate compared to their parents’ generation? 

Marek Janiga, founder and chairman of Spolu pomáhať – United for Help: 

“Young people need resilience especially when it comes to the sheer amount of information they receive every single day. We need to become much better at evaluating what is relevant to us, what deserves our attention, and also what is true.” 

Natália Centková, senior project manager at CINEFIL: 

“Compared to the past, we are exposed to a much higher volume of negative news and live in a constant state of fear. This is mainly about mental resilience. We must find more good in everything bad.” 

Lukáš Hrošovský, director of GenT: 

“Young people need to know how to choose. Previous generations did not have as many opportunities; they took what was available. Today, there are many options, and young people need to know how to navigate them. At the same time, they need the courage to take action and step outside their comfort zone.” 

Monika Balcová, digital media manager at CEDMO: 

“The younger generation has a huge advantage for having to grow up with technology from the very beginning. We understand better how social media works. However, we should not underestimate the need for education about algorithms. Not everyone sees the same content on Instagram or Facebook. Our feeds are personalised, and platforms know more about us than we know about ourselves. We also need to understand that our attention represents someone else’s profit. 

A new challenge in this area is content generated by artificial intelligence. The problem is not that young people will be unable to recognise an AI-generated image, but that we may eventually stop believing real ones.” 

Michal Hollý, agile coach at Slovak Telekom: 

“Unlike our parents, we have access to many times more information that influences how we behave towards the world around us – in my case, also when it comes to raising children. This creates an overload of data, and people struggle to decide what is right, which can even lead to paralysis.” 

Zuzana Jakubová, PR manager at Kockáči: 

“We need greater resilience against stereotypes about what our lives should look like. We have access to an enormous amount of information and to social media, where people show only the best parts of their lives. Young people can then feel that this is how their own lives should look – whether it is holidays, travelling, or having a perfectly tidy home at all times. 

Previous generations did not experience this. The only people they could compare themselves with were those around them. Today, they can compare themselves with people on the other side of the world, which requires greater levels of healthy self-confidence and critical thinking.” 

Karin Nosková, project manager at Volkswagen Slovakia Foundation: 

“Young people today face frequent change. It is not only about adapting – they also need to recognise which trends they should not follow and which values are worth standing up for.” 

See also:

• Slovakia Needs Greater Resilience. Impact Summit Will Show Where to Find It
• They Want to Create a Better World. Who Are the Ten Finalists of 2025 Impact Summit #nextgen?

Viktor Mitruk, founder of AI Prompt: 

“There is a wide range of things that today’s younger generation experiences that our parents never had to deal with. I think one major issue is the communication gap and the emergence of a new language between parents and their children. New technologies are making this gap even wider. 

At the same time, society views the opinions of younger generations differently. Our parents became independent and started families much earlier than we do today. From society’s perspective, they therefore appeared more relevant. Older generations often see us as people who have not yet ‘lived enough’.” 

Claudia Hlavačková, ambassador of the European Climate Pact: 

“I mainly focus on climate issues, but today we are living through a kind of ‘polycrisis’. Alongside the economic crisis, which means that many people cannot afford housing and a dignified life, there is also a security crisis caused by numerous immediate and distant conflicts, as well as a cyber crisis driven by technologies that we need to learn to apply very quickly. The climate crisis only amplifies the others. A defining feature of today is therefore the number and intensity of challenges we need to be resilient against. Each of them requires different skills that we need to apply.” 

Andrej Sňahničan, senior consultant at Civitta Slovakia: 

“I see strong pressure on the younger generation, especially in the labour market. Companies expect years of experience immediately after graduation. As a result, some young people are ‘stuck’ in a sense; they do not want to become adults. Today, adulthood does not necessarily mean freedom; it means a mortgage and two jobs. Being resilient is inevitable and it comes from what society demands from us. 

At the same time, we can learn perspective from older generations. They also faced difficult situations in life, and perhaps we are sometimes too demanding of ourselves. We do not need to own a three-room apartment immediately after graduating. We should be kinder to ourselves. Greater patience would help us build resilience. In the end, the most important things in life are family and love, not money.” 

The #nextgen programme of the Pontis Foundation is designed for active young people aged 18 to 35. Its goal is to provide participants with opportunities to network, gain inspiration and experience directly from Impact Summit speakers, and create a potential pool of future ambassadors for the event.