This is one of the many graphics from the hit HBO Max series, EUPHORIA of 2019 borrowed from IMDb. Again, as in Part 1, although strictly fiction, it is supposed to be more real than we can imagine. As such, maybe we need to take serious inventory as to what's really going on where we think we're going? That is, where the GenZs, the future, are taking us?
The purpose of this blog is not to commercialize Euphoria. However, it’s relevant to recognize its success engaging High School teenagers navigating their world because it encompasses a YA world.
Variety shows its impact. “Euphoria” hit another series high with Episode 6 of its second season on Sunday, drawing 5.1 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max, a 20% increase from last week and up 45% from the season average. That number was reached despite the HBO drama airing opposite Super Bowl LVI on NBC.
As Variety previously exclusively reported, “Euphoria’s” Season 2 per-episode-viewership average was already up nearly 100% from its first season after airing just its first four episodes.
Per HBO, on Sunday, “‘Euphoria’ ranked as the No. 1 title on HBO Max in the U.S. for the fifth week in a row and the top series globally (including HBO Max viewership in LatAm and Europe.) ‘Euphoria’ was the No. 1 most social and No. 1 most talked about broadcast when excluding the Super Bowl.”
This HBO, YA cultural phenomenon was originally done in Israel in 2008. The Face says “Before it was an international smash-hit HBO show set in California, Euphoria was a drama about messed-up middle-class kids in Israel.” However, except for the name and slight characters, there appears to be no comparison between the two. The main writers of that Euphoria, “threw their heroes and heroines under the bus of Israeli national consensus.” They said, “this generation doesn’t give a shit about anything.”
That’s what buried its appeal.
On the other hand, “the characters’ nihilistic credentials duly established, it was then easier to present the other sensitive issues that [HBO] Euphoria deals with: drugs, sex, porn, depression, the loss of parenting authority, body image, more drugs, more sex and, by the fourth episode, a murder (inspired by a true [Israeli] event)” says The Face. It reveals an important quote from the narrator of the series. “When you were seven, people jumped from the Twin Towers on live television. And it was repulsive, and exciting, and logical. Parents have drowned their kids. Kids stabbed their parents. So, at the age of seven you got hooked on the news. And then you’re fed up with that. Because what could possibly shock you when you are eight?” The Face cites that was what the creators wanted, “to give parents panic attacks and younger viewers a voice.”[1]
There is more to that HBO max voice, less spoken and less shown. “In the United States, prevalence rates of certain STIs (Sexually Transmitted Infections) are highest among adolescents and young adults. For example, reported rates of chlamydia and gonorrhea are highest among females during their adolescent and young adult years, and many persons acquire HPV (Human Papillonmavirus) infection during that time.” HIV also is on the rise among young adults.
The CDC continues to report that “while sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) affect individuals of all ages, STDs take a particularly heavy toll on young people. CDC estimates that youth ages 15-24 account for almost half of the 26 million new sexually transmitted infections that occurred in the United States in 2018.”[2] That said, it must be noted that the CDC has also reported declines in sexual risk behaviors among high school students from 2009 to 2019.[3]
In addition to the sexual health alarm being raised among teenagers, obviously more serious is the more alarming rates of teenage suicides. Although Covid 19 and its sheltering in, online learning mandates has affected those suicide rates, they were climbing significantly prior to the pandemic.
“The rate of suicide among those aged 10 to 24 increased nearly 60% between 2007 and 2018,” reported USA Today. It stated that although the rise occurred in most states, “even states with the lowest rates experienced significant increases: New Jersey had an increase of 39%, New York about 44%, and Massachusetts about 64%.”[4]
The Congressional Black Caucus calls black youth suicide a “crisis.” It issued a report showing that suicide attempts by black adolescents of both sexes rose 73% from 1991 to 2017. Injuries from attempted suicides increased 122% for black boys during the same period. White youth still die by suicide at a higher rate, but the rate of black youth suicide is increasing faster than any other racial or ethnic group. Black youth under 13 were twice as likely to die by suicide than their white counterparts.” {USA Today 2020}
I know. I’m often suspect of and question stats as well. Nevertheless, they’re here to look at, with or without questioning. If you're a parent, they help to remind you to not trip, don't panic. What goes down the lowest can only come up. An important stat is that less than a third of GenZers are involved in a Euphoria. The statistics are put here as a word GPS of the YA global community. This GPS comes to give direction and a “start” button to all who love, represent, sell and write for the YA at-large literary, media world.
Whether the GenZer is the last generation physically, symbolically, emotionally, spiritually or literally, is not the to be or not to be question. Because the right response is how those adults who tell or represent their story tell it with authentic, empathetic voices.
Tell it in reality like Euphoria but put the focus on the GenZ Light. No tea. No shade.
Like its written in our upcoming YA hip hop Novel, “Fix it or perish. Fix it they will. They are the GenZs.”
[1] https://theface.com/culture/euphoria
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/std.
[3] https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth
[4] www.usatoday.com/2020/09/11/youth-suicide