Gen Z snapshot: 4 youth culture trends in 2021
From an article by Youthscape
What are the latest trends for today’s young people, aka. Generation Z (born after 1995 and before the early 2010s)? What's their world like and how are they spending their time?
Here’s four of the big topics for Gen Z right now from various sources:
1. Rise of the Gamers
Gaming continues to be an absorbing hobby. 26% of 16-24s now identify as ‘gamers’. Online gaming thrived thanks to stay-at-home orders; popular online multiplayer games like Fortnite and Among Us provided fun ways to spend time with friends (or like-minded strangers) when they couldn’t meet in person.
41% of the surveyed said they had online-only friends. One-in-five (19%) feel they spend too much time gaming, and gaming addiction treatments for young people have also tripled in the last year.
2. Wellbeing post pandemic
Wellbeing continues to be a priority particularly in light of the pandemic.
84% of 16-24s say their mental health has been negatively affected by the past 18 months, and 67% believe the pandemic will have a long-term impact on their mental health. Half of Gen Z are always anxious, according to Youthsight.
A key source of stress relief throughout Covid has been hobbies, the most popular of these for young people were reading, cooking/baking, and knitting/needlework.
3. Online Risks
Young people today are more likely than previous generations to be happily single (40% of 16-24 year-olds asked in Oct 2020), while fewer were ‘happily in a relationship’ or ‘looking for a partnership’ than in pre-pandemic times.
With school-aged young people, the big picture around relationships/online interaction is sadly one of risk and a growing awareness of abuse. In June Ofsted reported that peer-on peer sexual abuse and online harassment, particularly of girls, in England schools is now a widespread, ‘normalised’ reality. Online threat comes from peers and adults: in England and Wales online grooming crimes reported by the police reached an all-time high in 2021, having risen by 70% in the last 3 years.
4. Ethical consumers and 'cancel culture'
‘Cancel culture’ is a contested phrase but it’s certainly true that we live in an age of accountability; brands and influencers face increased scrutiny while ethical consumerism (and creation) is a priority for Gen Z. The existential threat of climate change heightens the need for individual and corporate response, while social media (99% of 16-24s are now on social media, and Instagram rules as the principal app for 74%) offers a platform for demanding action. 87% of young people pay attention to a brand’s ethics when they purchase from them. They’re looking for authenticity and are suspicious of tokenism.
There’s a pressure in this constant activism though: 55% said there are too many issues in the world to worry about, though they still make an effort to do what they can. As Beatfreeks puts it, Gen Z “face perpetual pressure to be saying something, and to be always saying the right thing.”
Read the full article here.
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From an article by Youthscape, 08/02/2022