Generation Z in the United States

Generation Z (or Gen Z for short), colloquially known as Zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha.
Members of Generation Z, were born between the mid-to-late 1990s and the early 2010s, with the generation typically being defined as those born from 1997 to 2012. In other words, the first wave came of age during the second decade of the twenty-first century, a time of significant demographic change due to declining birthrates, population aging, and immigration. Americans who grew up in the 2000s and 2010s saw gains in IQ points, but loss in creativity. During the 2000s and 2010s, while Western educators in general and American schoolteachers in particular concentrated on helping struggling rather than gifted students, American students of the 2010s had a decline in mathematical literacy and reading proficiency and were trailing behind their counterparts from other countries, especially East Asia.
They became familiar with the Internet and portable digital devices at a young age (as "digital natives"), but are not necessarily digitally literate, and tend to struggle in a digital work place. The majority use at least one social-media platform, leading to concerns that spending so much time on social media can distort their view of the world, hamper their social development, harm their mental health, expose them to inappropriate materials, and cause them to become addicted. Although they trust traditional news media more than what they see online, they tend to be more skeptical of the news than their parents.
Young Americans of the late 2010s and early 2020s tend to hold politically left-leaning views. However, most members of Generation Z are more interested in advancing their careers than pursuing idealistic political causes. Moreover, there is a significant sex gap, with implications for families, politics, and society at large. As voters, Generation Z's top issue is the economy. As consumers, Generation Z's actual purchases do not reflect their environmental ideals. Members of Generation Z, especially women, are also less likely to be religious than older cohorts. On the whole, they are financially cautious, and are increasingly interested in alternatives to attending institutions of higher education, with young men being primarily responsible for the trend. Although American youth culture has become highly fragmented by the start of the early twenty-first century, a product of growing individualism, nostalgia is a major feature of youth culture in the 2010s and 2020s.
The name Generation Z is a reference to the fact that it follows Generation Y (Millennials). Other proposed names for the generation include iGeneration, Homeland Generation, Net Gen, Digital Natives, Neo-Digital Natives, Pluralist Generation, Centennials, and Post-Millennials. The term Internet Generation reflect that the generation is the first to have been born after the mass-adoption of the Internet. In the U.S., the term Generation Z is overwhelmingly the most popular. Zoomer is an informal term often used in an ironic, humorous, or ridiculing tone. It combines the term boomer, referring to baby boomers, with the "Z" from Generation Z. Prior to this, Zoomer was used in the 2000s to describe particularly active baby boomers. Zoomer in its current incarnation skyrocketed in popularity in 2018, when it was used in an Internet meme ridiculing Gen Z adolescents. Merriam-Webster's records suggest the use of the term zoomer in the sense of Generation Z dates back at least as far as 2016. It was added to the dictionary in 2021.
In January 2019, Pew Research Center defined "Post-Millennials" as people born from 1997 onward, choosing this date for "different formative experiences" for the purposes of demographic analysis. Common generational experiences include technological developments and socioeconomic trends, including the widespread availability of wireless internet access and high-bandwidth cellular service, and key world events, such as growing up in a world after the September 11th terrorist attacks. During a 2019 analysis, Pew stated that they have yet to set an endpoint to Generation Z, but did use the year 2012 to complete their analysis. In a 2022 article, U.S. Census economists Neil Bennett and Briana Sullivan described Generation Z as those born 1997 to 2013. Psychologists Jean Twenge and Jonathan Haidt argue that even though the concept of a social generation remains debated, there is evidence for significant differences between the different demographic cohorts. Those born between (on the cusp of) the Millennial generation and Generation Z are commonly known as Zillennials. Those born (on the cusp of) Gen Z and Gen Alpha are commonly knows as Zalphas.
Given their birth years, members of Generation Z have no memory of the time before the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and the subsequent War on Terror. Yet even twenty years after the attacks had taken place, concerns over national security as well as personal safety remain. But most members of Generation Z had their formative years shaped by the 2007–2008 financial crisis. A 2013 survey found that 47% of Generation Z in the United States (considered here to be those between the ages of 14 and 23) were concerned about student debt, while 36% were worried about being able to afford a higher education at all. This generation is facing a growing income gap and a shrinking middle-class, which all have led to increasing stress levels in families. According to Public Relations Society of America, the Great Recession has taught Generation Z to be independent, and has led to an entrepreneurial desire, after seeing their parents and older siblings struggle in the workforce. The COVID-19 pandemic struck when the oldest members of Generation Z was just joining the workforce and the rest were still in school. For this reason, it split Generation Z into two small cohorts with drastically different lived experiences, and this gap has been widened by the rapid pace of technological change, not just video-sharing platforms—especially TikTok—but also generative artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, notably ChatGPT.
Growing up in such uncertain times, Generation Z has come to embrace nostalgia, longing for a purportedly simpler time, or things that remind them of their childhood. As a result, they adapt, hybridize, and modernize older styles of fashion, music, and restaurants, among other things, connecting to the past, but never really abandoning modern electronic devices, which enable them to rummage through the idealized past at will.
Psychologist Jean Twenge argued that as the typical American family has fewer children and as parents pay more attention to each of their children—for example by not allowing them to walk home from school—and to their education, the average American teenager in the mid- to late-2010s tended to be 'slow life-history strategists', meaning they delay taking part in adult activities such as drinking alcohol, having sexual intercourse, or driving. Interest in sports has also declined noticeably compared to older generations.
A 2014 study Generation Z Goes to College found that Generation Z students self-identify as being loyal, compassionate, thoughtful, open-minded, responsible, and determined. How they see their Generation Z peers is quite different from their own self-identity. They view their peers as competitive, spontaneous, adventuresome, and curious—all characteristics that they do not see readily in themselves. Like all other cohorts born after the Second World War, Generation Z is culturally individualistic and values social equality. But unlike older living generations of their time, members of Generation Z are much more likely to identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or otherwise non-conforming.
Generation Z today is more likely than young people in the past to try out new cuisines. There is also a growing interest in vegetarian foods.
Museums from across the United States significantly expanded their programs aimed at children, including K-12 students, during the 2000s and 2010s, according to the American Alliance of Museums and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. In the fiscal year of 2014, there were more museums in the United States (35,000) than the total numbers of Starbucks locations (11,000) and McDonald's restaurants (14,000) combined.
According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, among Americans in their late teens and early 20s, the most common sources of news were social media (especially Facebook and YouTube). Even so, they turn towards well-known news outlets to learn more about current events that interest them. A 2019 survey by Barnes and Nobles Education found that The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and the USA Today are deemed the most trustworthy news sources by Generation Z. They also found that Generation Z consider traditional print media to be the most trustworthy while words of mouth and what they see on social media to be the least trustworthy. Nevertheless, while Generation Z understands the importance of traditional news agencies, they tend to be less loyal than their parents. Young Americans are concerned about the perceived bias, lack of context, negativity, and sensationalism in the news media. American youths today want news stories that are not only fun and meaningful but also accurate and fair. A 2016 poll by Gallup found a decline in trust in the news media across all age groups since (at least) the 1990s, and people aged 18 to 49 are less likely than those 50 years of age or older to trust the media. (Globally, trust in the news media is falling, too.)
While visual story-telling has proven to be popular, 58% of Generation Z still prefer text to videos. This number goes up for people who are older. When asked what they would choose if they could have only one subscription, only 7% picked the news while 37% chose a video service and 15% selected music.
In its 2018 Gen Z Music Consumption & Spending Report, digital media company Sweety High found that Generation Z was listening to more diverse music than generations past. That they tended to switch seamlessly between different genres is significant because music preferences tend to solidify when people are 13 to 14 years old. Spotify was the most popular source of music Generation Z (61%) and terrestrial radio ranked second (55%). YouTube was the preferred platform for music discovery (75%). However, only one in four teens uses it for regular listening, making it less popular than even CDs (38%). TikTok is another major platform for music discovery and for Generation Z to connect with their favorite musicians. Research on popular music from the 1950s to the 2010s has shown that this genre has become louder, while the chords, melodies, and types of sounds used have becoming increasingly homogenized. At the same time, lyrics of the most popular songs have becoming less joyful, sadder, and angrier. Such shifts have occurred due to changing consumer tastes. In particular, the melancholic lyrics of Billie Eilish and Olivia Rodrigo resonate with their generation. A 2019 poll by Ypulse found that for teenagers (13 to 18), the top musicians were Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande whereas among young adults (19 to 26), the most liked were Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande.
Chinese music video app musical.ly was highly popular among American teens. This app was acquired by ByteDance, which relies on algorithms equipped with artificial intelligence to collect and modify contents in order to optimize viewership. In 2018, musical.ly was shut down and its users were transferred to TikTok. By the early 2020s, TikTok has become one of the most popular social networks among teenagers and young adults in the United States.
The most popular forms of entertainment among Generation Z are playing video games, listening to music, surfing the Internet, and using social media networks. According to Asha Choksi, vice president of global research and insights for the educational publisher Pearson, about one in every three members of Generation Z spends at least four hours per day watching videos online. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that while people aged 15 to 24 spent more time playing video games in 2018, the time spent on computers and televisions remained virtually unchanged.
2020 Nielsen figures revealed that the viewership of children's cable television channels such as Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon continued their steady decline, which was merely decelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced many parents and their children to stay at home. On the other hand, streaming services saw healthy growth. Generation Z continues to enjoy comfort television shows, including those popular with older cohorts before them, such as The Office (2005–2013) and Friends (1994–2004), as well as shows featuring characters roughly their age, like Young Sheldon (2017–2024), and long-running television drama, like Grey's Anatomy (2005–present). Overall, Generation Z would like to see fewer instances of romance and sex in the movies and television programs they watch, and more of friendships, platonic love, and other types of relationships. Even so, certain television series such as The Sex Lives of College Girls (2021–present) and movies like Poor Things (2023) have proven to be popular among younger audiences.
A longitudinal analysis of data sets from the Monitoring the Future survey from 1976 to 2016 by a research team headed by psychologist Jean Twenge concluded that "compared with previous generations, teens in the 2010s spent more time online and less time with traditional media, such as books, magazines and television. Time on digital media has displaced time once spent enjoying a book or watching TV." Between 2006 and 2016, usage of digital media, including social networking websites, increased among teenagers of all grade levels while the number of teenagers who read books in their spare time dropped. This secular decline in leisure reading came as a surprise for the researchers because "It's so convenient to read books and magazines on electronic devices like tablets. There's no more going to the mailbox or the bookstore—you just download the magazine issue or book and start reading." Twenge further noted that the analyses of the Pew Research Center on reading did not distinguish between reading for school or work and reading for pleasure. But even at school, teachers assign much shorter reading assignments than in the past, and they are less likely to require that students read full-length books. But among teenagers who read for pleasure, dystopian fiction, such as The Hunger Games and Divergent, has been popular among teenagers. In addition, the surge in reading during the 2000s coincided with the release of the Harry Potter and Twilight novels.
When Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, as urged by President Lyndon B. Johnson, which abolished national quotas for immigrants and replaced it with a system that admits a fixed number of persons per year based in qualities such as skills and the need for refuge, immigration surged from elsewhere in North America (especially Canada and Mexico), Asia, Central America, and the West Indies. By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Asia and Latin America became the top sources of immigrants to the U.S.
A report by demographer William Frey of the Brookings Institution stated that in the United States, the Millennials are a bridge between the largely Caucasian pre-Millennials (Generation X and their predecessors) and the more diverse post-Millennials (Generation Z and their successors). Frey's analysis of U.S. Census data suggests that as of 2019, 50.9% of Generation Z is white, 13.8% is black, 25.0% Hispanic, and 5.3% Asian. (See figure below.) 29% of Generation Z are children of immigrants or immigrants themselves, compared to 23% of Millennials when they were at the same age. As of 2019, 13.7% of the U.S. population is foreign-born, compared to 9.7% in 1997, when the first members of Generation Z had their birth cries. Indeed, according to the Pew Research Center, in spite of the diminished flow of immigrants to the United States following the Great Recession, Generation Z is the most ethnically diverse yet seen. 52% of this generation is white. 25% is Hispanic. 14% is black, and 4% is Asian. Approximately 4% is multiracial, and this number has risen rapidly between 2000 and 2010. More specifically, the number of Americans who identify as mixed white and black has grown by 134% and those of both white and Asian extraction by 87%. For comparison, 44% of Millennials, 40% of Generation X, and 28% of the Baby Boomers identify as non-white. Research by the demographer Bill Frey suggests that at the national level, Hispanics and Asians are the fastest-growing racial minority groups in the United States while the number of Caucasians under the age of 18 has been declining since 2000. Overall, the number of births to Caucasian women in the United States dropped 7% between 2000 and 2018. Among foreign-born Caucasian women, however, the number of births increased by 1% in the same period. Although the number of births to foreign-born Hispanic women fell from 58% in 2000 to 50% in 2018, the share of births due to U.S.-born Hispanic women increased from 20% in 2000 to 24% in 2018. The number of births to foreign-born Asian women rose from 19% in 2000 to 24% in 2018 while that due to U.S.-born Asian women went from 1% in 2000 to 2% in 2018. In all, between 2000 and 2017, more births were to foreign-born than U.S.-born women.
Members of Generation Z are slightly less likely to be foreign-born than Millennials; the fact that more American Latinos are born in the U.S. rather than abroad plays a role in making the first wave of Generation Z appear better educated than their predecessors. However, researchers note that this trend could be altered by changing immigration patterns and the younger members of Generation Z choosing alternate educational paths. 29% of Generation Z are children of immigrants or immigrants themselves, compared to 23% of Millennials when they were at the same age. As of 2019, 13.7% of the U.S. population is foreign-born, compared to 9.7% in 1997, when the first members of Generation Z had their birth cries.
Not only are Americans becoming more and more racially diverse, but racial minorities are also becoming more geographically dispersed than ever before, as new immigrants settle in places other than the large metropolitan areas historically populated by migrants, such as New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. A majority of Generation Z live in urban areas and are less inclined to change address than their predecessors. Similar to the Millennials, roughly two thirds of Generation Z come from households of married parents. By contrast, this living arrangement was essentially the norm for Generation X and the Baby Boomers, at 73% and 85%, respectively.
As a demographic cohort, Generation Z is smaller than the Baby Boomers or their children, the Millennials. (See population pyramid.) According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Generation Z makes up about one quarter of the U.S. population. This demographic change could have social, cultural, and political implications for the decades ahead. Generation Z are usually the children of Generation X, and sometimes Millennials. Jason Dorsey, who works for the Center of Generational Kinetics, observed that Generation Z is not an extreme version of the Millennials but is rather different, and the differences can largely be attributed to parenting. Like parents from Generation X, members of Generation Z tend to be autonomous and pessimistic. They need validation less than the Millennials and typically become financially literate at an earlier age as many of their parents bore the full brunt of the Great Recession.
Between 2009 and 2016, the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren went up 7%. This is due to a variety of factors, such as military deployment, the growing incarceration of women, drug addictions, and mental health issues. After declining for many years, the number of children in foster care increased 1% in 2013 and 3.4% in 2014. In response, states are sending more and more children who have been taken from their parents to their relatives, drawing from research showing that children tend to be better off being cared for by their own families than strangers and to save taxpayers' money.
Modern technology has enabled Generation Z to take advantage of the on-demand economy, defined as "the economic activity created by technology companies that fulfill consumer demand via the immediate provisioning of goods and service." Generation Z tends to value utility and quality over brand name. Authenticity is critical. Having been raised by Generation X and grown up in a recession, members of Generation Z are quick to verify claims. Being consistent users of the Internet and social media in particular, they frequently employ these tools to learn more about a certain product or service they are interested in. Product specifications, vendor ratings, and peer reviews are all important. They tend to be skeptical and will shun firms whose actions and values are contradictory. There is a fair amount of interest in in-person shopping rather than over the Internet, a potentially positive development for brick-and-mortar stores. Products with comprehensible ingredients and simple packaging are preferred. In recognition of the tastes of large segments of Generation Z, the next cohort of young consumers, a number of brands, such as M&M's, have moved their advertising and mascots away from the sexual appeal and towards a more anxious but casual style. Generation Z's shopping habits are affected by social media networks and their impact on mental health. Gen-Z consumers are less likely to pay a premium for what they want compared to their counterparts from emerging economies. While majorities might signal their support for certain ideals such as "environmental consciousness" to pollsters, actual purchases do not reflect their stated views, as can be seen from their high demand for cheap but not durable clothing ("fast fashion"), or preference for rapid delivery. Overall, although more than half say they sought environmentally friendly products, only 38% are willing to pay extra for them. Nor are they willing to shun firms whose owners have reportedly "conservative" values, such as Chick-fil-A, which remains one of the most popular fast-food restaurant chains in the United States among teenagers. While majorities of older cohorts prefer American products, Generation Z is mixed on whether or not to buy goods made in China.
Nostalgia is a major theme of the behavior of consumers from Generation Z. For example, 2000s vintage electronics and fashion are back in vogue by the early 2020s. Youths who came of age during the 2010s and 2020s feel nostalgic about "simpler" eras of history they have never experienced due to the uncertainties and stress of modern life, with student loan debts and the threat of terrorism being the top concerns. Despite having the reputation for "killing" many things valued by older generations, Millennials and Generation Z are nostalgically preserving Polaroid cameras, vinyl records, needlepoint, and home gardening, to name just some. In fact, while "dumb phones" (or feature phones rather than smartphones) are on the decline around the world, in the U.S., their sales are growing among Generation Z. According to a 2019 YouGov poll, 31% of the U.S. population is willing to pay for music on vinyl, including 26% of Generation Z. As a matter of fact, Millennials and Generation Z have given life to nostalgia as an industry in the late 2010s and early 2020s, a trend that coincides with the resurgence of some cultural phenomena of the late 1990s and early 2000s (Y2K), such the television series Friends (1994–2004), something that is well-received among young people despite its age. Nostalgia has also contributed to the anticipation and subsequent commercial success of the summer film Barbie (2023) based on a well-known doll of the same name, even though it was intended for adults rather than children.
Milk consumption has declined among young people and the growing rate of lactose intolerance among the ethnically diverse Generation Z is part of the reason why.
According to the USA Today, 69% of Generation Z turn to their parents for financial advice compared to 52% of younger Millennials. Friends followed at a distant second place with 24% and 19%, respectively. Unlike their predecessors, members of Generation Z are more cautious of developing financial debt and many are already saving for retirement. Their money-saving habits are reminiscent of those who came of age during the Great Depression. According to Morning Consult, four in ten of those aged 18 to 22 incur no debt at all. However, because a portion spend so much time online playing video games, they make many in-game purchases that add up over time without realizing how much money they are actually spending. In any case, in the second quarter of 2019, the number of people from Generation Z carrying a credit card balance increased by 41% compared to that of 2018 (from 5,483,000 to 7,746,000), as the first wave of this demographic cohort became old enough to take out a mortgage, a loan, or to have credit-card debt, according to TransUnion. In 2019, credit cards became the most common form of debt for Generation Z, overtaking auto loans. This is despite the fact that they grew up during the Great Recession. The financial industry expects continued growth in credit activity by Generation Z, whose rate of credit delinquency is comparable to those of the Millennials and Generation X. According to a 2019 report from the financial firm Northwestern Mutual, student loans were the top source of debt for Generation Z, at 25%. For comparison, mortgages were the top source of debt for the Baby Boomers (28%) and Generation X (30%); for the Millennials, it was credit card bills (25%).
In a study conducted in 2015, the Center for Generational Kinetics found that American members of Generation Z are less optimistic about the state of the US economy than their immediate predecessors, the Millennials. However, Generation Z (58%) is more likely to say they expect to be more successful than their parents were than younger Millennials (52%). Whereas 13% of younger Millennials said they expected to be less successful than their parents, only 10% of Generation Z said the same. A total of 58% of Generation Z said they had not experienced a quarter-life crisis, compared with 46% of younger Millennials. Americans aged 15 to 21 expect to be financially independent in their early twenties while their parents generally expect them to become so by their mid-twenties. By contrast, about one out of five Millennials expect to still be dependent on their parents beyond the age of 30. While the Millennials tend to prefer flexibility, Generation Z is more interested in certainty and stability. Whereas 23% of Millennials would leave a job if they thought they were not appreciated, only 15% of Generation Z would do the same, according to a Deloitte survey. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), 77% of Generation Z expects to work harder than previous generations.
Research by the online travel booking company Booking.com reveals that 54% of Generation Z considered environmental impact of their travels to be an important factor, 56% said they would like to stay in environmentally friendly lodging, and 60% were interested in greener modes of transport once they reached their destinations. Meanwhile, the online booking firm Expedia Group found that cost was crucial for 82% of tourists from Generation Z. Therefore, the desire of Generation Z to travel and see the world comes into conflict with what they can afford and their wish to limit their environmental impact.
With regards to the housing market, they typically look for properties with amenities that are comparable to what they experienced as university students. A 2019 Bank of America survey found that over half of people aged 18 to 23 were already saving for a home, with 59% saying they planned to do so within five years. More than one in two members of Generation Z said the top reason why they wanted to own a home was to start a family. For comparison, this number was 40% for the Millennials, 17% for Generation X, and 10% for the Baby Boomers. The survey also found that if they were given $5,000, most members of Generation Z would rather save that money for a down payment rather than spending it on a dream wedding, shopping, or a vacation. A majority of Generation Z was willing to take a second job, attend a less costly university, or move back to their parents' place in order to save money. They are also quite willing to live with people they did not know previously in order to save on rent in large metropolitan areas. According to the personal finance company Credit Karma, 43% of Generation Z said they had had strangers as roommates and 30% said they were willing to move in with roommates they did not know. House cleaning, a potential point of friction, is handled by maids. Nationwide, about one in four Americans have lived with someone they had no prior relationship with.
Data from TransUnion reveals that as the Millennials enter the housing market in large numbers, taking out more mortgages in 2018 than any other living generation, Generation Z's number of new mortgages is also increasing dramatically, from 150,000 in the second quarter of 2018 to 319,000 in the second quarter of 2019, an increase of 112%. Generation Z consumers took out 41% more auto loans in the second quarter of 2019 than in the same period the previous year. While one out of five Millennial renters said they expected to continue to do so indefinitely, according to a survey by Apartment List, a Freddie Mac study found that 86% of Generation Z desired to own a home by the age of 30. Freddie Mac did note, however, that Generation Z understood the challenges of home prices, making down payments, and student loan debts. According to the real-estate company realtor.com, the first wave of Generation Z was buying homes at about the same rate as their grandparents the Silent Generation in late 2019, when they owned about 2% of the housing market. Judging by the amounts of mortgages, the top housing markets tend to have strong local economies and low cost of living. They also tend to be university towns; many young people prefer to live where they studied. In general, Generation Z appears most interested in owning a home in the Midwest and the South. Broadly speaking, while the Millennials are migrating North, Generation Z is moving South. The median price of a home purchased by Generation Z in 2019 was $160,600 and increasing, but remains lower than that of the Millennials, $256,500.
Generation Z's top career choices—becoming business people, doctors, engineers, artists, and IT workers—are not that different from generations past. For them, the most important qualities in a job are income, fulfillment, work-life balance, and job security. In particular, Generation Z prioritizes a work-life balance more than older cohorts and are highly interested in flexible work schedules. Most prefer to work for a medium or large company rather than a startup or a government agency.
A Harvard Business Review article from 2015 stated that about 70% of Generation Z was self-employed, e.g. selling things online, and only 12% had "traditional" teen jobs, such as waiting tables. Access to the Internet has made self-employment much easier than it was in the past. A Morgan Stanley report published in 2019, called the Blue Paper, projected that the Millennials and Generation Z have been responsible in a surge in labor participation in the U.S., and that while the U.S. labor force expands, that of other G10 countries will contract. This development alleviates concerns over America's aging population which jeopardizes the solvency of various welfare programs. As of 2019, Millennials and Generation Z accounted for 38% of the American workforce; that number will rise to 58% in the incoming decade.
Due to declining interest in higher education and a tight labor market, in the early 2020s, young Americans could expect to be hired right after graduating high school. In May 2023, the unemployment rate of Americans aged 16 to 24 was 7.5%, the lowest in 70 years. Among teenagers 16 to 19, employment numbers have gone up, though not to the level seen among the Baby Boomers and Generation X when they were teenagers due to a variety of factors, including jobs being automated, outsourced, or given to immigrants, and state governments regulating the job market more tightly. Yet despite a strong labor market and falling inflation, economist Karen Dynan observed that young Americans tend to be pessimistic about their economic prospects, worrying about a possible recession, expensive housing, and the possibility of being laid off.
Anxious about student debt, Generation Z is increasingly interested in alternatives to higher education, such as trade schools, which they and their parents view as quicker and more affordable paths towards prosperity. America's shortage of skilled tradespeople, such as plumbers—whose incomes are in six digits—continues in early 2020s despite the COVID-19 pandemic and despite rising salaries and potential employers offering to pay their recruits during training. Many twenty-first-century jobs are quite sophisticated, involving advanced robotics, additive manufacturing, cloud computing, among other modern technologies, and technologically savvy employees are precisely what employers need. Four-year university degrees are unnecessary; technical or vocational training, or perhaps apprenticeship would do. Generation Z stands to benefit from this "skills gap" in the American economy. Whenever they find themselves short on skills, Generation Z will pick up what they need using the Internet. While there is agreement across generations that it is very important for employees to learn new skills, Millennials and Generation Z are overwhelmingly more likely than Baby Boomers to think that it is the job of employees to train themselves. Baby Boomers tend to think it is the employer's responsibility. Moreover, Millennials and Generation Z (74%) tend to have more colleagues working remotely for a significant portion of their time compared to the Baby Boomers (58%).
According to the Pew Research Center, young people are more likely to ride public transit. In 2016, 21% of adults aged 18 to 21 took public transit on a daily, almost daily, or weekly basis. By contrast, this number of all U.S. adults was 11%. Nationwide, about three quarters of American commuters drive their own cars. Also according to Pew, 51% of U.S. adults aged 18 to 29 used a ride-hailing service such as Lyft or Uber in 2018 compared to 28% in 2015. That number for all U.S. adults were 15% in 2015 and 36% in 2018. In general, ride-hailing service users tend to be urban residents, young (18–29), university graduates, and high-income earners ($75,000 a year or more).
Although many in Generation Z no longer view car ownership as a status symbol, a life milestone, or a ticket to freedom, the automotive industry hopes that, like the Millennials, members of Generation Z will later purchase cars in great numbers. Indeed, the number of Generation Z consumers taking out auto loans is rising drastically, from 3,072,000 in the second quarter of 2018 to 4,376,000 in the second quarter of 2019, an increase of 42%. However, 27% of Generation Z consider environmental friendliness to be an important factor, which is higher than their predecessors when they were at the same age. Much more important, though, is the price (77%). Generation Z is not particularly concerned with style or brand; they are more interested in safety. They tend to be more receptive towards self-driving cars. They are also interested in the interior electronic technology of the cars they might purchase. More specifically, they would like to be able to hook up their smartphones to the Bluetooth-capable audio systems and backup cameras.
Generation Z is more likely to search for the information they need on the Internet rather than going through a book and are accustomed to learning by watching videos. Due to growing pressure from parents and teachers, many school districts in the United States have restricted or banned the use of cellphones in the classroom. A survey by the Pew Research Center found that one in three girls aged 13 to 17 felt excited every day or almost every day about something they learned at school. For boys of the same age group, this number is just above one in five. A 2022 poll by YPulse found that the top five sets of skills Millennials and Generation Z wished they had learned at school were managing mental health, self-defense, survival skills and basic first aid, cooking, and personal finance.
The COVID-19 pandemic has badly disrupted the American education system. In the early 2020s, different school districts report significant shortages of teachers, many of whom have left their positions or the profession itself due to low pay, stressful work environments, the lack of respect for them, and the hostility towards them from some politicians and parents. This problem is not new but it mostly affects students in economically deprived areas. Well-endowed suburban schools do not have this problem. Public schools across the United States have had falling enrollments in recent due to population decline and defections to private schools and home schooling. As a result, their funding has also fallen.
Many students are finding themselves in the midst of an escalating cultural conflict in which political activists are demanding that books dealing with sensitive topics relating to race and sexuality and those that include coarse language and explicit violence be removed from school libraries. How to educate students on American history has been a source of fierce debates, as has the teaching of race and sexuality, so much so that following the COVID-19 pandemic, support for parents' rights in deciding their children's educational contents and school choice, or the redirecting of tax money via vouchers to fund private schools chosen by the parents, has grown considerably. Many parents have also used school vouchers to send children to religious or parochial schools, taking advantage of a 2022 Supreme Court ruling. To pacify angry parents and to comply with new state laws, many schoolteachers have opted to remove certain items from their lessons altogether.
Since the 2000s, cursive writing has been de-emphasized in public education. As a result, Generation Z are less likely to read and write in cursive. In fact, the Common Core standards eliminated the requirement that public elementary schools teach cursive writing in 2010. Even so, some states subsequently introduced legislation to teach it in their jurisdiction, partly because some 80% of historical records and documents of the United States, such as the correspondence of Abraham Lincoln, was written by hand in cursive Historically, cursive writing was regarded as a mandatory, almost military, exercise. But today, it is thought of as an art form by those who pursue it, both adults and children.
The percentage of American fourth-graders proficient in reading declined during the late 2010s, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). There have been numerous reports in the 2010s on how U.S. students were falling behind their international counterparts in the STEM subjects, especially those from (East) Asia. For example, American schoolchildren put up a mediocre performance on the OECD-sponsored Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), administered every three years to fifteen-year-old students around the world on reading comprehension, mathematics, and science, falling in the middle of the pack of some 71 countries and territories that participated in 2015. In fact, reading scores dropped for all ethnic groups except Asians in the late 2010s, according to the NAEP. This is a source of concern for some because academically gifted students in STEM can have an inordinately positive impact on the national economy. In addition, while American students are less focused on STEM, students from China and India are not only outperforming them but are also coming to the United States in large numbers for higher education. Nevertheless, American students ranked above the OECD average in science and computer literacy, as of 2021.
Despite the general consensus that mathematics education in the United States is mediocre, as indicated by international test scores in the late 2010s, there is strong partisan disagreement over whether the traditional teacher-led approach or the student-led or inquiry-based method should be used. An emphasis on rote memorization and speed gives as many as one in three students age five and up mathematical anxiety. Meanwhile, an increasing number of parents opted to send their children to enrichment and accelerated learning after-school or summer programs in the subject. By the mid-2010s, however, some public schools have begun offering enrichment programs to their students.
Since the early 2010s, a number of U.S. states have taken steps to strengthen teacher education. During the 2000s and 2010s, whereas the Asian polities (especially China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Singapore) actively sought out gifted students and steered them towards competitive programs, Europe and the United States emphasized inclusion and focused on helping struggling students. Developmental cognitive psychologist David Geary observed that Western educators remained "resistant" to the possibility that even the most talented of schoolchildren needed encouragement and support. In addition, even though it is commonly believed that past a certain IQ benchmark (typically 120), practice becomes much more important than cognitive abilities in mastering new knowledge, recently published research papers based on longitudinal studies, such as the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) and the Duke University Talent Identification Program, suggest otherwise. According to the 2018 National Assessment of Educational Progress, 73% of American eighth and twelfth graders had deficient writing skills.
Although passing a high school physics course is linked to graduating from college with a STEM degree, something that is increasingly popular among Generation Z, just under two-fifths of high school graduates did in 2013, according to the American Institute of Physics. With few high school students taking physics, even fewer will study the subject in college and be able to teach it, a vicious cycle. The shortage of high school physics teachers is even more acute than that of mathematics or chemistry teachers.
Many American public schools suffer from inadequate or dated facilities. Some schools even leak when it rains. It is 2017 report on American infrastructure, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave public schools a score of D+. In 2013, less than a third of American public schools have access to broadband Internet service, according to the non-profit EducationSuperHighway. By 2019, however, that number reached 99%. This has increased the frequency of digital learning.
Sex education has been reformed. While traditional lessons involving bananas and condoms remain common, newer approaches that emphasize financial responsibility and character development have been implemented. These reforms play a role in the significant drop in teenage birthrates.
By the mid-2010s, over four-fifths of American high school students graduate on time and over 70% enroll in college right after graduation. However, nationally, only one-quarter of American high school seniors are able to do grade-level math and only 37% are proficient in reading, yet about half graduate from high school as A students, prompting concerns of grade inflation. In addition, while 93% of middle school students said they want to attend college, only 26% go on to do so and graduate within six years. Critics argue that American high schools are not giving students they need for their future lives and careers. On top of the high costs of collegiate education, the vacancy of potentially millions of skilled jobs that do not require a university degree is making lawmakers reconsider their stance on tertiary education.
Students' scores have been falling on a variety of standardized tests, such as the SAT, and in all subjects, especially in mathematics, a trend found among students of all backgrounds. After the COVID-19 pandemic, the entire cohort of college students in the 2022–23 academic year have lower average grades and mathematical standards.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, high schools across the United States started to take it as their mission to prepare students for higher education. However, this program faltered in the 2010s as institutions of higher education came under heightened skepticism due to rising costs and disappointing results. According to the Department of Education, people with technical or vocational training are slightly more likely to be employed than those with a bachelor's degree and significantly more likely to be employed in their fields of specialty. During the late 2010s, the United States was facing a shortage of skilled tradespeople, because a majority high-school students were still aiming for colleges and universities. But things were changing as more and more members of Generation Z considered alternatives to higher education. Career counselors are in extremely high demand; they are not only called for not just appointments invited to career fairs and orientation sessions for new students. With growing numbers of high-school students opting for trade schools and vocational training programs, enrollments in higher education have been falling.
Due to low standards and requirements in high school, many Americans are entering institutions of higher learning, including elite schools with deficient reading comprehension skills and are unable and unwilling to complete long reading assignments.
As Generation Z enters high school, and they start preparing for college, a primary concern is paying for a college education without acquiring debt. Students report working hard in high school in hopes of earning scholarships and the hope that parents will pay the college costs not covered by scholarships. As of 2019, the total college debt has exceeded $1.5 trillion, and two out of three college graduates are saddled with debt. A 2019 survey found that over 30% of Generation Z and 18% of Millennials said they have considered taking a gap year between high school and college. In order to address the challenges of expensive tuition and student debt, many colleges have diversified their sources of revenue, especially by changing enrollment, recruitment, and retention, and introduced further tuition discounts. Between the academic years 2007-8 and 2018–9, tuition discounts increased significantly. Almost nine in every ten first-time full-time freshmen received some kind of financial aid in the academic year 2017–8. Students also report interest in Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) programs as a means of covering college costs. Indeed, college subsidies are one of the most attractive things about signing up for military service. Another enticement is signing bonuses, whose amounts vary according to specialty.
Domestic undergraduate enrollment has been in decline since 2011, with only 62% of high-school graduates heading for college compared to 70% in 2022. Due to population aging, the number of college-aged people in the United States will fall after 2025, making it easier for people born in the late 2000s and after to get admitted. Indeed, by the mid-2020s, it has already become noticeably easier to get admitted to most colleges and universities in the United States. As of 2024, only 33 colleges and universities admitted less than 10% of applicants. Institutions address challenges of a small pool of prospective students by dropping programs with low student interest, including many in the liberal arts and the humanities, like gender studies and critical race theory, and creating majors for emerging fields, such as artificial intelligence, or professional programs, such as law enforcement, and investing in online learning programs. Demand for very top American institutions, however, will likely remain more or less unchanged.
Members of Generation Z are anxious to pick majors that teach them marketable skills, with an overwhelming majority consider job preparation to be the point of college. Indeed, students and schools increasingly view one another in purely transactional terms. A 2018 Gallup poll on over 32,000 university students randomly selected from 43 schools from across the United States found that just over half (53%) of them thought their chosen major would lead to gainful employment. STEM students expressed the highest confidence (62%) while those in the liberal arts were the least confident (40%). Just over one in three thought they would learn the skills and knowledge needed to become successful in the workplace. Because jobs (that matched what one studied) were so difficult to find in the few years following the Great Recession, the value of getting a liberal arts degree and studying the humanities at university came into question. While the number of students majoring in the humanities has fallen significantly, those in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, have risen sharply. Furthermore, those who majored in the humanities and the liberal arts in the 2010s were most likely to regret having done so, whereas those in STEM, especially computer science and engineering, were the least likely. Indeed, STEM workers tend to earn more than their non-STEM counterparts; the difference widens after the bachelor's degree. 54% of people in the life sciences have an advanced degree, making this group the most educated overall among STEM workers. While about half of STEM graduates work in non-STEM jobs, people with collegiate STEM training still tend to earn more, regardless of whether or not their job is STEM-related or not.
Such were the trends before 2020, and the arrival of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States in 2020 merely accelerated the process. The novel pneumonia virus not only wrought havoc on the nation but also caused a severe economic downturn. Consequently, families chose to either delay or avoid sending their children to institutions of higher education altogether. Numerous institutions, including elite ones, have suspended graduate programs in the humanities and liberal arts due to low student interest and dim employment prospects. About a quarter of American university students failed to graduate within six years in the late 2010s and those who did faced diminishing wage premiums.
Historically, university students were more likely to be male than female. This trend continued into the very early twenty-first century, but by the late 2010s, the situation has reversed. Women are now more likely to enroll in university than men, a trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. By the end of the 2020–21 academic year, 59.5% of university students were women. This growing sex gap has been growing for four decades in the United States in parallel with other countries of middle to high income. Among those who attend college or university, women are more likely then men to graduate with a degree within six years. On the other hand, the number of women's colleges continues to fall, following a decades-long trend.
Ever since it was introduced in the 1960s, affirmative action has been a controversial topic in the United States. In late June 2023, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled against race-based admissions in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC. How this affects the demographic makeup of the student bodies of universities and colleges remains unclear, partly because more students have chosen to not specify their race or ethnicity. Schools have also been under pressure to end legacy admissions as well.
A 2020 study of data from 1999 to 2015 suggests that children living with married parents tended to have lower rates of early-life mortality than those living with unmarried or single parents and non-parents.
For girls born in the United States, the average age of the onset of puberty has been steadily falling compared to the previous century. According to a 2019 meta-analysis the age of pubertal onset among girls was between 8.8 and 10.3 years in the United States. Early puberty is associated with a variety of mental health issues (such as anxiety and depression), early sexual activity, and substance abuse, among other problems. Furthermore, factors known for prompting mental health problems—early childhood stress, absent fathers, domestic conflict, and low socioeconomic status—are themselves linked to early pubertal onset. According to Dr. Dr. Shruthi Mahalingaiah, body-mass index is a strong predictor of precocious puberty. Possible causes of early puberty could be positive, namely improved nutrition, or negative, such as obesity, stress, trauma, exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals, air pollutants, heavy metals. Girls of African ancestry on average enter puberty first, followed by those of Hispanic, European, and Asian extraction, in that order. But African-American girls are less likely to face the negative effects of puberty than their counterparts of European descent.
Data from the NCES showed that in the academic year 2018–19, 15% of students receiving special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was suffering from "other health impairments"—such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy, heart problems, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and tuberculosis. The American Optometric Association sounded the alarm on a link between the regular use of handheld electronic devices and eyestrain.
Research by the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota found food allergies are becoming increasingly common since the early 2000s. Today, one in twelve American children has a food allergy, with peanut allergy being the most prevalent type. Nut allergies, in general, have quadrupled and shellfish allergies have increased 40% between 2004 and 2019. In all, about 36% of American children have some kind of allergy. One possible explanation, supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is that parents keep their children "too clean for their own good." According to this "hygiene hypothesis," exposure to allergens give the infant's immune system some exercise, making it less likely to overreact. Evidence for this includes the fact that children living on a farm are consistently less likely to be allergic than their counterparts who are raised in the city, and that children born in a developed country to parents who immigrated from developing nations are more likely to be allergic than their parents are.
A survey conducted the Fall of 2018 by the American Psychological Association revealed that Generation Z had the weakest mental health of any living generation; some 91% of this demographic cohort reported physical or emotion symptoms associated with stress. Some 54% of workers under the age of 23 said they felt stressed within the last month, compared to 40% for Millennials. The national average was 34%. Experts have not reached a consensus on what might be the cause of this spike in mental health issues. Some suggest it is because of the current state of the world while others argue it is due to increased willingness to discuss such topics. Perhaps both are at play. There is a growing body of evidence that there is a direct link between having access to social media at a young age and weak mental health. Across the United States, university students are besieging the offices of health service workers seeking mental health support. Many are discussing their distress over climate change with their psychotherapists. Generation Z is the most likely to report having mental health issues than any other living generations. According to The Economist, while teenagers from wealthier households are less likely to have behavioral problems, mental health is an issue that affects every teen regardless of family background. Moreover, the number of university students reporting mental health issues has been rising since the 1950s, if not earlier. Today, one in five American adults suffer from a mental condition, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
There has been some evidence that COVID-19 lockdowns have accelerated the aging of adolescent brains (as measured by cortical thinning), especially among girls.
A research paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in June 2019 found a marked increase in suicide rates among adolescents. In 2017, the suicide rate for people aged 15 to 19 was 11.8 per 100,000, the highest point since 2000, when it was 8 per 100,000. In 2017, 6,241 Americans aged 15 to 19 committed suicide, of whom 5,016 were male and 1,225 were female. A flaw in this study is that cause-of-death reports may occasionally be inaccurate. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a 30% increase in suicide across all age groups in the United States between 2000 and 2016. There could be a variety of reasons for this. The authors of the JAMA paper suggest an increased willingness by families and coroners to label a death as a result of suicide, depression or opioid usage. Nadine Kaslow, a psychiatrist and behavioral scientist at the Emory University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the paper, pointed to the weakening of familial and other social bonds and the heavy use of modern communications technology, which exposes people to the risk of cyber-bullying. She noted that other studies have shown higher suicide rates, too, especially among adolescents and young adults.
The number of American teenagers who suffered from the classic symptoms of depression rose 33% between 2010 and 2015. During the same period, the number of those aged 13 to 21 who committed suicide jumped 31% between 2010 and 2015. Psychologist Jean Twenge and her colleagues found that this growth of mental health issues was not divided along the lines of socioeconomic class, race/ethnicity, or geographical location. Rather, it was associated with spending more time in front of a screen. In general, suicide risk factors—depression, contemplating, planning, and attempting suicide—increase significantly if the subject spends more than two to three hours online. Especially, those who spent five or more hours had their suicide risk factors increase 71%. It is not clear, however, whether depression causes a teenager to spend more time online or the other way around. At the same time, teens who spent more time online were more likely to not have enough sleep, a major predictor of depression. Many teenagers told researchers they used a smartphone or a tablet right before bed, kept the device close, and used it as an alarm clock. But the blue light emitted by these devices, texting, and social networking are known for perturbing sleep. Besides mental problems like depression and anxiety, sleep deprivation is also linked to reduced performance in school and obesity. Parents can address the problem of sleep deprivation simply by imposing limits on screen time and buying simple alarm clocks.
Research from the American Academy of Pediatrics analyzing responses from the parents of caregivers of 49,050 children aged six to seventeen in the combined 2016-2017 National Survey of Children's Health revealed that only 47.6% of American children slept for nine hours on most days, meaning a significant number was sleep deprived. Compared with children who did not get enough sleep most nights, those who did were 44% more likely to be curious about new things, 33% more likely to finish their homework, 28% more likely to care about their academic performance, and 14% more likely to finish the tasks they started. The researchers identified the risk factors associated with sleep deprivation among children to be the low educational attainment of parents or caregivers, being from families living below the federal poverty line, higher digital media usage, more negative childhood experiences, and mental illnesses. American teenagers share a common habit of having their smartphones on at night, at the expense of the quality of their own sleep.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), between the academic years 2011–12 and 2018–19, the number of students aged three to twenty-one receiving special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) increased from 6.4 million to 7.1 million. Of these, one in three suffered from a specific learning disability, such as having more difficulty than usual with reading or understanding mathematics. Among students enrolled in public schools in that age group, the share receiving special education rose from 13% to 14% during the same time period. Amerindians (18%) and blacks (16%) were the most likely to receive special education while Pacific Islanders (11%) and Asians (7%) were the least likely. After specific learning disabilities, the most common types of learning disorders included speech and language impairment (19%), autism (11%), and developmental delay (7%).
In a 2018 paper, cognitive scientists James R. Flynn and Michael Shayer presented evidence that from the 1990s until the 2010s, the observed gains in IQ during the twentieth century—commonly known as the Flynn effect—had either stagnated (as in the case of Australia, France, and the Netherlands), became mixed (in the German-speaking nations), or reversed (in the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom). This, however, was not the case in South Korea or the United States, as the U.S. continued its historic march towards higher IQ, a rate of 0.38 per decade, at least up until 2014 while South Korea saw its IQ scores growing at twice the average U.S. rate.
While U.S. IQ scores continued to increase, creativity scores, as measured by the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking, were in decline between the 1990s and the late 2000s. Educational psychologist Kyung Hee Kim reached this conclusion after analyzing data samples of kindergartens to high-school students and adults in 1974, 1984, 1990, and 2008, a grand total of 272,599 individuals. Previously, U.S. educational success was attributed to the encouragement of creative thinking, something education reformers in China, Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan sought to replicate. But U.S. educators decided to go in the opposite direction, emphasizing standardization and test scores at the expense of creativity. On the parenting side, giving children little play time and letting them spend large amounts of time in front of a screen likely contributed to the trend. Creativity has real-life consequences, not just in the arts but also in academia and in life outcomes.
In 2018, Gallup conducted a survey of almost 14,000 Americans from all 50 states and the District of Columbia aged 18 and over on their political sympathies. They found that overall, younger adults tended to lean liberal while older adults tilted conservative. (See chart.) Gallup found little variations by income groups compared to the national average. Youth support for the political left continues to hold during the early 2020s. According to Robert Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute, ethnically and religiously, the Generation Z is much better represented by the Democratic Party while senior Americans are closer to the Republican Party.
However, these broad trends conceal a significant gender divide, with young women under 30 years of age being broadly left-wing and young men being right-leaning on a variety of issues from immigration to sexual harassment. A gender gap has been observed since 1980, when women were more likely to vote for the Democratic Party and men for the Republican Party. But this gap has widened during the 2010s and 2020s. According to Gallup, the gap as of early 2024 among voters below the age of 30 was 30 percentage points. Some young men believe that women's progress has come at their expense, that it should be acceptable to discuss men's mental health issues, that men's economic concerns have not been addressed, or that most politicians have ignored them. Facing despair and political homelessness, many young men find Donald Trump an appealing alternative. They do not necessarily hold socially conservative or patriarchal views, however. Many do support gender equality, favor keeping abortion legal, and have a high opinion of former President Barack Obama. In contrast, many young women became politically active because of the failed 2016 presidential campaign of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the me-too movement, the Dobbs v. Jackson decision on abortion by the Supreme Court, and the 2024 presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris (after incumbent President Joe Biden announced he would not seek re-election). In fact, Harris managed to secure the support of many young female voters, who previously only reluctantly voted for Biden or did not vote at all, and her support among women has been rising faster than among young men. Other reasons for the gender gap include young women being better educated and earning more than men in the contemporary American economy. In all, American women below the age of 30 have been moving leftward on a number of key political issues while young men have not moved as much. There is little to no gap in terms of educational attainment or race.
As of 2024, the majority of Generation Z does not align with either major political parties of the United States. They generally expect more substantive information on policies before casting their vote. Some of the key issues for this cohort are climate change, gender equality, reproductive rights, and gun violence. But the single most important issue for Generation Z is the economy, including inflation, the cost of housing, income inequality, and taxes. Among college students, the top issues are healthcare reforms, the cost of education, and civil rights. Most do not care about Middle Eastern conflicts and the associated protests on college campuses, but are more interested in lucrative careers after graduation. Among young men, a majority think that both parties hold extreme views, but that the Republican Party is more so than the Democratic Party.
Social media networks have played a crucial role in how members Generation Z form and share their political views. The algorithms of these platforms typically serve contents that reinforce the views of the user and help them mind other like-minded individuals. TikTok has brought Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to the attention of many Gen-Z women. Because they spend so much time on social media networks, people below the age of 30 have little concern over online privacy and national security and many oppose restrictions or bans on popular platforms, such as TikTok. As a result, politicians from both major political parties have been working on appealing to young voters on social networks. This is especially true of the Democratic Party, which is more dependent upon the youth vote. Generation Z's political views have also been shaped by the way they are taught history. Changes to the curriculum of American history during the 2010s, especially in left-leaning states, have led to large numbers young Americans having a low opinion of their country and their historical figures. On the other hand, the decline of belief in American exceptionalism is a long-term trend and is not unique to this cohort.
As more and more members of Generation Z reached adulthood during the 2020s, voter turnouts in this cohort has been growing, even though young people are still less likely to vote than older generations. In particular, political participation among young women has jumped, breaking a historical trend in which young men were more likely to vote. Living in an age of political polarization has motivated this cohort to participate in the political process. A survey conducted before the 2020 U.S. presidential election by Barnes and Nobles Education on 1,500 college students nationwide found that just one third of respondents believe who they vote for is "private information" and three quarters of them find it difficult to find unbiased news sources.
2018 was the first year when the majority of voters aged 18 to 24 were members of Generation Z, and they cast 4% of the votes. During the 2020 U.S. presidential election, Millennials and Generation Z voted for Joe Biden by a margin of 20 percentage points. Generation Z cast 8% of the votes that year. Although American voters below the age of 30 helped Joe Biden win, their support for him fell quickly afterwards. By late 2021, only 29% of adults in this age group approved of his performance as president whereas 50% disapproved, a gap of 21 points, the largest of all age groups. In the 2022 midterm election, voters below the age of 30 were the only major age group supporting the Democratic Party, but their numbers were large enough to prevent Republicans from controlling the majority of seats in the Senate. In the 2024 presidential election, Americans aged 18 to 29 voted for Kamala Harris by only a small margin (51% to 47%), according to exit polls conducted by the Associated Press. Compared to 2020, Donald Trump and his Republican Party made considerable gains among young voters, especially young men and European Americans.
In 2019, the Pew Research Center interviewed over 2,000 Americans aged 18 and over on their views of various components of the federal government. They found that 54% of the people between the ages of 18 and 29 wanted larger government compared to 43% who preferred smaller government and fewer services. Older people were more likely to pick the second option. 2018 polls conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 70% of Americans aged 13 to 17 wanted the government to play a more active role in solving their problems.
A 2022 poll by Pew showed that overall, medical experts, the military, and scientists were among the most trusted groups in the United States. But while a majority of Americans believed it was important for their country to remain a global leader in science, people aged 18 to 29 were somewhat less inclined to think so compared to older cohorts and were slightly more optimistic about the standing of U.S. science on the international stage. However, Generation Z's trust in institutions has been declining. In a Fall 2024 Harvard Youth Poll, only 11% of those ages 18-29 felt that the United States is "generally headed in the right direction," and a 2023 poll by the American Public Media Research Lab found that only 27% of Americans ages 18-25 "agree strongly" that democracy is the best system of government, compared with 48% for all ages.
The March for Our Lives, a protest taking place in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018 was described by various media outlets as being led by students and young people. Some even describe it as the political "awakening" of Generation Z or that these protesters were "the voice of a generation on gun control." While this massive protest was indeed organized by the survivors of the Parkland shooting, albeit with the assistance of well-resourced and older benefactors, the reality was a little more complicated. According to a field survey by The Washington Post interviewing every fifth person at the protest, only ten percent of the participants were 18 years of age or younger. Meanwhile, the adult participants of the protest had an average age of just under 49. Polls conducted by Gallup and the Pew Research Center found that support for stricter gun laws among people aged 18 to 29 and 18 to 36, respectively, is statistically no different from that of the general population. According to Gallup, 57% of Americans are in favor of stronger gun control legislation. In a 2017 poll, Pew found that among the age group 18 to 29, 27% personally owned a gun and 16% lived with a gun owner, for a total of 43% living in a household with at least one gun. Nationwide, a similar percentage of American adults lived in a household with a gun. (See chart.)
Harvard University's Institute of Politics Youth Poll from 2019 found that support for single-payer universal healthcare and tuition-free free college dropped, down 8% to 47% and down 5% to 51%, respectively, if cost estimates were provided. According to the Hispanic Heritage Foundation, about eight out of ten members of Generation Z identify as "fiscal conservatives." In 2018, the International Federation of Accountants released a report on a survey of 3,388 individuals aged 18 to 23 hailing from G20 countries, with a sample size of 150 to 300 per country. They found that healthcare is a top priority for Generation Z in Canada, France, Germany, and the United States.
Surveys conducted in the late 2010s and early 2020s indicated that majorities of Generation Z believed that climate change was real and was caused by human activities. Differences in opinion might be due to education as younger Americans are more likely to have been taught about climate change in schools than their elders. Moreover, Generation Z broadly supports the United States transitioning away from fossil fuels and towards (next-generation) nuclear reactors and renewable energy. Majorities of this cohort also favored carbon capture and a ban on Arctic drilling.
A 2018 Gallup poll found that people aged 18 to 29 have a more favorable view of socialism than capitalism, 51% to 45%. Nationally, 56% of Americans prefer capitalism compared to 37% who favor socialism. Older Americans consistently prefer capitalism to socialism. Whether the current attitudes of Millennials and Generation Z on capitalism and socialism will persist or dissipate as they grow older remains to be seen.
In 2016, the Varkey Foundation and Populus conducted an international study examining the attitudes of 20,000 people aged 15 to 21 in twenty countries. They found that 66% of people aged 15 to 21 favored legal abortion. But there was significant variation among the countries surveyed. The United States stood at 63%, below France (84%), the United Kingdom (80%) but ahead of Brazil (45%), and Nigeria (24%). Gallup polls conducted in 2019 revealed that 62% of people aged 18 to 29—older members of Generation Z and younger Millennials—support giving women access to abortion while 33% opposed. In general, the older someone was, the less likely that they supported abortion. 56% of people aged 65 or over did not approve of abortion compared to 37% who did. (See chart to the right.) Gallup found in 2018 that nationwide, Americans are split on the issue of abortion, with equal numbers of people considering themselves "pro-life" or "pro-choice", 48%. In any case, many participants in the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. in the early 2020s are members of Generation Z.
The same international survey also asked about people's viewpoints on moral questions regarding sex and gender. Overall 89% supported sexual equality, with the U.S. (90%) standing between Canada and China (both 94%) and Nigeria (68%). 74% favored recognizing transgender rights, but with large national differences, from an overwhelming majority of 83% in Canada to a bare majority of 57% in Nigeria. The U.S. was again somewhere in the middle at 75%. 63% approved of same-sex marriage. There were again huge variations among countries. 81% of young Germans and 80% of young Canadians agreed that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry, compared to only 33% of young Turks and 16% of young Nigerians who did. As before, 71% of Americans approved, putting the country somewhere in the middle.
A 2018 poll conducted by Harris on behalf of the LGBT advocacy group GLAAD found that despite being frequently described as the most tolerant segment of society, people aged 18 to 34—most Millennials and the oldest members of Generation Z—have become less accepting of LGBT individuals compared to previous years. In 2016, 63% of Americans in that age group said they felt comfortable interacting with members of the LGBT community; that number dropped to 53% in 2017 and then to 45% in 2018. On top of that, more people reported discomfort learning that a family member was LGBT (from 29% in 2017 to 36% in 2018), having a child learning LGBT history (30% to 39%), or having an LGBT doctor (27% to 34%). (See right.) Harris found that young women were driving this development; their overall comfort levels dived from 64% in 2017 to 52% in 2018. In general, the fall of comfort levels was the steepest among people aged 18 to 34 between 2016 and 2018. (Seniors aged 72 or above became more tolerant of LGBT doctors or having their (grand) children taking LGBT history lessons during the same period, albeit with a bump in discomfort levels in 2017.) Results from this Harris poll were released on the 50th anniversary of the riots that broke out in Stonewall Inn, New York City, in June 1969, thought to be the start of the LGBT rights movement. At that time, homosexuality was considered a mental illness or a crime in many U.S. states.
2018 surveys of teenagers 13 to 17 and adults aged 18 or over conducted by the Pew Research Center found that Generation Z has broadly similar views to the Millennials on various political and social issues. 67% were indifferent towards pre-nuptial cohabitation. 49% considered single motherhood to be neither a positive nor a negative for society. 62% saw increased ethnic or racial diversity as good for society. As did 48% for same-sex marriage, and 53% for interracial marriage. In most cases, Generation Z and the Millennials tended to hold different views from the Silent Generation, while the Baby Boomers and Generation X were in between. In the case of financial responsibility in a two-parent household, though, majorities from across the generations answered that it should be shared, with 58% for the Silent Generation, 73% for the Baby Boomers, 78% for Generation X, and 79% for both the Millennials and Generation Z. Across all the generations surveyed, at least 84% thought that both parents ought to be responsible for rearing children. About 13% of Generation Z thought that mothers should be the primary caretaker of children, with similar percentages for the other demographic cohorts. Very few thought that fathers should be the ones mainly responsible for taking care of children. Pew, however, noted that the views of this demographic cohort could change in the future as they age and due to new events. Even so, they could play a significant role in the shaping of the political landscape.
A 2023 poll by The Wall Street Journal and NORC at the University of Chicago found that about 23% of people adults below the age of 30 thought that having children was important, 9 percentage points below those aged 65 and above.
In a 2016 survey conducted by the Varkey Foundation and Populus, the question of whether or not those 15 to 21 favored legal migration received mixed responses. Overall, 31% believed their governments should make it easier for immigrants to work and live legally in their countries while 23% said it should be more difficult, a margin of 8%. In the United States, that margin of support was 16%. (See chart above.) According to Gallup, Americans aged 18 to 34 are more likely to view immigration as a "good thing" than their elders.
Polls conducted in the late 2010s and early 2020s of adults under the age of 30 show that the top foreign-policy issues for this cohort were combating climate change, preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and defending the United States from terrorism. Maintaining American military strength and defending American allies were not as important to young voters. Moreover, young Americans are markedly less concerned about combating America's geopolitical adversaries, notably China and Russia, compared to older voters, who still have lingering sentiments from the (previous) Cold War. A 2019 poll by the International Federation of Accountants found that in the United States, 52% of Generation Z wanted their government to focus more on national problems, a 24% margin ahead of those who thought otherwise. Similarly, 2020 poll conducted by the Center for American Progress found that only 18% of Americans supported liberal internationalism, which has been part of U.S. foreign policy since the time of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, while young Americans were even less likely to support it, contributing to a return towards isolationism, a historical norm dating back to the Founding Fathers.
On the other hand, younger Americans are also more positive about international free trade agreements than their elders.
Globally, religion is growing except in Western Europe and North America. In the United States, Christianity remains the single most popular religion, with three quarters of Americans following, as of 2017. However, the nation's non-believers continued to grow in numbers in the early 2020s, a trend driven by people between the ages of 18 and 29, 32% of whom said they did not believe in God, according to a 2022 Gallup poll. Members of Generation Z are more likely to start questioning their parents' religions before the age of 18 than previous generations and those who leave tend to not return. Moreover, a majority of Generation Z disagrees that it is necessary to raise children in a religious household. According to a poll jointly conducted by The Wall Street Journal and the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago in 2023, only 31% of people aged 18 to 29 consider religion to be important in their lives, compared to 55% of those aged 65 and over. Even so, American youths are fairly religious by global standards. According to the Pew Research Center, majorities of school-attending teenagers wear religious symbols and attire, pray before lunch, and invite their peers to join a religious club. Girls are more likely to discuss religion with their friends than boys. An overwhelming majority understood that teachers are not allowed to lead classroom prayers (82%). In contrast, 62% answered incorrectly that teachers may not read from the Bible as literature. While bullying has been acknowledged to be a serious problem in American public schools, students are seldom harassed for their religious views.
In 2016, Barna found about two-thirds of teenagers thought that "a person can be wrong about something that they sincerely believe in" whereas adults were much more likely to agree with that statement, especially the Baby Boomers (85%). 46% of adolescents require factual evidence before believing in something, on par with Millennials. Generation Z and Millennials were also more likely to consider the Bible to be at odds with science than older cohorts. (See chart.) The same Barna survey revealed that the percentage of atheists and agnostics was 21% among Generation Z, higher than 15% of Millennials, 13% of Generation X, and 9% of Baby Boomers. Moreover, unlike older demographic cohorts, young women are much more likely than men to be irreligious. Those who still hold private religious beliefs are also less likely to go to church. When asked what their biggest barriers to faith were, irreligious members of Generation Z pointed to what they perceived as internal contradictions of the religion and its believers. Many also took issue with religious leaders' positions on certain social and political topics, such as abortion, homosexuality and sex-abuse scandals of the church. Young women in particular disapproved of the Church's emphasis on traditional gender roles, especially the subservience of women before men, and the culture of purity, such as the insistence that women must dress "modestly" because they were responsible for the thoughts of men. Living in the Age of Information, they found it easy to be disillusioned by religious teachings and to deconvert themselves. Women having access to higher education, having careers, and deprioritizing matrimony and reproduction were also contributing factors.
Research from the Annie E. Casey Foundation conducted in 2016 found Generation Z youth had lower teen pregnancy rates, less substance abuse, and higher on-time high school graduation rates compared with Millennials. The researchers compared teens from 2008 and 2014 and found a 40% drop in teen pregnancy, a 38% drop in drug and alcohol abuse, and a 28% drop in the percentage of teens who did not graduate on time from high school. Three-quarters of American twelfth-graders believed their peers disapproved of binge drinking. Indeed, members of Generation Z tend to be more worried about mental health issues and getting good grades than unplanned pregnancies or binge drinking.
Although the number of American teenagers who smoked cigarettes was steadily falling during the 2010s, the prevalence of electronic cigarette use was rising. (See chart above.) As of 2019, there is no evidence linking the availability of electronic cigarettes to a decline in traditional smoking among youths. However, in an anti-vaping ad, the Food and Drugs Administration stated, "Teens who vape are more likely to start smoking cigarettes." Public opinion has turned against electronic cigarettes and various state and local governments are seeking to restrict is use, especially as kid-friendly flavors are on sale. By the mid-2020s, tobacco product use of all types among teenagers was on the decline, a trend largely driven by falling e-cigarette demand.
Bloomberg reported in 2019 that members of Generation Z were twice as likely as an average American to consume cannabis. About 1% of the number of legal marijuana consumers came this demographic cohort, and that number tripled in 2019. Generation Z is the first to be born into a time when the legalization of marijuana at the federal level is being seriously considered. As of 2019, cannabis is legal in 33 U.S. states as well as in Canada and Uruguay. Even though Generation Z may not think of cannabis as anything more than a controversial issue, there is mounting concern on its effects on human health. A survey of literature reveals that marijuana usage is linked to, among other things, impaired driving, higher risks of stroke testicular cancer, memory loss, and certain mental illnesses, such as psychosis. Pregnant women, teenagers, and people prone to mental illnesses are especially vulnerable. Compared to those who do not use cannabis or those who start after they reach 16 years, people who start before that age suffer from reduced cognitive functioning (including planning and decision-making skills), and higher levels of impulsivity. About one in ten marijuana users developed a substance use disorder, meaning they continue to use it even though it causes problems in their lives, and those who use it before the age of 18 are more likely to suffer from it. Marijuana use in the United States is three times above the global average, but in line with other Western democracies. Forty-four percent of American high-school seniors have tried the drug at least once, and the typical age of first-use is 16, similar to the typical age of first-use for alcohol but lower than the first-use age for other illicit drugs.
In a 2019 study, Jean Twenge and her collaborators examined surveys from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health of 200,000 adolescents aged 13 to 17 from 2005 to 2017 and 400,000 adults aged 18 and over from 2008 to 2017. They found that while there was a marked increase in the number of teenagers and young adults reporting mental illness, there was no corresponding development among those of 26 years and up.
Historically, the birth rate of teenagers peaked in the late 1950s and early 1960s. However, at that time, most teenage parents were married. In the early twenty-first century, nine in ten births to the age group 15-19 are to unmarried mothers.
Social norms have changed; it is now not unusual for teenagers to delay or avoid sexual intercourse altogether. Younger teenagers are more likely to practice abstinence than their older counterparts. A report published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in early 2018 found the number of high school students who have had sex fell from 47% in 2005 down to 41% in 2015, with the most dramatic drop taking place between 2013 and 2015. On top of that, among never-married teens who have had sex, overwhelming majorities reported they used contraception the first time they did it. There are a few reasons for this. First, Millennials and Generation Z are more focused on the consequences of sex than their predecessors were. Second, there has been growing concern over unwanted sexual advances, especially in the wake of the Me-too movement. Numerous individuals have lost their jobs or been expelled from school over allegations of sexual assault. Writing for The Spectator, Douglas Murray dubbed this the "sexual counter-revolution." Third, as a consequence of the precarious contemporary economy, young adults today are more likely to be living with their parents rather than on their own, with a romantic partner, or a spouse.
A 2016 analysis by the CDC discovered that teenage birthrates nosedived between 1991, when they reached a crisis point, and 2014, when they dropped by 60%, a record low. The collapse of birthrates among blacks and (non-white) Hispanics, down 50%, was largely responsible for this development. However, their birthrates remained, on average, twice as high as those of their white counterparts. The birth rates of teenage Asians and Pacific Islanders were even lower, about half that of whites. In a 2014 paper, economists Melissa S. Kearney and Phillip B. Levine, both fellows of the Brookings Institution, were able to show that popular TV programs depicting the reality of teenage parenthood, such as MTV's 16 and Pregnant and its Teen Mom sequels, have played a significant role in the reduction of teenage childbearing. While the CDC did not address the question of abortion, researchers from the Guttmacher Institute were able to show that the fall in teenage birthrates is likely not due to terminated pregnancies. The number of abortions remained the same or decreased in all U.S. states except for Vermont. This contradicts the historically negative correlation between birthrates and abortions. Modern youths also have better access to contraception than did their predecessors when they were at the same age. In addition to the daily birth control pill, injectable and implantable methods are available, and they last longer. A CDC analysis found that the rates of teens using a long-acting and reversible method of contraception, such as an intrauterine device (IUD), jumped from 0.4% in 2005 to 7.1% in 2013. The teen birthrate continues to fall in the late 2010s, down to 17.4 births per 1000 in 2018. In 2022, it fell to 13.5, the lowest on record.
In 2013, only 43% of children lived with married parents in their first marriage, down from 73% in 1960. Meanwhile, the share of children living with a single parent was 34% in 2013, up from 9% in 1960. The proportion of children not living with their parents barely changed, standing at 5% in 2013; most of them lived with their grandparents. 15% of American children lived with married parents at least one of whom remarried in 2013, with little change from previous decades.
Parents from wealthier backgrounds are less likely to have children out of wedlock and more likely to stay married, with desirable outcomes for their children, including better social and cognitive development and educational attainment. By contrast, children born into the middle class or the lower class are less likely to have married parents than before. They also tend to have younger parents who did not intend to have them and more siblings. Upper middle-class and wealthy American couples living in the cities tend to have fewer children and to invest heavily in their children in the form of breastfeeding for at least a year, giving them premium healthcare plans, sending them to private schools, and letting them eat organic foods. Among those who send their children to public schools, they favor policies that ensure the high quality of such schools with exclusionary admissions and zoning ordinances. Said parents also hire nannies and housekeepers to reduce the time they spend doing house chores so that they can more time on culturally and educationally enriching activities with their children. In fact, the amount of time parents spend with their children has gone up since the mid-1960s, especially among educated couples. An early start to the accumulation of cultural capital helps children stand out from the competition as they mature, making them more likely to be admitted to prestigious universities.
On the other hand, Generation Z typically grows up with less independence than the Baby Boomers or Generation X. This constant supervision of children by their parents—protective or "helicopter parenting"—is partly due to concerns over public safety or legal requirements and partly due to the fact that many educators and parents view play as outdated and irrelevant. As a result, a portion of this cohort spends much of their leisure in doors rather than outside, with little to no adult supervision. In reality, the United States continues to be a safer place for children, who are much less likely to be abducted or otherwise harmed by an adult than ever before. In 2018, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a statement emphasizing the importance of unstructured time spent by children pointing to the benefits for children's social, cognitive, and language skills development. Play can also help children handle stress, including toxic stress, and reduce their chances of being obese or depressed.
The Pew Research Center found that Americans who were aged 15–17 in 2014–17 spent on average 16 more minutes doing homework and 22 more minutes asleep each day, compared to their predecessors one decade prior. However, other surveys suggest teens get fewer hours of sleep each day. At the same time, they spent an average of 23 minutes less on paid jobs, and 16 minutes less on socializing each day, compared to their counterparts ten years ago. Meanwhile, the amount of time spent on sports, clothes shopping, and reading for pleasure have not changed. In general, Generation Z is less likely to engage in "fringe" behavior.
As is the case with previous generations, there were differences in how teenage boys and girls spent their free time. Boys generally spent more time on leisure activities, such as playing sports and on their electronic devices. Girls spent more time on homework, housework, and activities related to appearance. Girls also spent more time on volunteering and on unpaid care work than boys. 35% of girls and 23% of boys said they felt pressured to look good.
Members of Generation Z tend to be lonelier than ever before. Despite the technological proficiency they possess, 72% generally prefer person-to-person contact as opposed to online interaction. The desire for in-person interactions has fueled the revival of board games such as backgammon, chess, and mahjong among Millennials and Generation Z.
Pluralities prefer teenage boys making the first move. Social media networks have proven to be useful in helping teenage lovers strengthen their ties; this is especially true for boys. Texting is by far the most popular method, though girls are noticeably more likely than boys to text their lovers daily.
A press release by the online dating app Tinder showed that the age group 18 to 24 became the majority of users on their platform in 2019. The company boasted 7.86 million users in the United States that year. Nevertheless, even though smartphone applications such as Tinder allow for easy hook-ups and one-night stands, Millennials and Generation Z are quite serious and cautious when it comes to long-term romantic relationships. Unlike generations past, who married earlier and after shorter periods of courtship, Generation Z generally prefers to take things slowly. Generation Z, especially women, is also more likely to have been friends with a romantic partner before dating. Daniel Cox of Five Thirty Eight explains, "This suggests a significant push back [among young Americans] against online dating as a way to meet partners." A significant number is choosing to remain single, because they do not want to be in a relationship, are facing trouble meeting the right people, or have other priorities at present, such as (higher) education or careers. Data from the 2019 General Social Survey revealed that 51% of Americans aged 18 to 24 had no steady partner, higher than other cohorts. Moreover, this number has grown in recent years. Men below the age of 30 are much more likely to be single than women in the same age group.
Although a majority of Millennials and Generation Z would like to get married one day, significant numbers deem marriage to be an outdated institution and an overwhelming majority think it is unnecessary for a fulfilling or happy life. Surveys have also documented a marked decline in the desire for children. Close to a quarter of Millennials and Generation Z say they do not want children.
In February 2021, Gallup reported that 15.9% of American adults born between 1997 and 2002 identified as LGBT. Of those, 11.5% were bisexual while 2% said they were lesbian, gay, or transgender. Overall, a greater share American adults in Generation Z identifies as LGBT than those in previous generational cohorts.
PRRI reported that up to 28% of Zoomers in America said they belonged to the LGBTQ community, significantly more than the 16% of Millennials and 7% of previous generations. Among Zoomer adults in the United States between the ages of 18 and 25, 72% identified as heterosexual, 15% as bisexual, 5% as gay or lesbian, and 8% as "other".
Members of Generation Z have acquired a "digital bond to the Internet" from a very young age. According to the Pew Research Center, a defining feature of this cohort is that the majority owns a cell phone. About one quarter of teens are almost constantly online and 80% feel distressed if separated from their electronic gadgets. Generation Z spends on average six hours each day on the Internet, much of it playing video games. That much of Generation Z is growing up with constant access to Internet-enabled devices has undermined parental authority and control, prompting concerns over the sort of information children are exposed to while surfing the World Wide Web.
Despite being commonly known as "digital natives", Generation Z is not necessarily digitally literate. The 2018 International Computer and Information Literacy Study (ICILS), conducted on 42,000 eighth-graders (or equivalents) from 14 countries, found that only two percent were sufficiently proficient with information devices to justify that description, and only 19% could work independently with computers to gather information and manage their work. In the U.S., 90% reached Level 1, 66% Level 2, 25% Level 3, and 2% Level 4. Among American eighth-graders, 72% said they searched for information on the Internet at least once a week or every school day, and 65% reported they were autodidactic information finders on the Internet.
The role of Generation Z in the future "digital economy" remains uncertain as they still lack the skills they need to join the workforce. At least initially, they struggle with office items such as printers or scanners. Many are also unfamiliar with touch typing.
Almost all Americans who were in their teens and 20s during the late 2010s and early 2020s are on at least one social-media platform, with YouTube being most popular in 2018. About three quarters report checking their accounts multiple times a day. Members of Generation Z are more likely to "follow" others on social media than "share" and use different types of social media for different purposes. Very few expressed concern about third parties being able to access their data as they share more personal information more often compared to previous generations. Most have uploaded photographs of themselves, stated their interests, given their school names, posted their locations, and revealed their relationship statuses. As a cohort, Generation Z finds validation and social support on social media. On the other hand, only a minority engaged in political conversations on social media networks. Despite their heavy usage of social media, a majority believe that life was better before the emergence of these platforms.
While teens may dislike certain aspects of Facebook, such as excessive sharing, they continue to use it because participation is important in terms of socializing with peers. Teens typically keep their Facebook accounts private and make their Twitter accounts public, partly because of the number of adults on the former. Speed and reliability are important factors in choice of social networking platform. This need for quick communication is apparent in the popularity of apps like Vine or Snapchat and the prevalent use of emojis. By the early 2020s, TikTok has become one of the most popular social networks among teenagers and young adults, who frequently use it as a news source and a search engine. Young Americans are willing to ignore their own government's concerns over issues of user privacy and national security, as well as a possible nationwide ban.
A notable number of people from Generation Z were the subject of their parents' social media posts. As they grow older, they have opinions about pictures or videos of them being posted online. While some parents do ask for their children's permission before posting, at least some of the time, others simply disregard what their children think. A 2010 report by cybersecurity firm AVG stated that 92% of American children under the age of two had a digital footprint and one in three had their information and photographs posted online within weeks after they were born. One of the reasons why children want greater control over their image online is because a college admissions officer or a prospective recruiter might look them up online. As a result, members of Generation Z are careful to make themselves presentable to potential employers on social media. Not only do they take advantage of the various tools that allow them to control who sees what and are more cautious about what they post, they also try to cultivate a "personal brand" online. According to the Pew Research Center, 57% refrain from posting something if they think it might "reflect badly on them in the future." It is quite common for young people to have an alternate Instagram account, so much so that there is a name for it, "finstas," or "fake Instagram accounts."
There are growing concerns and evidence on the negative impact of social media networks on mental health. By design, these platforms have algorithms that encourage users to spend more time on them, leading to addiction, and they tend to encourage social comparison and competition, even if shared photographs might have been digitally manipulated. Teenagers and young adults tend to have worse body-image issues the more time they spend on social media, a trend most pronounced among girls. Teenagers who spend so much time on these websites have correspondingly less time for in-person interactions with friends and family and schoolwork, and they are more likely to be exposed to misinformation and other harmful content, such as bullying, slut-shaming, or body shaming. Pornography is reaching an increasingly large youth audience on social media. As online social networks expanded, the amount of toxic contents generated mostly by young people also grew. Moreover, social media networks can be addictive. Instagram users were the most likely to report unhappiness than those of any other social media platforms. Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook, admitted that his company was "exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology." Legislation has been proposed or enacted at various levels of the U.S. government and some school boards to tackle the issue.
There are also concerns that young people get drawn into online communities that promote politically extreme or radical beliefs, and spread incendiary statements or misinformation. This could distort their outlooks and further exacerbate political polarization.