Gen Z in 2024

looking back & looking ahead

Happy new year from all of us at Thred Media! As my colleague Jessica Byrne recently mentioned in our sister publication the common thred, 2024 was the year we began our Substack journey — and what a great ride it’s been. For our first post in 2025, I thought we’d look back at the previous year and what it’s meant for Gen Z, from a selection of our own writings, to some of wider Gen Z trends and developments around the world, to a few glimpses of what we can expect for Gen Z in 2025✨

Read on below . . .

📚 The Best of The Gen Zer

It really is that damn phone

The Gen Zer’s best performing post last year! Conversations around phone use and social media addiction exploded in 2024, spurred in part by Jonathan Haidt’s recent book The Anxious Generation. In this post, I took a deep dive into how growing up with phones and social media — along with our continued reliance on them — has come to affect Generation Z.

Gen Z is healthy and boring

There have been a lot of articles over the past few years about how Gen Z are just kind of . . . boring. More recently, there has also been a lot of discussion focusing on Gen Z’s changing attitude to health, from giving up drinking to taking up running clubs. This post looked at whether the two trends are connected — and if there might be more to Gen Z’s ‘boringness’ than some of those articles might have us believe.

Gen Z in the workplace

The median Gen Zer is now twenty years old, and as a generation we’re increasingly entering the workforce — causing a whole host of articles about the kinds of employees we make, how we act in the workforce, and how we’re even changing the way in which people email one another. There are a lot of factors influencing the different approaches Gen Zers have to the office — the pandemic being a massive one — but it’s often a more complicated picture than you might imagine. For example, it turns out we’re actually the generation least fond of remote working, even if not every Gen Zer is a fan of traditional office drinks . . .

Why are Gen Z ‘sober curious’?

The stats are striking: 30% of 18-24 year olds report drinking less than last year, and 13% have given up alcohol altogether, according to recent data by NIQ. As non-alcoholic options become increasingly mainstream and avoiding drinking becomes more normalised, many Zers are opting for alternatives to the traditional beer, wine and spirits, although there are a wide variety of factors behind the growing generational change.

Can book clubs help solve Gen Z loneliness?

73% of Gen Zers report feeling alone sometimes or always, and those aged 16 to 24 are more lonely than any other age group. There’s a stereotype that over 65s are the most alone in society, and yet Gen Zers in the prime of their youth, with all the opportunities of technology at their fingertips, are somehow lonelier. To combat this, a number of recent initiatives are using book clubs as a foundation to get young people out of the house and into each other’s lives.

Sorry I’m late, I didn’t want to come

And the most popular post from the common thred, diving into the introvert-extrovert divide and whether, in modern times, such a label is still useful. The piece also covers questions around getting older and saying no to things and, if you ask me, it makes for a great read.

🌏 Gen Z around the web

As another year came to an end, more and more Gen Z entered the workforce, became eligible to vote, or even got elected to parliament. In the UK, whilst Keir Starmer is the oldest prime minister to arrive in Downing Street for 48 years, the new government as a whole is the youngest ever, with an average age of just 46. The youngest MP, Sam Carling, was even born this century.

Social media exodus may make us all calmer (The Times)

2024 seemed to be the year in which the major social media platforms lost their glimmering crowns. TikTok faces a potential US ban amongst a wide variety of criticism, whilst Meta continues to struggle winning over the younger generations and Twitter saw users depart the platform in droves after the US election results (continuing a trend that had been playing out all year). Whilst some may mourn the death of the global town square, others are more optimistic, arguing that spending less time amongst the loudest, buzziest and most controversial views might not be a bad thing after all — who knows, it may even make us all a bit calmer.

Opinion: We need to prevent ‘third places’ from disappearing (thred.)

With loneliness levels at an all time high since the pandemic, young people are increasingly turning to the idea of a ‘third place’ as an answer to their isolation woes. Neither home nor the office, third places are affordable hangout spots where ideas can get thrown around and new friendships can blossom. Online, there’s been an increasing amount of discourse into how we can find or create new third places.

Gen Z adults are getting more moderate (Morning Consult)

For the past year or two, we’ve seen Gen Z adults from all around the globe shift towards more centrist or right-wing views, driven largely by changes in the political beliefs of young men. There are a whole host of potential causes we might link to this — from increasing numbers of young people getting their news and views from algorithms, to a struggling global economy — but whatever the root causes, the effects have been starkly clear in a year where more people than ever took to the polls.

Does Gen Z have it tougher than previous generations? (Financial Times)

There’s nothing new about a generation arguing that those who came before or after had it easier, of course. Nonetheless, the FT did a deep dive into the financial situation Gen Z have been landed with, and why it seems so hard for young adults nowadays to achieve financial dependence.

Gen Alpha already has billions in spending power (Fast Company)

Most Gen Alphas are still at least a few years off their teenage years, and yet they still have a surprisingly large financial influence. The typical Gen Alpha kid spends $45 of their own money each week, or about $2,340 per year. When you put all the Gen Alphas in the US together, that comes out to about $50 billion. More importantly, they are also increasingly influencing what their parents spend many on, from the brands they choose to the type of products they opt for.

Your 2025 reading list (the common thred)

. . . aaand some deeper reading to finish. To start your year with some good fiction recommendations, Jess has put together a list of the novels she’s loved most over the past few years. From Françoise Sagan to Elif Batuman, the list is worth checking out if you’ve been looking for ways to escape the January blues.

That’s all for now! Make sure to subscribe for the latest on Gen Z and youth culture, and check out The Common Thred for a weekly roundup of the latest news, trends and thought pieces.