Why Gen Zers are growing up sober curious

It makes sense that norms are shifting in this direction as Gen Z’s influence spreads. Raised on social media, with access to once illicit bad-taste touchstones like Rocky Horror just a click away, they’ve largely replaced IRL subcultures with a constellation of aesthetics—cottagecore, dark academia, Y2K—to be performed, then discarded or demoted t... See more

Americans 12 to 34 years old across several platforms has either leveled off or is waning, while 2019 research from Global Web Index suggests that the amount of time millennial and Gen Z audiences spend on many social platforms is either flat, declining, or not rising as greatly as it has in years’ past.

But, as with politics, the very same Zoomers expressed optimism that schooling could be changed for the better. It seems contradictory, but Gen Z has both a dim view of America’s institutions and a reservoir of hope that the country can find a way to do better by its youngest citizens.