Three Gen Z Trends to Watch
Published 11 May 2023
Gen Zers – those born between 1996 and 2009 – are coming of age in a volatile world. Hopping between analogue and digital, this cohort is prioritising mental wellbeing, bolstering IRL friendships and expanding its communities.
As Gen Z consumers continue to mature – and are expected to wield more than $3.5tn in global spending power by 2030 – now is the time to tune in to this cohort. Here are three Gen Z trends to watch.
Adopting Algorithms
As this cohort continues to live – and share – their lives online, youth etiquette and lingo is mirroring the digital world, with anti-curation ‘in’ and trying too hard ‘out’. Get used to terms like the “Gen Z shake”, #GirlFailure and the phenomenon of “algospeak” – but what do these mean?
While the “Gen Z shake” refers to young social media stars stabilising their cameras as they start recording, the term “girl failure”, trending on Twitter and TikTok, enables social media users to openly identify as struggling. The hashtag #GirlFailure gives people the sense of freedom to speak about not having savings, how they struggle to navigate dating apps or grapple with mental wellbeing without fear of being marked as a disaster – in contrast to the chronically unattainable That Girl ethos.
Brands should pay attention to youngsters’ rapidly evolving algospeak (short for “algorithm speak”). The phenomenon sees content creators use code words, euphemisms and omissions to bypass social media content restrictions. Words like “accountant” (sex worker), “unalive” (kill or die), “corn” (porn) and “the panini” (the pandemic) function as stand-ins for banned terms. Staying up to date on digi-language will help your business avoid any faux pas.
#BookTok’s Continued Influence
Many Gen Z consumers are embracing old-school leisure pursuits, albeit with modern, even hedonistic inflections. Community-led offline forms of entertainment, such as reading and board games, are seeping into the online world.
Take #BookTok, a TikTok subculture that has generated more than 136.4 billion views on the platform. It sees creators sharing book reviews and facilitating online book clubs. Fifty-nine per cent of 16- to 25-year-olds say that #BookTok has helped them discover a passion for reading. As a result, Gen Z consumers are flocking to physical bookstores and sold-out IRL events, such as BookTok Festival (held at the New York flagship of Barnes & Noble). In London, British rapper Stormzy partnered with Netflix to host #Merky Books (April 22-23), a free literature-meets-networking event aiming to demystify publishing for aspiring storytellers.
With this movement towards analogue activities – and with some teens eschewing social media altogether – brands should be mindful of bringing old formats back into the mix when developing products and marketing initiatives.
Manifesting Mental Growth
As young people become increasingly sceptical of polished wellness culture, they’re experimenting with new strategies for self-optimisation. In fact, 73% of 13- to 39-year-olds globally believe that both conventionally healthy habits – such as working out – and unhealthy habits – like eating junk food – can both be considered self-care.
Gen Z wellness adopts a New Age bent. Some individuals are taking a mind-over-matter approach and subscribing to lucky girl syndrome, which sees youngsters manifest their desires by telling themselves good things will happen. Others are tracking their frontal lobe development, while women are fine-tuning their hormone levels by adjusting their diets, quitting hormonal contraception and taking supplements. For inspiration on how to speak to this cohort, look to apps like Bearable (UK), which allows users to monitor how their habits influence their physical and mental wellbeing, and Wave (US), which provides science-backed insight into emotion management.
Appeal to overwhelmed Gen Zers through making your brand’s motivations and values known. Provide information, facilitate tools and create platforms for open communication about topics important to your Gen Z consumers. Canadian brand Lululemon played into this with its Chinese campaign for World Mental Health Day, which saw the company share wellbeing tips on its WeChat account.
These are just three of the key Gen Z consumer trends emerging for 2023. How will your business make sure it remains relevant to this quickly evolving cohort now and in the future?
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