Decoding Generation Z, even after spending the past five years getting to know them, has been difficult to say the least. One minute they’re eating Tide Pods, the next they’re leading a nationwide effort to strengthen gun control laws.
As the Co-Founder and COO of After School, the largest teen-focused social network, my job is to understand teens and figure out how to help them. It’s not an easy task, and even after spending thousands of hours talking to and observing the behavior of teens, I can’t predict what they’ll do next. However, during a series of one-on-one interviews with teens across the country, I learned how and why they see themselves as different than older generations.
Based on these interviews, here are 8 things that you other generations don’t understand about today’s teenager:
1. They Don’t Know Their Own Phone Numbers
Today’s teenagers are heavily addicted to their phones, and they don’t know their phone numbers because they rarely make actual phone calls with them.
Teens care about usernames and apps, not phone numbers. When they meet someone new, they don’t exchange their phone number; they exchange their Instagram handle or their Snap username. They rarely even use iMessage or SMS because their parents can see this activity.
“Parents just don’t understand why we move from thing to thing so quickly. It’s not that we have a short attention span, it is our generation’s ability to filter through information more quickly because we just get bombarded with it so much,” said Shreyas, a high school senior.
2. They Think Facebook is Lame
Even before recent controversies about Facebook’s collection and use of data, teens today think Facebook is lame and something for their parents and grandparents.
Teens use After School because they know that they are in a network with other teens from their school, and they are able to connect and share anonymously. They’ve used anonymity to share things they wouldn’t share on other networks — they’ll talk about difficult issues like coming out, depression, and the stress of high school.
Teens also love Snapchat “Snapstreaks” and posting on Instagram. Many teens even set up a second Instagram account, which they call a “Finsta.” Their first account is a public persona, and the Finsta is a more unfiltered experience.
3. They are Modern-Day Shakespeares
Teens are incredibly inventive, including when it comes to the language they use. Here is a short list of some of the words teens are using today:
AMOSC = Add me on Snapchat
Bad = Good
Bruh = Bro/brother
Curve = To reject someone
Don’t @ me = Don’t call me out/don’t disagree
Finna = I’m going to
Finsta = Fake Instagram
GOAT = Greatest of all time
Gucci = Good
I’m weak/dead = That’s so funny
Savage = Bold, strong
Low key = Secretive
High key = When everyone should know something
Shipped = In a relationship
Sus = Shady, suspicious, sketchy
4. Words Aren’t Always Necessary
While they’re inventive with words, they don’t need them. Teens communicate with emojis, memes, and GIFs to express even complex emotions quickly.
If you look at any teen text conversation, you will immediately notice the difference when compared to yours. They are used to a flood of information and have become good at processing it quickly and conveying ideas quickly, which is why emojis, memes, and GIFs have become so popular — they are efficient.
5. They Think You’re Close-Minded
Teens think adults are close-minded when it comes to things like same-sex marriage, different sexual orientation, and mixed-race dating. This makes sense when you consider that they are part of the most racially diverse generation in America. 48% of their generation is non-white. 81% have friends of a different race. 35% have dated someone of another race.
Sydney, a 16-year-old, said, “most kids like myself, and especially ones in an urban environment, care about the rights of themselves but also people that don’t look like them or share similar attributes and that’s the reason why we actually go out and protest at city hall because it’s hard for adults who are stuck in their ways to see when change is necessary.”
6. Gamers are Heroes, Not Geeks
Teens still love their celebrities like movie stars, musicians, and athletes. But who can be a celebrity is much more broad for them than it is for you. They idolize Vloggers like Jake Paul, love entrepreneurs like Gary Vaynerchuk, and they have made Esports figures their heroes.
“While athletes and movie stars are still famous, the idolization of entrepreneurs like Gary and YouTube vloggers and influencers has completely changed the perception. The fact that an entrepreneur came out with a shoe that sold out to kids in seconds is unreal. High schoolers are paying more and more attention to Esports and so is the world,” said 16-year-old Jesse.
7. They Have No Interest in Working at Large Companies
Most teens have little interest in working for major corporations, even tech giants like Google or Microsoft. They’ve seen their parents and older siblings struggle in the workforce, and become unhappy despite having well-paying jobs.
They are also more entrepreneurial than older generations, have less patience for bureaucratic work environments, and crave more independence. In fact, 72% of teens say they want to start their own business someday.
8. They are Worried
Teens have grown up watching reports of a broken political system, devastating climate change, mass shootings at schools, homegrown terrorism, and ongoing wars. It’s no surprise that in our poll on teen stress, over 40% of teens stated that they are stressed “all the time.” 79% of teens are already worried about their job prospects, and 70% are worried about inequality.
Want to better understand teens? As I’ve found, the best way to learn about them is to talk with them. So next time you have the chance, take a moment to ask a teen for their opinion on a topic, advice, or perspective. You might not decode them, but you’ll better understand the generation that’s already changing the world as we know it.
