The Younger Generation’s Opinion on the Royal Family

The Coronation of King Charles III was a hugely opulent event full of tradition. Watched by 20 million Brits, I feel that I need to ask: how old were these viewers? I don’t mean to be derogatory, but I can’t help wondering what the future holds for the Royal Family.

I don’t know one person my age who watched the Coronation live. That includes my friends back home to the people I go to university with. No one seemed bothered about it. It’s not that they’re particularly for or against the Royal Family, they don’t care either way.

I personally like to stay somewhat up to date with the Royals. I do this mostly by watching the Crown, but even with a slight interest in their lives, at no point did I fancy watching the Coronation ceremony itself as it unfolded.

I couldn’t avoid it fully, though. The highlights of the big day were splashed across every social media platform—in particular, TikTok. I felt like I saw most of it without even needing to turn a TV on. You could be forgiven for thinking that there must have been some slight interest from my generation to account for this, but I doubt that any young person searched for footage from the day. Instead, it came up on our screens automatically. We just continued to scroll.

I think this apathy paints quite a bleak future for the Royal Family. One where there’s no support for them but little distain either. People simply do not care about the monarchy. You’d be surprised at the amount of people who don’t even know who Camilla is—and she’s our Queen (Consort). King Charles doesn’t help the situation. I quite like him—I like how he cares about the planet—but ultimately, he’s an older gentleman with nothing in common with me and people of my generation. Why would we care about some extremely wealthy pensioner? Some might call that disrespectful, but would you say the same if I talked about another extremely wealthy old man—like Bill Gates or Warren Buffet, for example? What do we have in common with them? Pretty much nothing.

As the ‘internet generation’, we have greater access to information than ever before. We probably make our own judgements more readily nowadays too, rather than being told how to think. From my understanding, the Royal Family is supposed to be something to look up to. Is the King inspirational? Aspirational? He married his mistress after stringing someone else along for years and cheating on her. That’s not really somebody I feel we should look up to, but I suppose it makes him seem real. Prince William and Princess Catherine are defiantly more appreciated by my generation, but Harry and Meghan’s controversies have already tainted their eventual ascension to the throne.

I believe that we’ve got to the point where the Royal Family almost feels irrelevant. I don’t think my generation would attempt to get rid of them, but will they be able to survive if no one really cares whether they’re there or not? Will any of us tune into the King’s Christmas message? Will we take Harry and Meghan’s side? If I’m thinking about these things, surely the Palace is, too? I imagine they might be panicking, though the Coronation and how it was received across the world may have tempered those worries—for the time being, at least.

Royal weddings may be the only thing we care about…because who doesn’t love a wedding? People will watch to see an event the likes of which they could only dream of, but I don’t think this has much to do with the Royal Family—it would probably be the same with any high-profile celebrity.

Taking it even further…will Royal Family superfans eventually die out? Every time I saw one being interviewed on TV, they were never a young person. I simply cannot picture someone from my generation camping for three days on The Mall, just for the slightest chance of shaking the future king’s hand.

I’m sure as I get older and meet more people, I’ll find someone my age who really does care about the Royals, but will there be enough of them for the family to remain sustainable years from now? Whilst they’re having a positive impact on our economy, I think we should keep them, but will I be saying the same thing when I’m 50?

I can’t help but feel that the Royal Family is facing a rapid decline. I don’t think they’ll be worried about people loving or hating them as time marches on—they may actually have to deal with the fact that no one cares about them at all.