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the ‘genny lec’ brings change and ten Gen Z MPs
Welcome to the latest edition of The Gen Zer. This week, we discuss the UK’s General Election through a Gen Z lens. We also cover a new use for the Notes app, battles between social media giants, and the seemingly inevitable rise of country . . .
How did Gen Z vote?
For many Gen Zers, this was the first General Election in which they could vote, although for older Zers like me this was actually the third or even fourth, given that someone born at the start of 1997 would have just turned eighteen for the election in 2015. Nonetheless, for the youngest Gen Zers, Conservative rule will almost be all they’ve ever known.
Last week’s ‘genny lec’ was a historic one for Gen Z for other reasons, too. The UK parliament now has ten Gen Z MPs, with 9 out of 10 of them standing for Labour. One of them, Sam Carling (who won in North West Cambridgeshire by only 39 votes) is only 22.
Age often plays a large role when it comes to voting intentions, although of course this isn’t always the case. In 1983, more under-35s voted for Margaret Thatcher than for Labour, and today there are some similar counter-intuitive trends taking place.
@jacobgaskelll Remeber to go vote everyone !!! #gennylec ♬ Von dutch – Charli xcx
A recent poll by JL Partners showed that Reform ties with Labour among 16 and 17-year-old boys, despite the overall trend of youngsters being more left wing than older generations. A key thing to note here is that the poll was about the voting preferences of boys, rather than all 16 and 17-year-olds. We’ve been seeing for a while that there’s a growing shift in the politics of young men and women, with young women continuing to become more left wing whilst young men shift to the right.
A 17-year-old can’t vote in the UK, of course, and for those Gen Zers who can vote, Reform is certainly not in vogue. According to YouGov (which sampled over 35,000 voters), 18 to 24-year-olds were the least likely contingent to vote for Nigel Farage’s party: 9% of the age bracket cast their vote for Reform, compared to 19% of 50 to 59-year-olds.
Greens, meanwhile, were connecting with young voters. Gen Z remains the generation most likely to vote for the party, with 18% of 18-24 year olds voting Green. This isn’t surprising considering the Green Party’s commitment to climate action, something which Gen Zers have always been particularly passionate about. (Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future has already involved 14 million people across 7,500 cities, to name perhaps the most obvious example.)
Gen Zers were also the most likely generation to vote for candidates not from the main parties. This is partly a sign of the disenfranchisement young people feel for the larger parties, who they often see as ignoring the particular issues affecting young people (such as housing or the cost of living crisis) in favour of catering to the older generations with things like the triple lock on pensions.
This trend is also partly down to Gen Z’s high opinion of some independent candidates like Jeremy Corbyn, who’s been name-dropped by Dave and Stormzy in a song and who often does well with the youth vote.
For the most part, however, Gen Z were just as red as the rest of the country.
For every age bracket up until 50 years of age, roughly 40-50% voted Labour. Gen Zers, Millennials and the younger half of Generation X all showed a similar inclination towards Keir Starmer’s party, whose promises for ‘Change’ resonated strongly after 14 years of Conservative rule.
Few Gen Zers seem overly passionate about Keir Starmer, whose centrism draws ire from both the left and the right, but he has nonetheless struck home with policies that once again take Gen Z’s woes seriously. Labour’s pledge to build 1.5 million new homes, for instance, should somewhat alleviate the housing shortage, and elsewhere Starmer has shown a particular consideration towards young voters, for instance by acknowledging their sacrifices during the Covid 19 lockdowns. The Conservative Party, meanwhile, massively increased tuition fees and touted the idea of National Service for 18-year-olds.
For many, there’s something reassuring in Gen Z’s endorsement of a figure like Keir Starmer. Across Europe, as well as in countries such as New Zealand and South Korea, many young voters are lurching to their right, citing concern over mass immigration and expensive green policies.
In the UK, however, there’s been the opposite trend: a movement away from the far left and the far right towards a meeting in the centre. In France, voters tired of centrist Macron are disseminating to parties further on either extreme. In Britain, after plenty of scandals and years of Tory chaos, a lot of young voters instead have opted for some level-headed stability – that addresses real change – over bold promises to pull rabbits out of hats. For now, the idea of politics as entertainment is thankfully taking a backseat.
Overall, then, the surprise is that there is no surprise. Whilst there was some difference between young voters and old, as well as between young men and young women, for the most part Gen Z voted in line with their older counterparts, particularly Millennials and Xers.
Even more importantly, perhaps, this is arguably the first UK Government in which Gen Z is starting to have a serious voice. As well as the ten Gen Z MPs, our generation is increasingly entering the workforce and civil institutions. Over the next 5 years we’ll only see more and more Gen Z journalists, teachers, researchers, entrepreneurs, civil servants, and so on.
And by 2029, which is likely when the next General Election will take place, almost the entirety of Gen Z will be able to vote. All eyes on the future.
Gen Z around the Web
the latest stories in youth culture and changing trends . . .
How the Notes app became Gen Z’s Clueless outfit generator (vogue business)
I really loved this article — some creative Gen Zers have been using the iPhone’s digital stickers to organise and style their outfits on the Notes app. We’ve all seen Clueless, right? Read more
Why Gen Z are swapping nightclubs for country music (the times)
Sober-curious Gen Z are increasingly ditching drum-and-bass for country, apparently. Every week in the UK, an average of five nightclubs close for good, whilst pretty much every single artist out there seems to be going country (or is that just me?) Read more
Fizz, the Gen Z social app, comes for Facebook Marketplace (tech crunch)
Fizz made a buzz by creating anonymous online communities for schools and universities in the US. It’s now gunning even harder for Facebook’s crown by coming for the one thing Gen Zers still actually use Facebook for: the online Marketplace. Read more
The ongoing battle between Snapchat and TikTok (thred)
TikTok and Snapchat are battling for the loyalty of Gen Zers, although each platform is taking a wildly different tactic. TikTok is going hard on ecommerce and virality, whilst Snapchat is taking a more ‘anti-social media’ route by focusing on genuine connection, with taglines such as ‘Friends, not followers’. Read more
Meet the UK’s 10 MPs from generation Z (the guardian)
Curious about those ten Gen Z MPs I mentioned earlier? The Guardian has put together a good introduction to each of them, some of whom overturned massive Conservative majorities to turn their constituencies red. Read more
That’s all for this week! 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.
