Jim Liebelt's Youth Culture Watch

Gen Z Teens Lonelier, More Apt to Use Therapy, Less Likely to Do Drugs

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Deseret News.

When it comes to Gen Z teenagers, you can discard the old saw that “kids will be kids,” similar across generations based on their age and maturity level. Gen Z is different.

Ask young adults in Gen Z about their teen years and you will learn that, compared to previous generations:

• More teens in Gen Z felt lonely and isolated.
• They were less likely to have a significant other in their teen years.
• They didn’t hang out with other teens as much.
• With parents likely to be working full time, they didn’t have as many family meals together.
• They are much less likely to have attended religious services regularly.
• They consumed less alcohol, drugs, and tobacco products.
• They were less likely to have a part-time or summer job.
• They were more likely to have had therapy as teens.

That’s all according to “Generation Z and the Transformation of American Adolescence: How Gen Z’s Formative Experiences Shape Its Politics, Priorities and Future,” a new survey report from the American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life.

In the report, Gen Z was considered to be those born between 1997 and 2012. Often, there’s a year or two variation in when different analyses consider a generation to have begun or ended. By this reckoning, Gen Z’s adults looking back on their teen years are between 20 and 26.

Daniel A. Cox directs the Survey Center on American Life and is a senior fellow in polling and public opinion at the American Enterprise Institute. He told Deseret News that formative events help define generations.

The report itself says that Gen Z’s cohort has a distinctive demographic profile. About half of Generation Z is non-Hispanic white, compared to 7 in 10 baby boomers. More than a third of Gen Z adults say they are not religiously affiliated, which is twice the number of boomers who say that.

“Being a member of a more diverse generation raises the probability of regular social interactions with people who do not share your racial or religious background, sexual identity or sexual orientation,” Cox and his co-authors wrote. “Diversity exposes people to a wider array of backgrounds and encourages commitment to pluralism. It’s not a coincidence that Gen Z adults are more likely than older generations to believe that America’s diversity is a source of strength for the country.”

The survey included a random sample of 5,055 adults living in the U.S., including in all 50 states and Washington, D.C., conducted Aug. 11-20.

Source: Deseret News
https://www.deseret.com/2023/11/15/23958265/report-gen-z-teenagers-lonelier-more-apt-therapy-less-likely-use-drugs

Over Half of Gen Z Teens Feel Motivated to Learn More About Jesus

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by Barna.com.

Data from The Open Generation: United States—one of many country-focused reports created as part of The Open Generation project—show that U.S. teens are largely interested in learning more about Jesus throughout their life.

Three-Quarters of U.S. Teens Want to Learn More About Jesus
Curiosity about Jesus is widespread in the open generation. Teens in the U.S. are far more intrigued than their global peers, with 77 percent being at least somewhat motivated to keep learning about Jesus throughout their lives. A teen’s personal commitment to follow Jesus goes hand in hand with their motivation to study him—the percentage of teens who want to learn more about Jesus rises significantly among committed Christian teens. Even among teens who are non-Christians or don't know who Jesus is, however, over half is at least somewhat motivated to keep learning about him.

So where do teens turn when they desire to learn more about Jesus?

Regardless of their level of commitment to follow Jesus, U.S. teens place a significant amount of trust in religious texts and their households to learn about Jesus. Teens are more likely to report looking to these sources than to social media, the Internet, their friends or influencers.

Read the entire article at the source link below.

Source: Barna.com
https://www.barna.com/research/teens-and-jesus/

More Gen Zers Now Use TikTok than Instagram in the US

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on eMarketer.

After astronomical user growth in 2019 and 2020, TikTok will reach a pivotal milestone with respect to its youngest users. By the end of this year, the video app will have a larger number of Gen Z users in the US than that of Instagram. And it will surpass Snapchat in terms of total users by 2023, according to our latest social user forecast.

This year in the US, TikTok will have 37.3 million Gen Z users (born between 1997 and 2012) who access their accounts at least once per month. For comparison, Instagram will have 33.3 million users within the same demographic.

“Instagram’s user base is steadily aging,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence. “This year, its fastest-growing age group will be ages 35 to 44 [up 7.2%], while gains will be much slower among teens 12 to 17 [0.7%] and young adults 18 to 24 [2.0%]. However, Gen Z will still make up nearly three in 10 users on Instagram [28.0%] this year, so advertisers can still find them on the platform.”

Snapchat, meanwhile, is the leading social network in the US among Gen Z, with 42.0 million users in the group this year. While it will maintain that position through 2025, TikTok will narrow the gap considerably by the end of the forecast period.

TikTok is now on pace to surpass Snapchat in terms of total users by 2023. At that point, TikTok will have 89.7 million users compared with Snapchat’s 89.5 million.

Instagram still far exceeds TikTok and Snapchat in terms of total users. The Facebook-owned platform will have 118.9 million users this year, up 3.7% over 2020.

Source: eMarketer
https://www.emarketer.com/content/more-us-gen-zers-now-use-tiktok-than-instagram

More Millennials, Gen Z Are Using Social Apps

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on eMarketer.

Younger internet users are spending more time on social apps this year, according to a May 2018 survey from social video marketing agency VidMob.

And no one more so than Gen Z.

Of the 1,000 US internet users surveyed, more than half (56%) of Gen Zers, ages 16 to 24, said they had increased their use of Snapchat in the past year, and another 55% of respondents said they are using Instagram more.

And those weren't the only mobile apps where usage increased. The largest share (59%) of Gen Z respondents said they use their YouTube app a lot more than they did a year prior.

In contrast fewer millennials increased their usage on these apps that much—though the figures are still significant. Roughly four in 10 said they use Snapchat more than they did a year ago, and half of the millennials surveyed said they use Instagram more.

That makes sense though. Younger uses, particularly teens, are heavier users of Snapchat than their older cohorts.

In 2016, Snapchat surpassed Facebook as the most popular social network among US teens, according to our estimates. In fact, it will continue to add users ages 12 to 17, while Facebook will continue to lose users in that cohort.

We estimate Snapchat will add 1.2 million new US users in that age group by 2022, while Facebook will lose 2.2 million.

Source: eMarketer
https://www.emarketer.com/content/more-millennials-gen-z-are-using-social-apps?ecid=NL1001

Gen Z is Set to Outnumber Millennials Within a Year

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Bloomberg.

Millennials are about to be surpassed by Generation Z.

Gen Z will comprise 32 percent of the global population of 7.7 billion in 2019, nudging ahead of millennials, who will account for a 31.5 percent share, based on Bloomberg analysis of United Nations data, and using 2000/2001 as the generational split.

People born in 2001 will turn 18 next year, meaning many will enter university, be eligible to vote and, depending on their citizenship, smoke or drink alcohol without breaking the law. Gen Zers have never known a non-digital world and have grown up amid events such as the "war on terror" and Global Recession.

"The key factor that differentiated these two groups, other than their age, was an element of self-awareness versus self-centeredness," according to “Rise of Gen Z: New Challenge for Retailers,” a report by Marcie Merriman, an executive director at Ernst & Young LLP. Millennials were "more focused on what was in it for them. They also looked to others, such as the companies they did business with, for solutions, whereas the younger people naturally sought to create their own solutions."

The demographic handover is good news for delivery services, gadget makers and the so-called gig economy. Meanwhile, it presents new challenges to educators, event planners, luxury brands and even golfers -- a game where the average age of U.S. participants now exceeds 50.

For this Bloomberg comparison, millennials were defined as people born in 1980 through 2000, with Gen Z classified as anyone born starting in 2001 -- at least until the next meaningful cohort emerges. The U.S. Census Bureau also bookends the generations at the end of 2000.

William Strauss and Neil Howe, American historians and authors who first coined the term "millennials," use 1982 and 2004 as the cutoff years. The Pew Research Center defines those born in 1981 through 1996 as millennials, a time-frame also used by Ernst & Young in the survey Merriman wrote about.

Even using Bloomberg’s 2000/2001 demarcation, demographics differ depending on location.

Millennials will continue to represent the bigger proportion in the world’s four largest economies: U.S., China, Japan and Germany. The combined population just shy of 2 billion in those four countries will have a ratio of 100 millennials for every 73 in Gen Z next year.

India, which has about 1.3 billion people versus China’s 1.4 billion, will see its Gen Z population rise to 472 million next year, 51 percent more than China’s projected 312 million.

Source: Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-20/gen-z-to-outnumber-millennials-within-a-year-demographic-trends

Young Americans Are the Loneliest

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on USA Today.

Young people are far more likely than senior citizens to report being lonely and in poor health, a surprising survey of 20,000 Americans released Tuesday shows.

The overall national loneliness score was alarmingly high at 44 on a 20-to-80 scale, but the prevalence of social isolation among those ages 18 to 22 raises even more concern. The younger people, part of Generation Z, had loneliness scores of about 48 compared with nearly 39 for those 72 and older.

The study was sponsored by the global insurer and health services company Cigna, which is concerned about loneliness as a societal problem but also because it's not just making us sad: It can literally make us sick.

Loneliness actually has the same effect  on mortality as smoking 15 cigarettes a day, which makes it even more dangerous than obesity, says Cigna, citing a 2010 report. And while the new findings don't draw any direct links to increased rates of suicide among teens or the opioid epidemic, Cigna CEO David Cordani says it's clear addressing loneliness will help solve other problems.

"If their sense of health and well-being is more positive, then less destructive activities transpire," Cordani says.

The survey questions were based on UCLA’s Loneliness Scale and used to create the Cigna Loneliness Index.

Also surprising: Young people with the highest rates of social media use reported very similar feelings of loneliness to those who barely use it, Still, Cordani says, “meaningful social interaction” was seen as key to reducing isolation so more face-to-face conversations are needed.

While some people may compensate by finding connections on social media, that can provide a false sense of relief, says Jagdish Khubchandani, a health science professor at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. This type of socialization often leads people to spend time alone on computers in their homes, leading them to gain weight and shun face-to-face interaction, he said.

Isolation is of such concern that young people 16 to 24 who are neither employed nor in school are now tracked and classified as "disconnected youth." The former surgeon general, physician Vivek Murthy, made emotional well-being and loneliness a focus while he was in office and is now writing a book and setting up an institute focused on the problem.

"Stress from loneliness is an insidious type of stress," Murthy says.

It creates a biological response, Murthy says, that leads to chronic inflammation,  damaged tissue and blood vessels, and an increased risk of heart disease, arthritis and diabetes.

Source: USA Today
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2018/05/01/loneliness-poor-health-reported-far-more-among-young-people-than-even-those-over-72/559961002/

Atheism Doubles Among Generation Z

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on Barna.com.

It may come as no surprise that the influence of Christianity in the United States is waning. Rates of church attendance, religious affiliation, belief in God, prayer and Bible-reading have been dropping for decades. Americans’ beliefs are becoming more post-Christian and, concurrently, religious identity is changing.

Enter Generation Z: Born between 1999 and 2015, they are the first truly “post-Christian” generation. More than any other generation before them, Gen Z does not assert a religious identity. They might be drawn to things spiritual, but with a vastly different starting point from previous generations, many of whom received a basic education on the Bible and Christianity. And it shows: The percentage of Gen Z that identifies as atheist is double that of the U.S. adult population. To examine the culture, beliefs and motivations shaping this next generation, Barna conducted a major study in partnership with Impact 360 Institute, now available in the brand new Gen Z report. In this release, we take a look at their views on faith, truth and the church in a time of growing religious apathy.

For Gen Z, “atheist” is no longer a dirty word: The percentage of teens who identify as such is double that of the general population (13% vs. 6% of all adults). The proportion that identifies as Christian likewise drops from generation to generation. Three out of four Boomers are Protestant or Catholic Christians (75%), while just three in five 13- to 18-year-olds say they are some kind of Christian (59%).

So what has led to this precipitous falling off? Barna asked non-Christians of all ages about their biggest barriers to faith. Gen Z nonbelievers have much in common with their older counterparts in this regard, but a few differences stand out. Teens, along with young adults, are more likely than older Americans to say the problem of evil and suffering is a deal breaker for them. It appears that today’s youth, like so many throughout history, struggle to find a compelling argument for the existence of both evil and a good and loving God.

More than one-third of Gen Z (37%) believes it is not possible to know for sure if God is real, compared to 32 percent of all adults. On the other side of the coin, teens who do believe one can know God exists are less likely than adults to say they are very convinced that is true (54% vs. 64% all adults who believe in God). For many teens, truth seems relative at best and, at worst, altogether unknowable.

Their lack of confidence is on pace with the broader culture’s all-out embrace of relativism. More than half of all Americans, both teens (58%) and adults (62%), agree with the statement “Many religions can lead to eternal life; there is no ‘one true religion.’” There’s a sense among Gen Z that what’s true for someone else may not be “true for me”; they are much less apt than older adults (especially Boomers, 85%) to agree that “a person can be wrong about something that they sincerely believe in” (66%). For a considerable minority of teens, sincerely believing something makes it true.

Among Gen Z churchgoers (those who have attended one or more worship services within the past month), perceptions of church tend to be more positive than negative. Negative perceptions have significant currency, however. Half of churchgoing teens say “the church seems to reject much of what science tells us about the world” (49%) and one-third that “the church is overprotective of teenagers” (38%) or “the people at church are hypocritical” (36%). Further, one-quarter claims “the church is not a safe place to express doubts” (27%) or that the teaching they are exposed to is “rather shallow” (24%).

More than half of Gen Z says church involvement is either “not too” (27%) or “not at all” important (27%). Only one in five says attending church is “very important” to them (20%), the least popular of the four options.

Source: Barna Group
https://www.barna.com/research/atheism-doubles-among-generation-z/

Tween Girls Susceptible to Mobile Advertising

New research shows that female tweens are highly susceptible to mobile advertising.

Sixty-five percent of girls surveyed said they are likely to buy products and services straight from mobile ads if there is a means to do so. Of those, a whopping 80% of girls say they would buy a product or service right away, while the remaining 20% said they would wait for a special occasion.

Perhaps most disturbing to parents, 27% of respondents they would make their purchase with a credit card, while 48% said they would ask their parents for the necessary funds.

A full 22% of respondents said they always tap on ads they see in mobile apps -- regardless of whether they’re interested in the featured product or service. (A more modest 56% of girls said they reserve their taps for ads featuring products or services that actually interest them.)

The research was done by female tween-targeted mobile ad agency, MobiGirl Media. “The results show that most girls in this demographic do like advertising,” said Jennifer Noonan, MobiGirl Media cofounder, regarding the company’s target audience of 6-to-16-year-olds.

Also of note, the majority of female tweens (53%) said they share “cool” products or services with friends. Of those, 58% said they spread the word in person, while 42% share products and services via text and in-ad share buttons.

As for most desired categories, 48% of respondents favored fashion-related ads, followed by makeup products (21%); toys (12%), apps (11%); and books (8%).

Source: Mobile Marketing Daily
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/201140/tween-girls-suseptible-to-mobile-advertising.html#axzz2Ub0COFY2

For Many Young Adults, 'Fantasy Gap' Exists Between Materialism & Work Ethic

New research by San Diego State University psychologist Dr. Jean M. Twenge — who has written about Millenials and other young adult cohorts in books such as “Generation Me” — compares the last three generations on characteristics of materialism and work ethic.

The research set out to evaluate the following question: Are today’s youth really more materialistic and less motivated than past generations, or do adults tend to perceive moral weakness in the next generation?

Study results, published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, show that there is in fact a growing gap for today’s young adults between materialism and the desire to work hard.

“Compared to previous generations, recent high school graduates are more likely to want lots of money and nice things, but less likely to say they’re willing to work hard to earn them,” said Twenge. “That type of ‘fantasy gap’ is consistent with other studies showing a generational increase in narcissism and entitlement.”

Compared to Baby Boomers graduating from high school in the 1970s, recent high school students are more materialistic — 62 percent of students surveyed in 2005-07 think it’s important to have a lot of money, while just 48 percent had the same belief in 1976-78.

Sixty-nine percent of recent high school graduates thought it was important to own a home, compared to just 55 percent in 1976-78.

As for work ethic, 39 percent of students surveyed in 2005-07 admitted they didn’t want to work hard, compared to only 25 percent in 1976-78.

An interesting finding was the discovery that adolescents’ materialism was highest when advertising spending made up a greater percentage of the U.S. economy. “This suggests that advertising may play a crucial role in the development of youth materialism,” said Twenge. “It also might explain the gap between materialism and the work ethic, as advertising rarely shows the work necessary to earn the money necessary to pay for the advertised products.”

Source: PsychCentral
http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/05/02/for-many-young-adults-fantasy-gap-between-materialism-work-ethic/54379.html