The research tells us that ‘Generation Z’ is not one thing, not of one single mind, but of many. It would be an absurdity to try and stereotype a group of eight million people.

In many ways they aren’t radically different from older generations - they are experiencing many similar things, though these may manifest themselves differently due to socio-cultural developments. Ultimately, being young isn’t that different - a time of great experimentation, transition and identity formation. 

That may sound obvious. In fact, many of the study findings could be said to be ‘obvious.’ But it is precisely some of these timeless truths that are all too often lost in the rush to provide shrill media narratives and forgotten in too-eager-to-please research studies. 

Far from being the homogeneous mass that they are sometimes portrayed as being - united by liberal politics, strident activism, and an obsession with social media fame - the reality is far more nuanced. They are not all ‘woke’. They are not all angry. Or scared of the future. Or fussed by it. Or unfussed. 

Like all of us, they are a bundle of contradictions. Just as there is a broad spectrum of views across the population, this is reflected in Generation Z as well. There are wide pluralities of experience, attitudes, interests and identities – they are not generally activists or overly conscious consumers. In fact, Generation X are the most conscious consumers.

Generation Z tend to support the freedoms won by earlier generations, who changed social attitudes towards issues such as sexuality and equality. They are only significantly more progressive than older generations on some issues, namely support for the Black Lives Matter movement and trans rights. That said, 1 in 6 holds decidedly conservative positions on a range of issues, from social justice to Brexit and immigration.

Young people can also be said to be less liberal because they are less tolerant of the views of others than their parents and grandparents. This may well be a lifestage effect, with younger people of all generations tending to be more sure in their views. That tends to change. Tolerance of a plurality of opinions comes with age. There is no reason to believe this will not be the case with Generation Z.

Plenty of the young people that we met live in multi-generational households with extended families. The younger people we spent time with generally like and respect authority figures and older people in their lives, be they family members, teachers, colleagues or older friends. Ultimately the battlegrounds presented in the popular press – for instance, gender and racial inequality, climate change and human rights abuses – are more likely to be seen as societal problems, rather than issues where responsibility lies with one generation or another.

Young people are staying at home longer than ever before. The combination of high levels of education-related debt, ballooning house prices and insecure employment has created a new lifestage of delayed adulthood. This has not been seen in previous generations and is a true generational effect. 

Delayed adulthood has several effects, notably on decreasing feelings of independence and slower transitions into long-term relationships and parenthood. First sexual experiences and marriage are happening later, the latter more likely to be a validation of a long-term relationship than the start of one. 

It’s not all bleak, however. Young people who are not living in deprivation are exactly what one would hope and expect them to be: fun-loving, social, curious, experimental, creative and innovative. They have a whole lot of fun. Same as it ever was.

Most young people are happy and optimistic that they can make the life they want, but maybe not change the world.

Despite the persistent narratives around ‘changing the world’ and wanting to be social media influencers, most of their aspirations are standard and close-to-home, not global and revolutionary. They want good friends, resilient mental health and to do well in their studies.

Ending poverty and righting gender inequality are much lower ambitions. Activism is very much a behavioural and attitudinal outlier for this generation. Only 3% agree that ‘contributing to society’ is a life goal, compared to 67% who want to own a property and 57% who want to get a full-time job.

The key issue creating intergenerational tension today is social media. The digital world is perhaps the most contentious area of young people’s lives – often because of the discourse that surrounds it, rather than the realities of how they experience it. Like rock ’n’ roll, television, and computer games before it, social media has become a classic intergenerational battleground.

There is a huge amount of misunderstanding and misconceptions by older generations about how young people use social media and devices - a classic example of older generations projecting their dislike for behaviours that simply did not exist when they were at the same age as their children, or feeling poorly equipped to help younger generations navigate challenges to which there are no precedents or off-the-shelf solutions.

Generation Z believes that its elders do not understand their ability to control interaction on social media. Older generations hold social media responsible for the growing mental health crisis among the young – 50% of them believe that it is the major cause of stress for young people; Generation Z doesn’t lay the blame at big tech’s door – only 35% of them identify it as a cause. For them, it isn’t even in the top five stated drivers of stress.

Social media does have some negative impacts on young people’s lives, of course, but they don’t see it as a major cause of poor mental health because they believe in their power to turn it on and off. Ultimately, their perspective is that being paid fairly and owning a house are more likely to drive happiness than what they’re seeing on TikTok.

Sadly, the talk of a mental health crisis among young people is not a myth. Almost half of Generation Z report experiencing some form of mental health problem and similar numbers (46%) state that their mental health had worsened during the pandemic.

The causes of this crisis are complex, though the trend in young people’s happiness and confidence in their mental health has been one of steady decline since 2009. And while the downsides of social media – loneliness, unrealistic expectations, body image issues, cyberbullying – inevitably contribute, the big socio-economic issues, global uncertainty and pressures around education, work and money have the biggest impacts on Generation Z’s mental health.