How it Started

I was interested in collecting data about how Generation Z makes decisions because college is on the horizon for my classmates and me. We are becoming the leaders, entrepreneurs, and creators of tomorrow and behind every successful person, is their ability to make the right decision at the right time.

How I Collected my Data

I collected my data through google forms and before the answers started to trickle in, I created my own hypothesis. I thought that most students in Generation Z would not be afraid to make decisions and that since they are one of the smartest generations, they would be able to tackle the task of picking which college is best for them and why.

Inspiration

I am very much aware that a lot of research is being done to find out more about Generation Z, but I was so inspired by my research coach, Coach Jo, who is currently doing research with Dr. Peggy Dawson about Generation Z and Productivity. I learned that Generation Z is by far the smartest generation, but our attention spans are cut short because of how much we use technology and the internet. This research will help find out whether technology and making decision affects Generation Z and how we, as a society, can make better decisions for better futures.

As of February 2025, 5.56 billion individuals worldwide were internet users, which amounted to 67.9 percent of the global population. Of this total, 5.24 billion, or 63.9 percent of the world's population, were social media users. Global internet usage Connecting billions of people worldwide, the internet is a core pillar of the modern information society. Northern Europe ranked first among worldwide regions by the share of the population using the internet in 20254. In The Netherlands, Norway and Saudi Arabia, 99 percent of the population used the internet as of February 2025. North Korea was at the opposite end of the spectrum, with virtually no internet usage penetration among the general population, ranking last worldwide. Eastern Asia was home to the largest number of online users worldwide – over 1.34 billion at the latest count. Southern Asia ranked second, with around 1.2 billion internet users. China, India, and the United States rank ahead of other countries worldwide by the number of internet users. Worldwide internet user demographics As of 2024, the share of female internet users worldwide was 65 percent, five percent less than that of men. Gender disparity in internet usage was bigger in African countries, with around a ten percent difference. Worldwide regions, like the Commonwealth of Independent States and Europe, showed a smaller usage gap between these two genders. As of 2024, global internet usage was higher among individuals between 15 and 24 years old across all regions, with young people in Europe representing the most significant usage penetration, 98 percent. In comparison, the worldwide average for the age group 15–24 years was 79 percent. The income level of the countries was also an essential factor for internet access, as 93 percent of the population of the countries with high income reportedly used the internet, as opposed to only 27 percent of the low-income markets.

Gen Z and Millennials are the biggest social media users of all age groups.

Context

Birds Aren't Real (r/BirdsArentReal), is the official subreddit for the "most woke among us". It is described as "a safe haven for believers to gather, support one another in these times of adversity, and share images and stories that propel the cause forward. The birds work for the bourgeoisie".

A bit of context here: a significant number of members of Generation Z actively propagate (as a joke or seriously) the myth that birds doesn't exist anymore, because were gradually replaced by Government with drones.

The movement took a certain momentum recently, here is a selection of articles documenting this strange phenomena: * Birds Aren’t Real, or Are They? Inside a Gen Z Conspiracy Theory
* ‘Birds Aren’t Real’: How A Parody Conspiracy Movement Fought ‘misinformation With Lunacy’

https://img.republicworld.com/republic-prod/stories/promolarge/xhdpi/wizpfcbxdds0f9sm_1639621762.jpeg" alt="">

The data is not filtered.

Collection

Reddit posts and commits from subreddit r/BirdsArentReal.

Script used for collection can be found here: Reddit extract content

Inspiration

Use the texts in this dataset to:

• train to do text data analysis;
• perform sentiment analysis;
• perform topic modelling on the text corpus.

On behalf of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, the opinion research institute Kantar conducted a target group survey of the ´Generation Z´. For this purpose, 1,022 people between the ages of 14 and 24 were surveyed online between 05 and 18 July 2021. The focus of the survey was on the values and orientation of the generation, their situation in the pandemic, political interest and information behaviour as well as political and social attitudes. In order to map the influence of the corona pandemic on the attitudes and social image of Generation Z, the results of this survey were compared with a survey from 2019. Current life circumstances: life satisfaction; highest school-leaving qualification of father and mother; material situation: frequency of renunciation for financial reasons; source of money (from own work, from parents, from state support, from elsewhere); primary source of money; negative effects of the Corona crisis on personal income; organisation of distance learning (communication via a digital learning platform, via video conference, via e-mail, via messenger/chats such as e.g. WhatsApp, via a cloud, by telephone, by post or by other means); agreement with statements on the situation in schools/colleges (I was able to concentrate well on my tasks at home, I missed direct contact with my classmates/ fellow students, my grades deteriorated during the pandemic, distance learning at my school/college worked well, I had insufficient equipment to follow lessons, the accessibility of teachers was very good even in times of distance learning, learning became more strenuous for me during the pandemic); opinion on the future recognition of school, university or professional degrees made during the Corona pandemic; leisure activities during the pandemic (less sport since the beginning of the pandemic than before, relationships with friends have deteriorated during the pandemic, significantly more time on the internet since the beginning of the pandemic than before, started a new hobby during the pandemic); vaccination status; likelihood of Corona vaccination. 2. Values and attitudes: personally most important life goals (e.g. self-discovery, independence, enjoying life, career, etc.); importance of various aspects for pursuing a profession (secure job, adequate income, interesting work that is fun, compatibility of private life and profession (work-life balance), career opportunities, responsibility, opportunities for further training and development); comparison of values : comparison of values Corona: extensive collection of data for infection protection vs. data protection, especially young vs. especially old people have suffered from the pandemic, pandemic as a chance for change vs. after the pandemic back to the usual normality, comparison of values State: debts in favour of education and infrastructure not a problem vs. always a burden for future generations, active role of the state for important future tasks such as climate protection and educational justice vs. leaving a passive role and shaping of the future to society and the economy, orienting politics towards future generations vs. protecting the interests of those who have already made a contribution to society, comparison of lifestyle values: conscious renunciation in favour of sustainability vs. doing what I feel like doing, doing without in favour of health vs. having fun in the foreground, self-realisation vs. putting aside one´s own needs in favour of one´s personal environment, today´s generation has completely different values than the generation before it vs. in principle very similar values as the generation before it). 3. Media and information: interest in politics; points of contact with politics in everyday life (e.g. media consumption, when using social networks, in personal conversations with friends and family, at work, at school or university, in public spaces, in leisure time/hobbies); being informed about politics; most frequently used sources of political information (media) (e.g. news programmes on TV, talk shows on TV, websites of public institutions and authorities, etc.). e.g. news programmes on TV, talk shows on TV, websites of public institutions and authorities, satire programmes on TV, etc.); change in political information behaviour in the Corona pandemic. 4. Politics and society: satisfaction with democracy; opinion on democracy as an idea; need for reform of politics in Germany; most important political problems in Germany (open); satisfaction with the work of the federal government; trust in institutions (judiciary, environmental and aid organisations such as Greenpeace or Amnesty International, public health authorities such as the Robert Koch Institute, federal government, Bundestag, police, churches, school/university); perception of social lines of conflict (between rich and poor, employers and employees, young and old, foreigners and Germans, East Germans and West Germans, women and men, people in the city and people in the countryside); attitudes towards Corona (politicians take young people´s concerns seriously, young people received sufficient financial support from the state during the pandemic, young people´s needs were not taken into account enough by politicians during the Corona pandemic, the Corona pandemic will affect my generation´s future opportunities in the long term, my generation will benefit significantly from the awakening after the Corona pandemic, the Corona crisis has changed my perspective on many things in life, young people´s career opportunities have deteriorated as a result of the pandemic); agreement with various statements on Corona vaccination (children and young people aged 12 and over should also be vaccinated against Corona, young people currently have to wait too long for a vaccination appointment, vaccination prioritisation should have been lifted earlier, vaccination of young people against Corona is not necessary, there should be compulsory vaccination for schoolchildren, I personally feel that Corona vaccinations in Germany are treated fairly); currently appropriate measures to support children and young people (open). 5. Future perspectives: assessment of personal future opportunities; assessment of the future opportunities of one´s own generation in Germany; future vision of politics: agreement with various statements (a council of randomly selected citizens should be created to draw up political recommendations for the federal government, voting in elections should be possible via app, the voting age in federal elections should be lowered to 16, the population should be represented in the Bundestag by means of quotas, the population should vote directly on important political issues by referendum). Demography: age; sex; federal state; current attendance at school, college or university; type of educational institution currently attended; highest level of education attained to date; employment; subjective class classification; housing situation; household size; party sympathies; migration background. Additionally coded was: serial number; city size; weighting factor. Im Auftrag des Presse- und Informationsamt der Bundesregierung hat das Meinungsforschungsinstitut Kantar eine Zielgruppenbefragung der „Generation Z“ durchgeführt. Dazu wurden im Zeitraum vom 05. – 18. Juli 2021 1.022 Personen zwischen 14 und 24 Jahren online befragt. Die Schwerpunkte der Befragung lagen auf den Werten und Orientierung der Generation, ihrer Situation in der Pandemie, dem politischen Interesse und Informationsverhalten sowie auf den politischen und gesellschaftlichen Einstellungen. Um den Einfluss der Coronapandemie auf die Einstellungen und das Gesellschaftsbild der Generation Z abzubilden, wurden die Ergebnisse dieser Befragung mit einer Befragung aus dem Jahr 2019 verglichen. Aktuelle Lebensumstände: Lebenszufriedenheit; höchster Schulabschluss von Vater und Mutter; materielle Situation: Häufigkeit des Verzichts aus finanziellen Gründen; Geldquelle (aus eigener Arbeit, von den Eltern, aus staatlicher Unterstützung, von woanders her); primäre Geldquelle; negative Auswirkungen der Corona-Krise auf das persönliche Einkommen; Organisation des Fernunterrichts (Kommunikation über eine digitale Lernplattform, per Videokonferenz, per E-Mail, per Messenger/Chats wie z.B. WhatsApp, über eine Cloud, per Telefon, per Post oder auf sonstige Weise); Zustimmung zu Aussagen zur Situation in Schulen/ an Hochschulen (ich konnte mich zu Hause gut auf meine Aufgaben konzentrieren, der direkte Kontakt zu meinen Mitschüler/innen/ Kommilitonen/innen hat mir gefehlt, meine Noten sind während der Pandemie schlechter geworden, der Fernunterricht an meiner Schule/ Hochschule hat gut funktioniert, ich hatte nur ungenügende Ausstattung zur Verfügung, um dem Unterricht folgen zu können, die Erreichbarkeit der Lehrkräfte war auch in Zeiten des Fernunterrichts sehr gut, das Lernen ist für mich während der Pandemie anstrengender geworden); Meinung zur künftigen Anerkennung von Schul-, Universitäts- oder Berufsabschlüssen, die während der Corona-Pandemie gemacht wurden; Freizeitgestaltung während der Pandemie (seit Beginn der Pandemie weniger Sport als davor, Beziehungen zu Freunden haben sich in der Pandemie verschlechtert, seit Beginn der Pandemie deutlich mehr Zeit im Internet als davor, in der Pandemie ein neues Hobby begonnen); Impfstatus; Wahrscheinlichkeit einer Corona-Impfung. 2. Werte und Einstellungen: persönlich wichtigste Lebensziele (z.B. Selbstfindung, Unabhängigkeit, Leben genießen, Karriere, etc.); Wichtigkeit verschiedener Aspekte für die Ausübung eines Berufs (sicherer Arbeitsplatz, angemessenes Einkommen, interessante Arbeit, die Spaß macht, Vereinbarkeit von Privatleben und Beruf (Work-Life-Balance), Karrieremöglichkeiten, Verantwortung, Weiterbildungs- und Entwicklungsmöglichkeiten); Gegenüberstellung von Werten :

As of April 2024, around 16.5 percent of global active Instagram users were men between the ages of 18 and 24 years. More than half of the global Instagram population worldwide was aged 34 years or younger.

              Teens and social media

              As one of the biggest social networks worldwide, Instagram is especially popular with teenagers. As of fall 2020, the photo-sharing app ranked third in terms of preferred social network among teenagers in the United States, second to Snapchat and TikTok. Instagram was one of the most influential advertising channels among female Gen Z users when making purchasing decisions. Teens report feeling more confident, popular, and better about themselves when using social media, and less lonely, depressed and anxious.
              Social media can have negative effects on teens, which is also much more pronounced on those with low emotional well-being. It was found that 35 percent of teenagers with low social-emotional well-being reported to have experienced cyber bullying when using social media, while in comparison only five percent of teenagers with high social-emotional well-being stated the same. As such, social media can have a big impact on already fragile states of mind.

The purpose of this study was to determine how the mediating effect of self-control in the ease of using electronic money leads to consumptive behavior in internet gaming disorders. The world is currently experiencing rapid technological developments in all fields, including the gaming industry. This trend has resulted in more and more people focusing on the massive use of online games to distract them and focus, especially during the pandemic. The massive use of online games, or often referred to as internet gaming disorder (IGD), especially in Generation Z, has attracted many researchers around the world. Fast consumptive behavior and uncontrolled behavior are considered to bring harm to these online gamers. Furthermore, the integration of E-money in the game platform is expected to increase the flexibility of the consumptive behavior of these online gamers, thereby increasing the risk of IGD for these gamers. We used an online questionnaire that was tested on 155 respondents and thus analyzed the results by SEM-PLS. we found that ease of use e-money has a significant effect on consumptive behavior, self-control has an effect on ease of use of e-money, consumptive behavior has a significant effect on IGD. The empirical contribution of this study thus recommends the need to mediate control to these Generation Z gamers to suppress the tendency of rapid consumptive behavior and reduce the potential risk of developing Internet Gaming Disorder (emergency room).

The results might surprise you when looking at internet users that are active on social media in each country.

The average person has 8-9 social media accounts. This has doubled since 2013, when the average person just had 4-5 accounts.

56.8% of the world’s total population is active on social media.

Regional use of social media has a significant effect on the male and female social media statistics.

In this post, I'll give you all the social media addiction statistics you need to be aware of to moderate your social media use.

Today the average time spent on social media is 2 hours and 24 minutes today for people aged 16 to 64.

How much time do people spend on social media? As of 2025, the average daily social media usage of internet users worldwide amounted to 141 minutes per day, down from 143 minutes in the previous year. Currently, the country with the most time spent on social media per day is Brazil, with online users spending an average of 3 hours and 49 minutes on social media each day. In comparison, the daily time spent with social media in the U.S. was just 2 hours and 16 minutes. Global social media usageCurrently, the global social network penetration rate is 62.3 percent. Northern Europe had an 81.7 percent social media penetration rate, topping the ranking of global social media usage by region. Eastern and Middle Africa closed the ranking with 10.1 and 9.6 percent usage reach, respectively. People access social media for a variety of reasons. Users like to find funny or entertaining content and enjoy sharing photos and videos with friends, but mainly use social media to stay in touch with current events friends. Global impact of social mediaSocial media has a wide-reaching and significant impact on not only online activities but also offline behavior and life in general. During a global online user survey in February 2019, a significant share of respondents stated that social media had increased their access to information, ease of communication, and freedom of expression. On the flip side, respondents also felt that social media had worsened their personal privacy, increased a polarization in politics and heightened everyday distractions.

This study employs a survey-based quantitative approach focusing on AI-driven advertising on social media as its research object. The research emphasizes promotional content by companies utilizing AI on the Midjourney social media platform as the research subject. Data was collected through a cross-sectional online questionnaire from respondents who were students in Bandung, Indonesia, specifically between March and June of 2024. The selection of participants was based on the considerations of the millennial and Generation Z demographics, who grew up during the internet era and are highly knowledgeable and heavy consumers of online content. The list of questions in the online questionnaire was prepared using research entitled "Employing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology in Advertising Design on Social Media," which was published in the Journal of Design Sciences and Applied Arts in 2023 [1].

Reference [1] H. A. El-aasy, “Employing Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology in Advertising Design on Social Media,” Journal of Design Sciences and Applied Arts, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 247–263, Jun. 2023, doi: 10.21608/jdsaa.2023.194906.1260.

Facebook and YouTube are still the most used social media platforms today.

Free Trading Platform Market Outlook

The global free trading platform market size was valued at approximately USD 3.7 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach around USD 8.6 billion by 2032, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6% during the forecast period. The growth of the market is primarily driven by the increasing popularity of online trading among individual investors and the ease of access provided by these platforms.

One of the significant growth factors in the free trading platform market is the widespread adoption of smartphones and high-speed internet, which has democratized access to trading platforms. The proliferation of smartphones has enabled a broader demographic to engage in trading activities, breaking down geographical and socioeconomic barriers. With enhanced connectivity and user-friendly interfaces, mobile-based trading platforms have become increasingly popular, allowing users to trade on-the-go, thereby boosting market growth.

Another critical factor contributing to the growth of the free trading platform market is the increasing awareness and interest in financial markets among younger generations. Millennials and Generation Z are showing a growing interest in managing their finances and investing in various asset classes. Social media and educational resources have played a pivotal role in educating these demographics about investment opportunities, leading to a surge in demand for free trading platforms that offer easy access and minimal costs.

The emergence of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) has also been a significant driver for the market. These technologies enable trading platforms to offer advanced features such as algorithmic trading, personalized investment advice, and predictive analytics. AI and ML enhance the overall user experience by providing insightful data and automating complex trading strategies, making them accessible to novice investors and experienced traders alike.

From a regional perspective, North America has been a dominant player in the free trading platform market due to its mature financial markets and high adoption rates of technology. The Asia Pacific region is also expected to witness substantial growth during the forecast period. This growth can be attributed to the rising disposable incomes, increasing internet penetration, and growing awareness about financial investments in countries like China and India. Europe and Latin America are also anticipated to contribute significantly to market growth, driven by regulatory changes and the increasing popularity of online trading platforms.

Platform Type Analysis

The free trading platform market is segmented by platform type into web-based, mobile-based, and desktop-based platforms. Web-based trading platforms remain popular due to their accessibility and ease of use. These platforms do not require any software installation and can be accessed from any device with an internet connection. They offer a range of tools and features that cater to both novice and experienced traders, such as real-time market data, charting tools, and educational resources.

Mobile-based trading platforms have seen exponential growth in recent years, driven by the increasing penetration of smartphones and mobile internet. These platforms offer convenience and flexibility, allowing users to trade anytime and anywhere. With features like push notifications, real-time updates, and user-friendly interfaces, mobile-based platforms have become a preferred choice for many individual investors. Additionally, they often include advanced security features like biometric authentication to ensure the safety of users' investments.

Desktop-based trading platforms are still widely used by professional and institutional investors who require advanced tools and functionalities. These platforms offer robust performance, extensive customization options, and the ability to handle large volumes of data. They are particularly suited for high-frequency trading and other complex strategies that require low latency and high processing power. Despite the rise of mobile and web-based platforms, desktop-based platforms continue to hold a significant share in the market due to their comprehensive feature set.

The integration of new technologies such as AI, ML, and blockchain into these platforms is enhancing their capabilities and user experiences. AI and ML can provide predictive analytics, automate trading strategies, and offer personalized investment advice. Block

Teenagers are the 2nd largest group of people affected by social media addiction. Teens ages 13 to 18 years old spend a significant amount of their free time on social media with an average of 3 hours a day.

90% of people aged 18-29 use social media in some form. 15% of people aged 23-38 admit that they are addicted to social media.

Over 210 million people worldwide suffer from social media addiction.