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Gen Z is the first generation to grow up nearly completely “online” in a way.

TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and X have been around nearly as long as they have been alive and they don’t remember a time before social media.

And these kids are, at least outwardly, rejecting it.

According to a survey from The Harris Poll, and the renowned sociologist and good guy Jonathan Haidt, Gen Z is not nearly as fond of social media as other generations.

Perhaps the most surprising result was that in this generation, the first to grow up with social media woven into their lives, nearly half report that they wish that each of TikTok (47%), Snapchat (43%), and X (formerly Twitter, 50%) were never invented.

Not only do they think it would be best to get off these particular social apps, they literally wish that they had never been invented.

This is the social media generation. And many of them hate it.

However, this isn’t a blowback against technology. The survey showed that well under 1/5th of the respondents wish that the technology itself, smartphones, the internet, messaging apps, and the like, weren’t invented.

They like communication between friends. It’s social media cyberspace that’s getting to them.

But, despite this attitude, the personal responsibility is not consistent.

About half of adult Gen Z social media users (47%) report that they use social media for 2-4 hours per day. Sixty percent of the sample spend at least 4 hours a day, with 22% saying they spend seven or more hours each day.

Eight in 10 (83%) have taken steps to limit social media usage at some point. Among the steps most frequently taken are:

  • Unfollowing or muting an account: 42%

  • Deleting a social media app: 40%

  • Disabling out-of-app notifications: 36%

  • Disabling in-app notifications: 32%

It’s almost like the allure of social media is too strong for them to overcome. Half of them hate it, wish it didn’t exist, yet half of the respondents spend multiple hours a day on socials.

About 1 in 10 are spending SEVEN OR MORE HOURS A DAY on socials!

Likely more time than they spend on important things like, I don’t know, sleep?

These following word associations tell us a lot.

Nine in 10 adult Gen Z (94%) associate social media use with the word entertaining, and 76% of those who use social media use it as an entertainment source. The same share (94%) associate social media use with the word connection. At the same time, 57% of users associate it with the word isolation.

Eight in 10 adult Gen Z (82%) associate social media use with the word addicting and 57% associate it with the word boredom. Two-thirds (69%) of social media users do it to pass time, with one-third (34%) citing it as a force of habit.

When Facebook and early social media were invented, it was primarily for connection, talking with friends, checking up on family.

Now, with the TikTok-ification of social media people are mainly checking their phones for entertainment purpose. Watching TikToks, reels, shorts, stories from complete strangers.

Social media has impacted Gen Z so much that many of them are in favor of bans or severe legal limits on social media for minors.

A substantial majority (69%) support a law requiring social media companies to develop a ‘child safe’ account option for users younger than 18 (vs only 17% who oppose and 15% who neither support nor oppose).

Their support is more mixed when it comes to a law banning people younger than 16 from using social media; 44% net oppose (24% strongly and 19% somewhat) and 36% net support (18% strongly and 18% somewhat). More Gen Z women (42%) support than oppose (40%) such a law.

This is a huge, huge number of young people that think social media is damaging enough that younger generations should be protected by law.

And this is from the generation which grew up with the most access to social media. They see a real danger.

Six in 10 strongly (26%) or somewhat (31%) support a parent restricting their child’s access to smartphones until high school age. One in five (21%) oppose. Nearly half (45%) would place such a restriction on their own child.

Wild. Gen Z is more restrictive, in theory, about their children’s cell phone usage than most of the previous generations have been in reality.

This type of survey makes me simultaneously think “the kids are alright” and then realize that they’re still addicted to social media despite their attitude so maybe “the kids aren’t alright.”

Regardless, parents, think seriously about the impact that social media and smart phones can have on kids.

They’ll thank you later.

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