A Generation’s New Year Resolution

A recent Forbes survey surfaced a range of resolutions for 2023 across 18-57 year olds. While historically things like “Dry January” (or “speaking January”...yikes) define the mood going into January, this year is a little different for 18-25 year olds. According to the results, the leading resolution for 18-25 year olds is to “improve mental health.” Behind the usual suspects - “improve fitness” and “lose weight” - there is a clear theme among this demographic around prioritizing self love in 2023.

“Entertainment” appears to be meeting timely needs around mental health currently, from the recent and buzzy streaming original Fleishman Is In Trouble, to the 61b views "mentalhealth" has garnered on TikTok, to a real listen of the message in the top charting pop song of 2022, “Heat Waves” by Glass Animals:

[a song about] “It’s ok to be defeated by something. We are often expected to 'be strong' and to swallow our sadness. failing to do that is seen as weakness. So we try to cover up our feelings and hide inside of TV shows or video games or drink or drugs. but being vulnerable should be a positive thing.”

These more recent new year resolution results (and resulting 2023 aspirations) continue to reflect a young generation’s social and emotional needs, and potential opportunity to add value in marketing for this audience. The year is 2023 and “self love” is the brief…