By: Gregory Jack
Recently, Line editor Matt Gurney asked me a simple question about the beliefs of the youngest generation: Is Gen Z just weird? Both Matt and I have noticed that something may be going on with the values and beliefs of Canada’s youngest adults, who seem to hold contradictory views in ways other generations don’t — views that make it increasingly difficult to define them using the political labels that applied fairly consistently to the last three generations. So I opened the Ipsos vault of data to try and figure out whether Gen Z is indeed “weird,” or fundamentally different from the generations that came before it.
So. Are they? I think, and the data suggests, that the answer is yes, but their behaviour and beliefs may be a rational response to how they’ve been taught, and what the world has thrown at them.
Who They Are
It’s useful to start with a definition of Gen Z. These are the Canadians born between 1997 and 2012, and they are the first cohort to grow up entirely online, and to spend critical formative years locked inside during COVID-19. The oldest Gen Zers are now in their late 20s, while the youngest are heading toward (or recently started) high school. That’s the broad definition, and the usual caveats apply: Gen Z spans 15 years, and generation labels have serious limits because of the broad swath of life stages they cover — the differences within Gen Z are as surprising as the differences between Gen Z and other generations.
Back to the question — are they unusual or notably different in any way? Every generation thinks the one coming up behind it is a little bit weird. The Silent Generation, those born before 1945, thought the hippie Boomers were wild and dangerous, while the Boomers saw Gen X (my generation) as cynical and aimless. In turn, we rolled our eyes at “snowflake” Millennials.
Still, there are notable differences that we can observe among Gen Zers. What makes Gen Z distinctly “weird” is their contradictions, as polling reveals that they are both deeply pessimistic and optimistic at the same time. When reviewing the data, three broad areas of notable divergence from the other generations emerge — their economic views, their personal and emotional views, and, related to both, their political views.
Their Views On Economics
Let’s start with the economic data. Gen Zers are more concerned about economic issues like taxes than most generations were at the same age, but seemingly unconcerned about personal debt. They were the generation most directly affected by inflation and economic insecurity at this moment. About four in ten (39 per cent) Gen Zers say they or someone close to them lost a job, which is significantly above the national average. Almost half (48 per cent) are worried about unemployment; a third (33 per cent) are worried about taxes, both significantly higher than the national average.
Despite this economic insecurity, they’re also spending more, and racking up more consumer debt than previous generations, a point Maclean’s recently explored. They don’t seem too worried. Just six in 10 Gen Zers (64 per cent) agree with the statement “I spend within my means,” compared to close to nine in 10 Boomers (87 per cent). Almost four in 10 (39 per cent) say they are borrowing for normal living expenses, more than double the number of Boomers (18 per cent) who say this.
Their Emotional Lives
Given the above, it may feel somewhat contradictory when I report that Gen Z is also the most optimistic generation, despite facing several significant challenges early in their lives, from COVID to affordability issues, housing prices and bleak employment prospects. A majority — 63 per cent — believes their own quality of life will be better in five years, compared to only 45 per cent of Canadians overall. Perhaps they are starting from such a low point that they expect things can only get better.
Given that low point, it’s no surprise that mental health weighs heavily on Gen Z’s minds, more so than on any generation before them. Ipsos polling suggests Gen Z women in particular think about their mental well-being constantly, and many describe feeling stretched thin or overwhelmed. For a lot of them stress is the backdrop to daily life. Unlike previous generations, Gen Zers embrace asking for help as a feature, not a bug, when it comes to mental health. Every problem can be treated actively through therapy to “invest in their future selves.”
The pain is not being felt evenly in this generation; Gen Z women report stress and depression at roughly double the rate of Gen Z men. Women report higher levels of stress than men in all generations, but the differences are most acute for Gen Z, and this is where their response to all of the challenges outlined above differs by gender within their own cohort: Gen Z women worry and fret, inheriting some of the “snowflake” mentality of the “late-stage Millennials,” while Gen Z men disengage and turn frustration into cynicism.
This detachment among Gen Z men sometimes spills into the kind of online anger that fuels anti-institutional movements. This may explain some of the shift to the “right” for Gen Z men, and their constant presence online means that it has never been easier to weaponize their pessimism to politicalize and radicalize them. (More on their political views in a moment.)
Perhaps owing to their status as the first truly digital native generation and to spending their formative years indoors during COVID, Gen Z is also the generation that is most online together. They are close to twice as likely to form relationships online (48 per cent vs. 26 per cent nationally) and spend more time with friends online (53 per cent vs. 37 per cent nationally). This has not come without a cost. A majority say they struggle to form real connections and often feel lonely, even as they’re constantly surrounded by digital chatter. They’re the most networked generation in history, and somehow, the loneliest. The first generation raised entirely online has discovered that digital connection is fundamentally inadequate for human needs.
What This Means Politically
The combination of these economic and emotional factors is creating a bizarre kind of political life for Gen Z.
This is a generation that is starting with a major trust deficit regarding our institutions — they have concluded, from experience, that they’re on their own. Gen Z, and especially Gen Z males, mirror or even embody the populist right who want to tear those institutions down. Lacking memory of functioning institutions, they see nothing worth preserving.
About three in 10 Gen Z respondents say they changed many things about how they live due to the pandemic (31 per cent), suggesting many never experienced stable “normal.” This is 10 points higher than the national average, and in fact, declines with each generation. Of all the generations, Gen Z is the most likely to say COVID-19 changed everything. They aren’t interested in the politics of yesteryear, and don’t listen much to the politicians who speak to the older generations.
When Gen Z voted in the last election, according to Ipsos exit polling, they leaned toward the party emphasizing kitchen table economics, and that party was the Conservative party, channeling both their frustration and despair. The message that “Canada is broken” resonated with them — because of their lack of faith in institutions, and also because Gen Z is the most likely generation to feel things are out of control in Canada, with seven in 10 (73 per cent) agreeing with that statement.
These factors have erased the usual advantage Canada’s left-wing NDP could expect to enjoy with young voters. Though very socially progressive, Gen Z shows unusually high concern about taxes, and their job prospects will likely be secured through precarious hustling in a system they have lost faith in. They are more likely than any other generation to believe that that hard work makes no difference in a system they see as fundamentally stacked against them.
Most Canadians, especially Boomers, believe success comes down to effort and hard work. Gen Z rejects this premise. They’re equally likely to believe that people’s chances of success in Canada depends on their own merits and efforts (35 per cent) as they are to believe it depends on factors mostly beyond their control (35 per cent). Three in 10 (32 per cent) say a fair society is one in which everyone is given the same opportunities, while a similar proportion (29 per cent) say a fair society is one in which everyone enjoys the same quality of life.
The above data will hopefully help paint a picture of a fascinating, divided generation. I don’t know if it fully answers Matt Gurney’s question to me — “Are they weird?” — but it at least begins to paint a picture of a generation that is responding in unusual, but rational, ways to the circumstances of their upbringing. Indeed, the fact that an entire generation has had to grow up against a backdrop of institutional failure and economic and social dislocation is itself a worrying problem, and one that shows no prospect of improving.
Gregory Jack is senior vice president of public affairs at Ipsos Canada.
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Excellent analysis! However, I would note among the biggest glaring contributing differences with the Gen Z cohort compared to all other generations: their schooling. Public education remained a largely consistent apparatus of learning across most generations; until it got turned on its head for the late stage Millennials and Gen Z’ers. I submit that cohort is most weird, because their education was/is the weirdest. Long gone are the “3-Rs” and the applied concept of merit, meanwhile new genders are seemingly being defined and added by the day. Education policies, practices, atmospheres, and subject matter have all increasingly become contentious, detrimental, political and polarizing — and that has had a weird (and negative) effect on the resulting impressions of the Gen Z cohort. They graduate with a weird and demented sense of reality that does not align with any generations before them. This is new. And when paired with their addiction to all things online, it’s no surprise Gen Z and armpit Millennials seem so lost, delusional and out of touch. Our education system must wear a lot of that blame. Our education system is quick to demand cash and conditions to learning (and their school environments), but they will never accept responsibility for the resulting impacts to students who have to navigate through it all. If we are all talking about this now, just wait and see what the next generation will be like. That said, I hold declining hope for the future.
Really excellent article. I have two Gen Z grandchildren and the way you have analyzed and explained their generation makes alot of things more clear. Great journalism.