They were. Don't forget the 70 somethings were raised by parents with PTSD from WWII.

They just learned early on to keep that shit to themselves. You didn't talk about it, because you learned not to show weakness.

I don't think the levels of anxiety are markedly different. I see a few things happening simultaneously:

1. It's more okay than ever to discuss negative feelings vs keeping them to yourself. This is a natural end to the 'toxic/forced positivity' that followed post WWII.

2. There's too much noise. Learning how to work out these feelings takes time, patience with oneself, and some alone to 'do the work' (yeah, I hate that phrasing too, but it's true). Kids don't have that anymore. They're micromanaged and everything is a competition.

3. There's far more pressure to perform than ever before. Not many kids get to just be kids. It's the panopticon.

4. We have, as a society, decided we don't like children and they annoy us. We don't want them around and we've made that very very clear to them. A large part of what they are experiencing is the same thing that Black people, disabled people, women, etc feel trying to live life in a society that fucking hates your guts and fundamentally distrust you and thinks it's okay to abuse and/or neglect you. It's a persistent low level of anxiety that never goes away. You swim in it from the day you're born till the day you die. We ran out of other people to peck on for status so we have co-opted our children as the current pecking sacrifice to our egos.

None of these things have to do with screens.

It's not the screens that are the problem. Screens act as a balm, a bad one for sure but it's the only one they've got, for the anxieties that are already there and being caused by other things, like being considered an expendable stupid criminal for being young.