Hello everyone and welcome to our newsletter on all things Gen Z.

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

With the remarkable Holly taking a well earned few days R&R (to attend a wedding, and who doesn’t love a wedding), this week sees a guest appearance from the brilliant Jemima Walker. Jemima leads our New York newsroom for The News Movement has to confess that she’s actually a millennial moonlighting as Gen Z for this newsletter. However, having recently learned what the millennial pause is, she’s hoping to pull it off.  

We talk constantly about social media (and much of the pain it causes) and the fact that helping colleagues navigate digital spaces in work and beyond is a vital knowledge set for all leaders.

One platform that is winning as many young people question the value of constant mobile engagement is LinkedIn. Yes, we’ve all seen the “that didn’t happen, did it?” takedown of LinkedIn posts boasting of 5am yoga starts and humble brag “I just helped a person, shucks”, but the professional network is a non-toxic place for ideas and connections.

And, as we have noticed for a while, Gen Z is flocking to it, particularly as X becomes a more challenging place for proper conversations.

How to use it well as part of your outreach to employees and customers is becoming a new area of focus. We may all be obsessed with TikTok, Insta and YouTube Shorts, but the quiet growth of LinkedIn sends a signal about the importance of social media and digital communication that doesn’t send people down rabbit holes of argument and anxiety.

We can imagine a nicer world, just like the one in Get to Know towers.

And, in that vein - for those who celebrate it, Happy Easter this weekend.

Romance is dead?

Long time readers will know that many people, including Gen Z, are becoming disillusioned with online dating. The gamification of such a major part of your life can feel inauthentic and superficial. Also…there’s the admin. Finding a match, striking up and then sustaining a fantastically interesting conversation which ultimately leads to a fantastically interesting date? It’s a lot! In a world where we’re more online than ever - this admin is now being outsourced. Yup - people are paying other people to respond to messages, and even subscribing to paid apps that swipe left or right automatically.

It’s all politics

Everything is political - including (especially!) where US students are choosing to go to college. Research shows local policies on guns and reproductive healthcare shape where young people are studying. 81% of people surveyed said campus gun policies are ‘at least somewhat’ important to their decision to stay at or go to specific universities. Among students prioritising reproductive healthcare policies, 80% are looking for schools in states where there's more access to reproductive healthcare and 20% want to study somewhere with greater restrictions.

(Un)happy days

The World Happiness Report is out and Gen Zs in the US have seen a slump in happiness rankings. Sara Pequeño, a Gen Z reporter for USA Today, thinks it’s pretty clear why - a generation entering a formative stage of adulthood during a global pandemic, who are now paying the economic price, while contending with political polarisation and social media anxiety. Phew. Jen’s request for her generation is one we wholeheartedly support at Get to Know - empathy. 

Can you guess the happiest country for Gen Zers (and our millennial sisters)? Lithuania. Searches for office space in Vilnius.

Religious following

Many Gen Zers are becoming less religious - that we know. But scratch beneath the surface, is there something else at play? In this Airmail article Sarah Ditum spotlights how some of Gen Z’s favourite content creators have a strong faith aspect. Hailey Bieber (yes, wife of Justin) is a vocal evangelical Christian. Mormon influencer Hannah Neelman, who glamorously raises her eight children, has a cool 8.8 million followers (8,799,988 more than Jesus (that’s a disciples joke)). Nara Aziza, also a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, chops crudites wearing a ballgown. And while we’re not necessarily advocating ballgown-wearing-vegetable-chopping, we do note how some of the biggest influencers are making religion part of their brand.

And finally…

188%

The rise in emergency hospital visits for teenage girls who’d self harmed in the decade to 2020. According to his landmark new book, ’The Anxious Generation’, Jonathan Haidt believes this mental health crisis has been driven by the mass adoption of smartphones.

How can we help?

In my many travels and conversations, I’m increasingly talking to CEOs, executives and civil society leaders wanting to better understand the next generation of consumers and the next generation of employees. Gen Z is putting pressure on us all to transform in fascinating ways, and many of us are asking questions about how to cater for younger workers and future proof our organisations.

If this sounds like you, we’d be keen to have a chat and see if TNM can help. From our own content production to work we have done, for example, with The Oliver Wyman Forum, we have a raft of insights and data which can support you. We work closely with a number of global organisations – helping with high-impact story-telling, digital media, internal communications, through to employee benefits, HR and working structures.

Email me direct and all of us at TNM look forward to speaking further.

Kamal Ahmed
Editor-in-Chief and Co-founder
The News Movement

Our Top 5 News List

The top stories young people cared about this week, from our audience team and newsroom debates.