As a card-carrying member of Generation X, I have a very soft spot — heck, let’s just call it love — for Generation Z. There’s simply a lot there to like, and to have empathy for:
Still sorting it out, but a pretty healthy attitude toward work. I know it’s a struggle and a tough time, but I have a sense that Generation Z largely embraced the idea that you don’t necessarily have to adhere to someone else’s timeline for your life.
Lots of sympathy for them for having had the Covid era right in the middle of what should have been their growing-up years — Gen-Z covers about 15 years (born between 1997 and 2012), but the idea of having to have gone to school or college, or to try to start a work life or find a partner when the whole world was shut down at times must have been very difficult.
And there’s tech; I’m so fortunate in retrospect that my wife and I got together literally a few weeks before Tinder and similar apps hit the market. Sure, there was online dating and I did a lot of it, but my sense is that it was very different than the swipe-left culture that came along after it.
It’s for reasons like these that I sit up and take notice when I see some stats that suggest Generation Z is struggling in some ways, and as an entrepreneur and just someone who likes people, it makes me want to help.
Here’s a generation with a real problem. And here’s the opportunity, for anyone paying attention, to help solve it.
Alone on the weekends
A recent Harris poll found the following — and especially about how a lot of Generation Z are apparently spending their time:
Fully half of Gen-Z (51 percent) say they feel lonely on a typical weekend, the highest of any generation and 37 points above Boomers (14 percent).
Nearly half (49 percent) say they don’t have enough friends to spend time with in person, while 65 percent say they experience their social life more through their phone than IRL.
Top reasons for staying home: to save money (49 percent), to recharge physically and mentally (47 percent), to stay in a familiar environment (40 percent), to avoid social interactions (34 percent), to escape emotions (32 percent).
Oh, and screens dominate: 71 percent watch TV/stream/game at least half their weekends, 69 percent doomscroll, 38 percent game or stream every single weekend.
See what I mean? I’m not here to criticize, but to see if I can help — and also as an entrepreneur, to brainstorm ways that we can address these kinds of needs.
Actually, two more bits of data that might help, from the same survey:
Wellness has replaced the bar: 65 percent feel more socially connected in wellness-focused settings than in traditional nightlife (70 percent of Gen-Z women).
Gen-Z women skew hard toward wanting alcohol-optional (75 percent) and low-pressure (82 percent) experiences specifically.
What Gen-Z actually wants
As for what they actually want, according to this study:
79 percent want more affordable ways to spend time with others.
77 percent want built-in activities beyond just sitting and talking.
76 percent want casual, low-pressure atmospheres and quieter, less overwhelming environments.
54 percent prefer daytime over nighttime activities.
And 68 percent want more spontaneous moments to meet people or make friends.
Add all of this up, and I think there’s just so much opportunity to be seen.
Go back to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and you’ll see that things like friendships, family connections, intimacy, and community are mid-tier requirements, coming in just behind things like personal security and protection from harm.
And it almost seems like an entire generation, by the numbers, says we’re not as a society doing enough to help them satisfy those needs.
“Deeply felt customer needs”
I don’t know. It just seems to me we have a generation telling us exactly what they need to be happier and more successful.
Someone once said a new business needs to offer a compelling solution to a deeply felt customer need.
Gen-Z is here telling us some of their deeply felt needs. Feels like that brings us halfway there.
Affordable, low-pressure, built-in activities, daytime, alcohol-optional: That seems like a pretty smart starting point.
Whoever reads this and has a light bulb moment will do something better with it than I will. And frankly, it might be better if that person is themself Gen-Z, and not someone old enough to be their dad, like me.
The kids are all right. Now either it’s on the rest of us or it’s an excellent opportunity to help them get even better.
Other things worth knowing …
NYT: Hundreds of federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security have been assigned to an intensive, weekslong hunt for noncitizens among the nation’s registered voters. The agents are being pulled from their normal duties, which include investigating human trafficking and terrorism.
WaPo: A record number of Americans believe there is widespread corruption in the U.S. government, reaching the highest level of distrust in two decades, according to a Gallup poll. Nearly 90% of U.S. adults said corruption was widespread in the government — up 10% from last year and the highest level of perceived government corruption among countries with advanced economies.
Yahoo News/Politico: Republicans and Democrats across Capitol Hill are getting demos of AI’s latest power: its ability to churn out instant dossiers filled with details about ordinary Americans, from a gun store owner’s leaked email passwords to a church member’s yoga workouts to people’s visits to abortion clinics.
NBC News: Voters in Independence, Missouri recalled a City Council member who has served for more than a decade, rebuking his decision in March to back billions of dollars in tax breaks for a proposed AI data center.
USA Today via Yahoo: The United States Mint began selling a $1 gold coin emblazoned with President Trump’s face, making him the first living person featured on American currency in more than a century. The Treasury has also proposed a $250 bill and a 24K gold commemorative coin with the president’s image.
CBS News: MapQuest (remember them?) is suddenly the top free app in the Apple App Store after declining to rename Lake Ontario “Lake America,” despite President Trump’s executive order. Both Apple Maps and Google Maps made the change for U.S. users. Usage of Mapquest is now running roughly 50 times its normal rate, the company said.
AP: Thailand’s seaside resort of Pattaya has a lingering reputation for sex tourism, and now it’s a major shore leave destination for crew members aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Recent visitors say the development of more family-friendly attractions means the new, more wholesome Pattaya overshadows its former seedy self.
Thanks for reading. Photo by Bharathi Kannan on Unsplash. I wrote about some of this at Inc.com. See you in the comments!
Each generation wishes for the way things used to be and fear for how things will be for those that come after. Yet this thought only comes as the sun begins to set on one's life. That's the circle of life.
The kids of today will figure it out. Just like you did and your parents did before and their parents before that.
All you can really do is accept you can't solve the world's problems. But you can be nice to others, return the shopping cart, let that car merge and like ripples in a pond...
I love your approach to the statistics about Gen Z. Instead of just rattling them off, you use them as an opportunity to show how we can help. I may not have the entrepreneurial answer, but I can change my interactions with them now that I'm armed with some knowledge and a desire to make a difference, even if just for one Gen Z. Thanks for this, Bill.