Generation Z in the United States

[60][61] In January 2019, Pew Research Center defined "Post-Millennials" as people born from 1997 onward, choosing this date for "different formative experiences" for the purposes of demographic analysis.

[76] According to Public Relations Society of America, the Great Recession has taught Generation Z to be independent, and has led to an entrepreneurial desire, after seeing their parents and older siblings struggle in the workforce.

[27] A 2019 survey by Barnes and Nobles Education found that The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, and the USA Today are deemed the most trustworthy news sources by Generation Z.

[101][102] According to Asha Choksi, vice president of global research and insights for the educational publisher Pearson, about one in every three members of Generation Z spends at least four hours per day watching videos online.

[122] Research by the demographer Bill Frey suggests that at the national level, Hispanics and Asians are the fastest-growing racial minority groups in the United States while the number of Caucasians under the age of 18 has been declining since 2000.

[136] In recognition of the tastes of large segments of Generation Z, the next cohort of young consumers, a number of brands, such as M&M's, have moved their advertising and mascots away from the sexual appeal and towards a more anxious but casual style.

[37] While majorities might signal their support for certain ideals such as "environmental consciousness" to pollsters, actual purchases do not reflect their stated views, as can be seen from their high demand for cheap but not durable clothing ("fast fashion"), or preference for rapid delivery.

[141][142] Youths who came of age during the 2010s and 2020s feel nostalgic about "simpler" eras of history they have never experienced due to the uncertainties and stress of modern life, with student loan debts and the threat of terrorism being the top concerns.

[151] In any case, in the second quarter of 2019, the number of people from Generation Z carrying a credit card balance increased by 41% compared to that of 2018 (from 5,483,000 to 7,746,000), as the first wave of this demographic cohort became old enough to take out a mortgage, a loan, or to have credit-card debt, according to TransUnion.

[153][note 3] While one out of five Millennial renters said they expected to continue to do so indefinitely, according to a survey by Apartment List, a Freddie Mac study found that 86% of Generation Z desired to own a home by the age of 30.

[171] Anxious about student debt, Generation Z is increasingly interested in alternatives to higher education, such as trade schools, which they and their parents view as quicker and more affordable paths towards prosperity.

[186] In the early 2020s, different school districts report significant shortages of teachers, many of whom have left their positions or the profession itself due to low pay, stressful work environments, the lack of respect for them, and the hostility towards them from some politicians and parents.

[186] Many students are finding themselves in the midst of an escalating cultural conflict in which political activists are demanding that books dealing with sensitive topics relating to race and sexuality and those that include coarse language and explicit violence be removed from school libraries.

[200] In any case, some 80% of historical records and documents of the United States, such as the correspondence of Abraham Lincoln, was written by hand in cursive, with a sizable amount of modern-day students being unable to read them.

[205] Despite the general consensus that mathematics education in the United States is mediocre, as indicated by international test scores in the late 2010s, there is strong partisan disagreement over how to address this issue because people are divided between the more traditional teacher-led approach and the student-led or inquiry-based method.

However, many school officials turned their backs on these programs, believing that their primary beneficiaries are affluent white and Asian families, prompting parents to pick private institutions or math circles.

[208] Despite the contemporary focus on real-life skills and attempts at reform the curriculum, courses on home economics, also known as family and consumer sciences (FCS), have been on the decline in the early twenty-first century for a variety of reasons, ranging from a shortage of qualified teachers to funding cuts.

[219] In 2015, the College Board announced a partnership with the non-profit organization Khan Academy to offer free test-preparation materials to help level the playing field for students from low-income families.

[267] Possible causes of early puberty could be positive, namely improved nutrition,[264] or negative, such as obesity, stress, trauma, exposure to hormone-disrupting chemicals, air pollutants, heavy metals.

[278] Nadine Kaslow, a psychiatrist and behavioral scientist at the Emory University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the paper, pointed to the weakening of familial and other social bonds and the heavy use of modern communications technology, which exposes people to the risk of cyber-bullying.

The researchers identified the risk factors associated with sleep deprivation among children to be the low educational attainment of parents or caregivers, being from families living below the federal poverty line, higher digital media usage, more negative childhood experiences, and mental illnesses.

[294] Because they spend so much time on social media networks, people below the age of 30 have little concern over online privacy and national security and many oppose restrictions or bans on popular platforms, such as TikTok.

[306] The March for Our Lives, a protest taking place in the aftermath of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018 was described by various media outlets as being led by students and young people.

[311] Polls conducted by Gallup and the Pew Research Center found that support for stricter gun laws among people aged 18 to 29 and 18 to 36, respectively, is statistically no different from that of the general population.

[328]2018 surveys of teenagers 13 to 17 and adults aged 18 or over conducted by the Pew Research Center found that Generation Z has broadly similar views to the Millennials on various political and social issues.

[332] Polls conducted in the late 2010s and early 2020s of adults under the age of 30 show that the top foreign-policy issues for this cohort were combating climate change, preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and defending the United States from terrorism.

[333] Moreover, young Americans are markedly less concerned about combating America's geopolitical adversaries, notably China and Russia, compared to older voters,[333] who still have lingering sentiments from the (previous) Cold War.

[352] A survey of literature reveals that marijuana usage is linked to, among other things, impaired driving, higher risks of stroke testicular cancer, memory loss, and certain mental illnesses, such as psychosis.

[215] A report published by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in early 2018 found the number of high school students who have had sex fell from 47% in 2005 down to 41% in 2015, with the most dramatic drop taking place between 2013 and 2015.

[151] That much of Generation Z is growing up with constant access to Internet-enabled devices has undermined parental authority and control, prompting concerns over the sort of information children are exposed to while surfing the World Wide Web.