I’ve been researching generational differences for 15 years, but I wonder how we have gotten so carried away in the delusions surrounding Gen Z.
TLDR this month:
What is going on with Gen Z in the media.
How much life stages impact behaviours.
Where Gen Z is truly salient from other youth generations.
What caused the contradictions between their attitudes and behaviours.
How we might have defined their demographic markers incorrectly.
Why we should be softer with them.
__
For brands, this has been an exciting audience to target. “The most creative generation…. The most progressive, queer, activist, opinionate generation.” Over the last decade, the media got off on fetishizing this cohort and pinning all our future hopes on them. But in the previous few months, the media has caught up to what research has been showing for the best part of half a decade- studies on Gen Z show enormous contradictions between attitudes and behaviors - and there are concerning divides within this cohort.
This makes them a complicated group to define and create strategies around. They are unpredictable and inconsistent.
But we must do better at understanding them. Markets go where Gen Z goes - they are shaping PESTLE mega-trends. Gen Z employees are dominating businesses, and in this election cycle, their political preferences will shape global elections and dictate policy and laws.
So, how do we get things straight?
Always consider a generation's life stage.
We are forgetting the importance of the life stage in people's behaviors. Gen Z is still largely growing up; they are anything but close to fully forming their identity. The oldest is aged 27, the youngest 12. If you look at 40-year studies of youth, in many ways, they behave much like others from older generations.
In a 1969 poll of 16-20yo, 86% strongly agreed to the statement, “We are the most creative generation”. In a 2022 poll of 16-20yo, 79% agreed to the statement, “We are the most creative generation”. (Gallup)
We need to learn that one-time polls with no comparison to previous youth groups or even other generations' current behavior can’t draw generational conclusions and lead us up the garden path, letting us get carried away with the importance of isolated data points.
__
Finding the true saliences.
We need to find some perspective by looking at long-term studies like Monitoring the Future that track youth across decades. Exploring their data, this current youth generation is unique in the following ways.
Individualism: growing up in such an era of Individualism, they admire and value self-expression above all else—52% of Gen Z score high on Individualism (McKinsey, 2023).
Accepting: they have a strong sense of equality and reject traditional social rules. Causes, ethics, and morals are hard boundaries for them. 48% of Gen Z individuals are considered “racial or ethnic minorities” (Pew, 2022).
Internet use: their device use is quite frankly scary, and the reliance on the internet puts them at risk. 32% of 16-17-year-olds prefer their life online (Dazed, 2023).
Social insulation: they socialize less, are lonely, and are risk-averse to real-world situations. They are partying less and going out less generally—over 37% of people aged 16-25yo feel lonely weekly (Harvard, 2023).
Insecurity: they are mentally vulnerable, with higher rates of anxiety and depression. And growing problems with body image and fear of cancel culture and rejection. More than a third of young people aged between 18 and 24 suffer from what is described as a “common mental disorder,” like depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder (Resolution Foundation, 2024).
Financial focus: they are obsessed with being wealthy and economically stable. 44% of Gen Z say they are obsessed with being rich (Qualtrics, 2023).
Slow to grow up: they are in no hurry to become adults, much of which stems from their fears and vulnerability. They aren’t driving, drinking, or moving out.
__
Two truths and some lies.
Another failing in research on this generation is they hold two truths at once and have two sides to them - their online identity and their physical world reality. Both these sides have differing attitudes, needs, drivers, and behaviors.
We must view Gen Z as a cohort where artificial and reality meet. Dazed defined it as Conscious Narcissism.
In our current canceling culture, self-creation is about shaping people's perceptions of you vs. changing anything about yourself. So is it surprising their online signaling doesn’t match their offline behaviors?
They are coming of age in a culture of mass-market stardom in a society that only cares for appearance. They have had to create and curate a distinctive, likable public persona and, through it, shape their future before they could even legally vote, drive, or have sex. The pressure to be authentic is ever-present, but the pace of change and their level of connection means they are chasing a moving target of the status quo.
They want to appear wealthy, in control, virtuous, empathetic, attractive - and authentic. But offline, they are financially insecure, civically burned out, lonely, and mentally vulnerable. They want to express their individuality but want to fit in by signaling trends. They embrace constant evolution but desire stability. They are clinging to adolescence, but their outlook on life is serious. They are collaborative and inclusive yet demand privacy.
We need to do better at understanding what these contradictions show us.
“Give a man a mask, and he will tell you the truth from another point of view.” Oscar Wilde.
We need to see their online behaviors as signals of their aspirations and who they want to be as they grow up. We must see their offline behaviors as their everyday needs and problems to solve.
__
When two become one.
The final challenge with this audience group is that they are two generations, not one.
One of the most well-established theories on generations, by Karl Manheim, states that every generation tends to move as one in terms of its politics and general ideology. Its members share the same formative experiences, reach life’s significant milestones simultaneously, and intermingle in the same spaces.
But what big milestones and ideologies can we attribute to the shaping of Gen Z? Technological transformation and socio/cultural change have occurred tens of times as they have reached maturity. The events above greatly affect you differently if you are 20 compared to 7.
The oldest Gen Z was 10 when the iPhone came out in 2008, but the youngest was born the same year Instagram launched in 2012.
The oldest was 19, and the youngest was 4 when Donald Trump was elected.
The oldest was 22 at the start of the pandemic; the youngest was 7.
We must reconsider the demographic boundaries (generational theorists Staus, Howe, and Twenge agree). Could it be those born before 2004 are, more accurately, young Millennials? They primarily grew up without social media and smartphones.
Should we consider age during the pandemic? We are already seeing the effects differ from those now aged 25 to those 15; their behaviors and mindsets are diverging.
__
We’re all composed of distinct selves, each representing different aspects of who we are or want to be. The macro context we exist in shapes the public versions of ourselves - the online personas. The micro context within us – our personalities and experiences, shapes more private versions of ourselves - their physical world reality. Gen Z displays this splintering more acutely because of their extremely online selves and being in a life stage that encourages self-exploration.
What we are seeing play out is their sense of self-worth becoming increasingly interlinked with their public online self. They are making choices that optimize their public personas for internet values or displaying virtues that they don’t truly hold, which is weakening their confidence in their private self and creating contradictions.
This is largely because the macro context of the internet is ever-shifting, as are their personas and public value systems. Gen Z is confused about the “real world” or in which world we primarily exist.
We have to be softer with them as they navigate this mixed reality. They are exceptionally fragile. We need to help them contextualize the internet and live as fully as they can in the physical world reality. Perhaps it is showing them they might be better off making their internet reality smaller, but their physical lives will become fuller.
We should be concerned about this generation, but there are ways forward to a happier, healthier, and more civic Gen Z.
__
I would love to hear anyone's thoughts on all this. Or if you think it is time to get straight on your Gen Z audience with fresh research, you know where The Akin is.
Next week, I will be sharing my monthly cultural notations.
Until then, x