Millennials VS Gen Z on Social Media

Here it is. The cheat sheet you've all been waiting for (if you're a marketer). This blog will explore the inner workings of the young millennial and high school Generation Z kids as well as the in-depth generational differences between the two as told from my perspective and the things I've encountered first-hand. Disclaimer: Not applicable to the entire generational population. That's impossible--people are unique. 

Background information: I am a millennial, my sister is 5 years younger than me, and my brother is 10 years younger than me. The way we use technology and how we've grown up with social media is quite different... and I'm so interested in that.

I'm a younger millennial so I started my internet addiction with PollyPocket.com, Barbie.com, Millsberry.com, Neopets.com, etc. All of those were big when I was around 10 years old as they offered games and hours of entertainment, but they weren't really social platforms. Then when I was 13, some of my friends began creating Facebooks. So of course, I made an account without telling my parents who were still convinced that all social sites would be used by kidnappers to kidnap me. We eventually got over that, but I didn't have my real name on Facebook until I was 17.

Facebook was a whole new world of fun. All my friends posted silly pictures, and we all put jokes on each other's walls, did weird quizzes, chatted all day long, played stupid facebook games, and posted incredibly embarrassing selfies with peace signs, duck lips, and colorful text all over. Status' consisted of every thought and opinion that came into our heads and everything we did that day.

For example, a status would be: "I'm soooo tired so i'm getting off chat. Goodnighhhhttt everyoneeee! So excited for tomorrow cuz i'm going to the mall with @insertfriendhere and it's going to be so greaaat. lololol kbye. :P" It would get on average 1 or 2 likes and that was okay with me. When the "On this day 7 years ago you posted..." post pops up, I automatically cringe and feel so blessed that people who witnessed that time of my life are still friends with me. It was a simpler time... We were allowed to still be kids. Social media wasn't taken super seriously yet, and we made mistakes that we laugh about now.

On the flip side, my little sister was exposed to true social media way earlier than I was. She had her own Facebook account at 10 years old. She didn't have her full name of course, and all she did was play Farmville and Yoville occasionally, but she still had that access and exposure. Same with my then 5-year-old brother because he wanted to play Farmville and Yoville too. (Throwback to all those annoying game requests, and pokes)

But when Grandma and Mom started infiltrating Facebook, me and my friends, as well as my little sister and her friends moved to Instagram.

In my circles, Instagram had a learning curve as well as some overlap with Facebook... If you scroll back 6 years on my account, you'll find heavily filtered pictures of flowers and sideways grainy beach pics because I thought that was artsy. That's what a few of my cutting edge friends and I posted for a couple years while our other friends called us "hipsters." Good times.

Fast forward a bit, and my sister's Instagram is way cooler than mine.


Had to throw this meme in because it's too real.

Most 2017 high schoolers Instagrams are so... put together. They post, maybe once a week on average, super cute pictures with friends, their pose is cute, the background is eye catching, their hair is perfect, their makeup is better than mine will ever be, and their outfit is trendy "af," and they get 100+ likes every time.

But what fun is that? My sister and her friends still want to share little thoughts and silly pictures... but how?

Enter "finstas." Short for "Fake Instagram," this is their outlet for silly opinions, complaining about friends and parents, subtweeting (on Insta... don't get confused), calling people out, posting less polished pictures, memes, silly videos, etc. When you see a high schooler's finsta, you see the real them. They create punny/pop-culture riddled usernames and make the accounts private as to only let, like, 100 of their closest friends into their world. Where mom can't see.

Maybe you're wondering where Twitter and Snapchat fit into all this. Without going too much in depth: Twitter used to be a slightly more public but less polished platform for silly thoughts, but I see older high schoolers moving away from it. As it's getting too public, and more and more adults and businesses are joining. My friends, which I'll admit is not a perfect depiction of my generation but still noteworthy, don't really use Twitter regularly. I'll retweet something I find funny once in a blue moon, or If I have some hilarious one liner to share, I may tweet it out and pray it goes viral (always the goal). Generation Z kids will post their best selfies and retweet their friends', they'll tweet their funniest most relatable one liners, and if they're feeling bold: their sassiest shade in a subtweet. But again... It's very public. If they want to start some school wide gossip they'll tweet their drama.

Snapchat used to be the equivalent of a finsta for me and my friends, but it too has evolved and become more polished. People, in general, are taking their reputations more seriously---what's up with that? So annoying. But anyway, Snapchat is still more chill than Instagram or Facebook. But with more and more people using it, it loses it's close knit, genuine appeal. Thus the market for finstas was created. But Teenagers and Millennials are still on Snapchat, so those Snapchat ads are still decently effective. While we're on the topic of Snapchat, another thing that I find fascinating about my sister's social media habits is her obsession with Snapchat streaks. It's to the point where she and like 78 people have streaks and will constantly Snapchat a boring picture of just their face (not even a funny face), or just a picture of their feet or something to stay connected to each other and keep the streak going.

Finsta's aren't groundbreaking in the way that it drastically changes Marketers approach, but I think it's worth talking about. I find it so fascinating how young people are evolving while still conveying the same underlying social needs that I did. They're just going about it way cooler than I was when I was 14-17.

It makes me wonder what the next new thing will be. What new twist will app creators offer to satisfy our desire to share with close friends?

I'm very interested to see how my little brother, who's 10 years younger than me, will continue to interact with social media. He's not super connected right now, but he loooves watching video game Youtube tutorials, and game apps. Classic tween boy things I suppose. Decently reminiscent of my love of games as a preteen, yet the technology has changed. Oh, don't even get me started on the different ages we all got smart phones. Still bitter.

ANYWAY, digital marketers, if you're reading this, I just gave you incredible first-hand data for your market research.

For everyone else, my main objective was to share thoughts on the intricacies of social media between generations. Hopefully, you enjoyed. For now,  from my longitudinal research, Instagram and Snapchat are still frontrunners in a Gen Z's life--while Facebook is barely used. It's undoubtedly important to know how people use social media and not just assume that they use it the way that we want them to.


^Here's another meme because it's just not fair.


Tune in next Tuesday, for another insightful blog on my marketing thoughts.