9 things to know about “Generation Z”
Recently, the Barna group undertook a comprehensive survey — the first of its kind — of the lifestyles, habits, and worldviews of what it calls “Generation Z,” that is, the post-millennial generation. Based on Barna’s definition, millennials are those born between 1984 and 1998, and so Generation Z is those born in 1999 or later — those who are 18 or younger. As a youth minister who works with teenagers, I particularly found this survey to be extremely valuable and insightful, but I think we all can glean some very important knowledge from this. It’s available here. It’s $40 to purchase, but there is a free video presentation online that shows most of the statistics. I wanted to share some of the findings that I think are most important:
1…They are behind screens all the time. Teens aren’t going out and getting drunk, having unprotected sex, or driving recklessly as often. Instead, they’re often in their rooms, alone, “hanging out” with friends on social media. A full quarter of teens are behind a screen 8 or more hours a day, and more than half are 4 or more hours a day. While many things we typically associate with teen recklessness have gone down, depression and suicide have skyrocketed. Teens often face cyberbullying, and are pressured to present an appearance of happiness on social media, which in turn leads to teens getting the perception that others are happier and more included (because that’s how everyone else presents themselves too). This can easily lead to chronic loneliness and depression.
2…They are extremely performance-driven and career-driven. Growing up in the Great Recession, many teens today saw how their parents struggled. As a result, a very high number of them put a high priority on succeeding now so they can have financial security later. That’s what most of them view as the mark of adulthood: being financially independent. They are also very entrepreneurial; the phenomenon of so many people catapulting themselves to (relative) fame via YouTube and blogging and other social media seems to have encouraged an entrepreneurial spirit among young people. As many as 44% of teens want to start their own business someday. Teens put a much higher priority on success and achievement than relationships, and they put a huge amount of pressure on themselves, perhaps more so than any previous generation. They define themselves by what they do.
3…Family is not as important to them. Most telling is that when asked what they consider very important to their identity as a person, 43% said that professional and educational achievement was, whereas only 35% said family and faith were, the 5th- and 6th-most common answers. In every other generation, family was the #1 answer to the same question. They also don’t care as much for a future family — only 20% said they wanted to be married and 9% said they wanted children before they turned 30, a decrease from previous generations.
4…The number of those identifying as non-heterosexual has quadrupled. This shouldn’t surprise anyone. Among most adults, about 3% have identified as non-heterosexual in the past. Among today’s teens, about 12% identify as such — and two-thirds of them identify as bisexual. So for many teens, it is not that they feel attracted to the same sex and are unable to be attracted to the other, but that they are taught that it’s good to indulge any sexual desires they have and feel more free to experiment and openly admit it.
The number of teens identifying as transgender or describing themselves as something other than male or female has also increased dramatically. The redefinition of gender from “biological sex” to “how one feels” is in fast progress, as about half of all teens use the latter definition.
5…Atheism is growing extremely fast. Teens identifying with various religions all had a slight decrease (1-3%), but the group with the biggest change was those teens identifying as atheists. Most teens who do hold to a religious belief are also less sure about its truth than previous generations. This goes hand-in-hand with a growing perception that the Bible and science are in conflict, and that Christianity has been harmful to the world. Teens are presented a very unbalanced view of these issues through the popular secular educational narrative and through the media.
6…They are morally and spiritually relativistic. As teens become less and less sure about their religious beliefs, they become less and less sure about everything. Young people today really don’t want to answer the hard questions, 1) for fear of offending somebody, which is one of the worst taboos in modern culture; and 2) because in an age where you can google the answer to most any question, it’s often disconcerting to young people when the answers aren’t so simple. As a result, teens don’t have well-defined beliefs on things that can’t be googled, and so are content to just go with the flow of what books and media instill. The easiest and most comfortable thing is to just say, “You do you.”
7…They really struggle with the relationship between science and faith. In churches, we have often been loath to put too much focus on “head knowledge” when we teach young people, because we don’t want to encourage intellectual belief without true commitment. But many young people today don’t hear anything at all about the relationship between science and Christianity, except the negative things they hear from their schools and the media. By far, churchgoing teens’ biggest issue with church is the perceived conflict between science and the Bible.
8…Engaged Christians are a small minority. Only 1 in 11 teens fits Barna’s definition of an “engaged Christian, which is basically someone who’s been to church within the last six months and holds to the bare-bones basics of Christian beliefs. Only 4% have a “biblical worldview” which includes a belief in salvation by grace and not by works, a belief in Satan as a real individual being, and a belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. So if your teen with a biblical worldview is in a class of 25, she’s probably the only one.
9…Parents are essential in the formation of their children’s faith. Engaged Christian teens consistently reported that their parents talked to them about spiritual things and listened to them. The vast majority said they felt they could come to their parents with doubts and questions. Despite the increasing influence of media and screens, parents are by far in the best position to disciple their children.
So what do we do with these findings? How do we minister to the next generation in light of this? That will be the subject of my next post. But these are essential things to recognize as we minister to the next generation. In some ways they are an extension of trends that began with my (millennial) generation, but in a few others they are very different. We must identify and recognize these trends as we minister to our children and grandchildren and hope to raise a new generation that bucks these trends and draws near to Christ.
