Why generation Z should give up striving to be their best selves | Zoe Williams

A relentless focus on personal growth means young people can assume it's their fault when life doesn't go according to plan

A couple of years ago, I went to a morning rave: exactly as it sounds, like a rave, in a classic rave venue - the Ministry of Sound in Elephant and Castle - except at 6am. There were a couple of hardy old campaigners but most of the crowd were probably not born in the club's 1990s heyday or, if they were, they'd not have been rave-ready. There was a water station but most people were drinking green juice; there's a limit to how much hydration you need, absent intoxication, when all you're doing is dancing. You can never, conversely, have too much kale.

I'd been there before, many times, but this was the first time I'd really observed the place, having previously been - to drop a technical, 1990s term - mashed off my tits. The dancing was very determined, and efficient, like an exercise class. The people were very taut and well groomed, what we used to call hardbodies (we didn't mean that as a compliment). There was a lot of face-glitter, which I always think is like an am-dram performance of fun, rather than actual fun. My core observation is this: dear generation Z - try not to self-maximise all the time.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist