Gen Zs and Millennials on Social Media
First of all …
What are the age range for the Millennials and Gen Z?
According to Beresford Research,
Millennials were born between 1981 to 1996 while Gen Z were born between 1997 to 2012.
Social Media
Social media has been a big part of the lives of the Millennials and Gen Zs. It has connected people from all around the world into one place. Each generation uses social media in different ways but one thing for sure is that the usage of social media among every generation has increased every year.
Why are Millennials and Gen Zs on social media?
As mentioned earlier, each generation uses social media in different ways. Let’s find out below the differences between them below.
Seems like they are mainly on social media to kill time with entertaining content. However, one difference shown in this chart from YPulse is that Millennials use social media more for businesses and branding as compared to Gen Zs.
Understandably, Gen Zs who are currently between the age of 9 to 24 (as at 2021) are still young to think about business and branding but at the same time, it shows that Gen Zs are the next generation who are most likely be able to turn the online platform into a business platform.
With the COVID pandemic, Gen Zs are far more likely to be more active on social media as compared to the Millennials.
How have social media affected them?
Many of us LOVEEEEE social media but let’s face it, sometimes the things we see online makes us feel emotional and it can cause pent up emotions having in us. Aside from that, it can make us feel grateful with the things we have right now at this moment. It can also show us many insightful lessons.
That being said, social media plays a role in our mental health. The Millennials and Gen Zs are still at a young age and they may be in a position where they are still unable to control their emotions, but at the same time, most of them still go to social media when they are not feeling themselves - mood swings etc.
For me personally, I really think that social media can never replace real-world human interactions. As much as I love sitting at home, I still prefer to meet new people outside. It has also been said that having an in-person contact helps to increase our positivity and happiness, lifting up stress.
Let’s look at the how social media have affected our Millennials and Gen Zs.
Negative Aspects
Positive Aspects
Feel the need to create a “new” lifestyle for the people online to see
FOMO - Fear Of Missing Out
Cyberbullying
Making social media their “Safety blanket”. Most of them who are socially awkward and anxious would tend to depend on socialising on social media to avoid physical interactions.
Makes them compare themselves with their friends online
Communicate with friends and family all around the world
Meet and interact with new people
Easy to reach more people when they wish to raise awareness on certain things
Discover and learn new things
Acts as an outlet for them to find inspiration or creativity for school/work
With the pros and cons listed above, how can we help them find the balance of social media and real-world interactions? Three of our team members (Cindy, Azam and Myself, Dayyah) had a talk about it. Cindy and Azam also shared how are they going to make sure that their future kids do not fall too much into the world of social media.
Watch the video below and comment down what are your thoughts! 👇
