Understanding the Great Gen Z Divide: What brands need to know

Edelman's latest Gen Z Lab report, "The Great Gen Z Divide," lands at a pivotal moment and in increasingly dubious times. Its centrepiece discovery details how the generation itself is splintering from within, with stark differences emerging even among peers.

As TU’s resident Gen Z voice, I find the findings both validating and concerning. The report offers crucial insights into how Gen Z navigates trust, consumption and identity in an increasingly fractured landscape, but it also demands a critical lens on the systems that have pushed us to this point.

The economic reality: Spending as reclamation

The report notes that “financial stress and instability have pushed Gen Z to spending extremes” skipping regular socialising while splurging on first-class flights or luxury skincare via BNPL. They call it “economic nihilism”: ‘I’ll never afford a house anyway.’

But I’d frame it differently. Yes, we buy to treat ourselves in the face of hardship—sometimes mopping up frustration or sadness with dollar bills—but beyond these spending extremes, it’s also a way to reclaim agency. In a world stacked against us, indulgences signal control, self-expression and identity. They reflect vulnerability and insecurity, but also our need for comfort, enjoyment and connection. What we buy often becomes symbolic of who we are and is recognisable to others. Brands may profit from this, but the behaviour itself is an assertion: I may not have security, but I can still claim small wins and express myself.

It’s hard to ignore the larger forces shaping this behaviour. The post-COVID landscape, climate crisis, ongoing wars, cultural polarisation, and economic precarity all play a role. Systems increasingly manufacture scarcity and fear, through financial pressures, algorithmic feeds, or political instability. This environment doesn’t feel neutral; everything seems designed to encourage division and distraction, while brands and marketers attempt to capture our attention. Marketing thrives on needs and indulgences, selling solutions, but when the problems feel manufactured or exacerbated by the very systems we live under, the line between desire and survival blurs. Indulgence becomes a form of agency, a way to assert control in a chaotic world.

Booking flights and chasing experiences illustrates this perfectly. On one hand, it’s a way to reclaim agency, leaving everyday difficulties for something new feels empowering, even if only temporarily. On the other, it’s escapism but in a social media age, escapism carries social currency. Sharing stories, curating content, and posting on social platforms becomes a way to connect, express identity, and be seen. Indulgences, thrill-seeking, and vulnerability all become tools of social connection, linking people through shared experiences and curated narratives.  

Trust: The conditional advantage

Gen Z may distrust institutions, but they grant brands a rare edge—conditional trust. Edelman finds:

• 72% want brands to make them feel good

• 65% want optimism

• 66% want support for positive action

• 62% want education

• 58% want community

  
  

Trust is earned, not assumed. With unemployment on the rise, NEETs increasing, AI disrupting entry-level roles, and corporate instability, brands fill a gap that society otherwise neglects. For Gen Z, trust in a brand is survival-adjacent: it’s comfort, guidance, and validation rolled into one.

The Gen Z Divide: Two Gen Zs, two realities

One of the primary features of this report is its identification of the death of monoculture amidst social media and the breakdown of Gen Z into two distinct cohorts with growing divisions :

Gen Z 1.0 (23–29): Came of age during Obama’s presidency, progressive movements, BLM, climate strikes. Values-led, participatory, “trusting till proven wrong.” Platforms: Instagram, X; 41% use AI weekly. 56% feel they are flourishing.

Gen Z 2.0 (13–22): Raised amid COVID, political chaos, and content overload. Tone-sensitive, meme-native, “skeptical till proven credible.” Platforms: TikTok, Discord; 72% use AI weekly. Only 39% consider themselves thriving.

Life stage plays a critical role in shaping how each cohort experiences this. As someone with a younger sibling five years below me, the difference is striking. COVID fundamentally shifted development. Gen Z 1.0’s (which I’m a part of) values-led approach resonates personally. The report highlights how we witnessed progressive movements gain momentum and saw representation expand. But most importantly, we didn’t grow up with short-form, constant-scroll platforms like TikTok or Instagram reels overloading our feeds with curated content from the start. Yes we did have Vine, meta platforms and twitter but the extent it’s moved further from then is staggering. Our relationship with social media evolved as we and the business model did.

For Gen Z 2.0, earlier exposure to platforms like TikTok undoubtedly has created a more complicated information landscape, with greater algorithmic volatility compared to what I grew up with. What’s concerning is that 44% say they’ve accepted that modern life means the algorithm shapes their behaviour. When the algorithm becomes your syllabus, even small shifts can feel seismic. It's important to point out that this isn't typecasting younger Gen Z as helpless and scrolling blindly, but they are more acknowledging to being shaped by systems that are inherently embedded in day-to-day life.

How the feed is rewriting Gen Z’s worldviews

This fragmentation has created fertile ground for ideological divergence—particularly around gender and politics. The report points to a rise in conservative views among younger Gen Z 2.0 men, especially white men, and the broader context makes this trajectory understandable. When everything feels uncertain—economically, politically, socially—the idea of “returning” to traditional structures can feel stabilising, even if those structures mostly exist in myth. Add in the sense that governments and institutions are failing younger generations, and the appeal of less intervention and more prescriptive social order becomes clearer.

We’re also seeing how older gender roles are being idealised online. The rise of the trad-wife aesthetic, for example, reframes the past as a time of stability and simplicity—an attractive narrative when consumed through short-form, highly curated content. In a chaotic world, conservatism can feel like an easier story to hold onto.

Layered onto this is the gender dynamic shaping the moment. Third- and fourth-wave feminism, MeToo, and increased visibility for women and marginalised genders in STEM, leadership and politics have meaningfully shifted public discourse. What it means to “be a man” is now under closer examination, which can feel disorienting—especially for young men growing up during economic downturns, without access to the prosperity they were told previous generations enjoyed. Some feel their privilege is being challenged; others feel they never had any at all. Both positions create openings for narratives promising restored status, clarity, and direction. The manosphere knows exactly how to exploit that.

The report’s example lays it out clearly: TikTok can funnel teenage boys into manosphere and anti-feminist content loops within nine minutes. It’s no surprise, then, that Gen Z now shows the widest gender divide on equality, with Gen Z men 21 points less likely than women to support feminism.

The algorithm manufactures and accelerates tensions alongside mirroring them. Gen Z 2.0 is coming of age inside echo chambers that Gen Z 1.0 only stumbled into later. Their information diets are more curated, more volatile, and more extreme by design.

The result is a generation divided not just by age, but by worldview. Different feeds, different fears, and different narratives about who they are and who they’re supposed to be. We’re watching as algorithmic curation produces divergent identities beyond divergent opinions.

What brands need to do

The report’s prescriptions for engaging with Gen Z are spot-on, which you can check out in the full report. But on a fundamental level, acknowledge, validate, relate, clarify, and be honest with them. The clock is ticking. Brands that understand these nuances, adapt to generational divides, and respect the realities shaping Gen Z can not only survive but thrive in an increasingly fractured market. 

Interested in connecting across generational divides? We offer strategic advisory to help brands stay relevant and grow ahead of cultural shifts. Get in touch to find out more.