Survey reveals trends among Gen Z youth in 2019

A Generation Z grew up online, without memory were human relationships before social networks. Multifaceted, over-stimulated and over-connected, young people who were born and raised with technology vehemently challenge the status quo. They are the ones born at the end of one century and the beginning of another, indifferent to analogue and immersed in digital, who will determine the rules to be played from then on.

Piggybacking on the decision of the Instagram in trying to protect a generation eager for results and in order to try to solve some doubts, the Business Insider, in partnership with the Pew Research Center, interviewed around 1.800 young people, including teenagers and young adults between the ages of 15 and 20, and came to some interesting conclusions about the use of current technological means of socializing and interacting with the world around them.

When mapped, the Generation Z covers, on average, young people, teenagers and children between 7 and 21 years old, becoming the first generation that grew up with the internet and social media. They don't remember the time before smartphones. The average member of this generation was two years old when the Facebook was launched in 2004 and three when the YouTube was founded a year later.

When they were four years old, the Twitter came along, and when they were in kindergarten, the Apple presented the first iPhone. At eight years old, Instagram took off, and when they turned nine, in 2011, Snapchat debuted.

Life dedicated to screens

One of the surveys compared how often young people use the internet, computer or cell phone. 45% of respondents stated that they use one of these technological means frequently during the day. This number is almost 20% higher than in 2014-2015. For respondents who use it several times a day, the percentage dropped by 12% compared to the same survey 5 years ago (56%).

Among the respondents who answered that they use technology frequently, the Netflix the most used streaming service by the Generation Z, with 75% of respondents. O Hulu, another service that provides movies, series and shows, is the second most used, with 32%. Even with growth, Twitch is in the 6th position, with only 14% of participation.

With the advancement of social networks, the media also needed to adapt to this new reality. 58,7% of young people said they follow regional and international news through social networks. TV, until then the main medium, is the main medium for 49,9% of respondents. Radio and newspaper are increasingly falling into disuse, despite still showing some resistance.

And speaking of social networks, there is a certain dispute between the first and second places. 65% of Gen Z interviewed use the Instagram often during the day. O YouTube comes close behind, with 63% preference. It is interesting to note in this survey the unanimity of young people about Facebook, stating that it “is not so interesting anymore”.

multitasking culture

Although the variety of hobbies among young people in Generation Z vary, the use of online videos, social media and video games has increased exponentially to alarming levels. But with only 24 hours available in a day, how can young people and teens manage their screen time while adapting to work, school and other responsibilities? The answer lies in an intense multitasking culture where young people are almost never doing just one thing at a time.

A Generation Z, in this case, is using the notion of multitasking in order to better reallocate its time so that this overlap of various services and activities adds up, in the end, to more than 24 hours of use of its applications per day. This means, in practice, streaming some game or video on a notebook, while, at the exact moment, browsing the Instagram or text during dinner time. Some just watch Netflix while doing their homework. The question that remains is: why does this generation feel so much pressure to do several things at the same time?

Growing up with the logic of the snapshot permeated in their culture of socialization, the Generation Z, in idle time, feels that he is missing something. Technological devices are the source for accessing a wider community, where all the cultural conversation is happening. Even young people who are using social media responsibly, or even choosing not to overuse it, are impacted because they are still left out.

Generation Z, social media and depression

It's only natural that, in the midst of a generation that grew up obsessed with quick results, your identity and your value in the world is determined by the numbers you conquer online. THE Generation Z exhaustively produced a new category of celebrity: the influencers.

In the same week as the Instagram put into practice the definitive ban on the number of likes, the so-called influencers, small and large, juggle to measure their value in the market. Familiar with the culture of exaltation and cancellation, young Z understand that the dynamics of social networks are more dear to them than external achievements.

In the same currency, the numbers of depressed young people grows with alarming numbers, being the main age group in the suicide rates, followed by the elderly. This collective numbness is the stage for the songs of Billie Eilish, one of the main names of Generation Z to take the music and entertainment industry like a hurricane. With around 50 million monthly listeners in Spotify, the 17-year-old Californian singer talks about the pangs of youth, the affliction of waking nightmares and the screams of conscious hatred of growing up hating yourself.

Obsession or addiction?

In one search with a small group of North American teenagers, the Business Insider found that a third of respondents said technology addiction was "rampant." already the Common Sense Media came to the conclusion that social media has distracted most young people from their homework and people in their lives.

This year, the University College London released a comprehensive study on the harmful effects of social media on Generation Z, claiming that the increase in social media activity was linked to aggravating external situations such as both physical and online harassment, insomnia, low self-esteem and bodily dysphoria, all of which are allied to varying degrees.

Despite all this, it is still almost impossible to deprive the Generation Z of the abusive dynamics of online platforms. There's a strong perception that they're on their phones all the time, and that's why they're not self-aware. But they are. They are fully aware of the downsides of the technology-saturated world they are living in. And they try to change the logic of the system in the meantime. Connected, overloaded, but aware.

Source: Business Insider