How Gen Z Changed Social Media

Mikayla Leskey | Arts & Entertainment

Social Media has changed in almost unimaginable ways. What started as small apps to connect people all around the world grew into something so much bigger that I doubt any creator thought it would be like. But with its growth, came curiosity and wariness. Nobody really knew what to expect from these new apps. For the first time, we could talk to someone across the world in a matter of seconds. There was little to no restriction on any of these apps, that’s the reason I always joke that my generation was desensitized to the world before we even knew what “desensitized” meant. 

We grew up with social media. We don’t know a world without it, we know what it does and produces and for the longest time adults didn't realize what we were consuming. By the time they did and tried to put restrictions on these platforms, it was too late. Our child-like wonder grew pessimistic and most of us became nihilists. 

Even with these restrictions, most of them by age, were extremely easy to get around. The only way we were truly restricted was if our parents had some sort of spy-ware or checked your phone every night. But even then, strict parents create sneaky kids. Even now, social media is forever present in the teenage lifestyle, if you don’t have it, then you’re missing out on inside jokes and trends that everyone else is talking about. 

One of the biggest problems that rose out of social media is cyber-bullying. The internet made people feel safer to be meaner and in some instances, just down right nasty to others. They weren’t facing anyone face-to-face afterall, and couldn't see how it actually affected them. It led to some really bad outcomes half of the time. 

But social media also became a platform for protests and riots. A lot of the time spearheaded by Generation Z, or at the very least, had a huge part to play in them. Like in 2020, leaving fairy, lipstick, and pink emoji all over Donald Trump’s Instagram, to the point where he turned off comments. It made the rest of the world think Gen Z wasn’t afraid of anything.

Saying this, social media has also been a huge detriment to Gen Z’s mental health. Going back to the cyber bullying and restrictions-phase, for the longest time we were exposed to everything. We knew what the real-world was like a lot sooner than the older generation. Being able to watch the news daily and get information about anything and at any point of the day didn’t help. Nor did the safety people had felt behind the internet either. 

Generation Z changed and grew with the internet. We were the first generation to fully grow up with it and know what to do with it. It might’ve made us more pessimistic sooner, but it also helped with our views and opinions on everything else, before our schools or parents were able to control that. We learned for ourselves, first, then shared our knowledge with everyone else.