On average, Gen Zers spend nearly 6 hours every day online in content consumption and communication. With that extent of digital exposure, it comes as no surprise that these youngsters have developed a worldview and communication style markedly far removed from that of the older generations. Soul App recently conducted a survey aimed at revealing the latest online social etiquette among the younger generation.
At the tail end of 2024, Soul App which is a preferred digital haunt for China’s Gen Z tapped into its user base to understand how and what Zoomers prefer to hear and how they like to be heard. Pegged to be the most populous generation in the world in the next few years, Gen Z will soon account for more than 25% of the global workforce.
Despite their growing economic and societal clout, let alone older individuals even brands are struggling to understand Zoomers, and understandably so. Unlike preceding generations, Zers are very comfortable handling multiple screens at once. In fact, this information explosion has shortened their attention span to a mere 8 seconds, shorter than that of a goldfish.
And that alone has created a need for a whole new lingo and way of communication. This new-age parlance is hard to get the hang of unless a primer is available, and making such a guide available is exactly what Soul App has endeavored to do with its 2024 Social Etiquette Report. What puts Soul App in a unique position to come up with this report is the fact that 80% of its users are Zoomers, so the Soul team has ready access to relevant, highly pertinent, and real-time data.
That said, Gen Z has undoubtedly transformed social etiquette as the older generations knew it. For these youngsters, the communication style used by their parents and grandparents is not just antiquated but also jarringly superficial.
This is not to say that Zoomers are uninterested in expressing their emotions or being polite. But, brevity reigns supreme for this generation, and emotions and even information do not always have to be conveyed through words, certainly not so many words. Other aspects of communication such as the preferred medium and just how much Gen Z is willing to accept have also undergone a radical transformation.
For instance, Soul App’s report starts by discussing how Zoomers like to be addressed. Because China has long had a culture of appreciating etiquette and decorum, polite forms of address that conveyed both respect and affection were commonplace, such as “Big Brother/Big Sister” or “Little Brother/Little Sister”.
But Gen Z, with its strong streak of individualism, harbors disdain for these forms of address. Instead, they prefer to address and be addressed by name. And a generic “Hi/Hello”, without a name to go with it, is perceived as flippant. In other words, Zoomers want to strike a balance between too much and too little.
They also demonstrate this “seeking a middle ground” mindset when it comes to responsiveness and politeness. As far as responding to messages is concerned, Soul App’s researchers found that while a reply sent within 5 minutes is considered polite, taking about 30 minutes is also acceptable. A good 60% of the participants subscribed to the latter underscoring the need to balance polite responses with personal boundaries.
When answering questions about the ideal message length, both for voice and text messages, the respondents stated that length is a deal breaker. For example, any text message that occupies ¼ of the screen space or has about 100 words is considered a mini-essay. Also, many respondents stated that 3 messages of 20 seconds each were better than one long 60-second voice message.
But, the aversion to lengthy messages varied across genders. On the whole, male respondents were more accommodating of long text and voice messages, some even going so far as to state that longer messages offer latitude to express emotions and clearly state the core message.
Women, on the other hand, were less accepting of lengthy voice messages, with over 34% expressing their dislike of them. In a nutshell, not just the age but also the gender of the recipient ought to be considered when sending voice messages to Zoomers.
Another notable finding of the Soul App survey was about the use of emojis. For Millenials and X and Y Generations, these graphicons, which include emoticons, stickers, Gifs, and emojis, were simply fun imagery that could be used in lieu of inconsequential words. But, these seemingly unimportant parts of digital communication have taken on a whole new form for Gen Z.
For starters, Zoomers are not limiting their use to casual and personal conversations. From instant messages to emails, these graphicons have made their way into professional conversations across platforms which has given them a different kind of importance. They are also being used to convey and understand attitudes, personalities, and emotions.
Now, this part alone is enough to leave a lot of the so-called oldies scratching their heads. For instance, the fun smiley which was used when you had nothing else to say is now viewed as a symbol of conversation for the “heck of it” and hence conveys a lack of interest and to some extent a lack of respect.
Also, the eye roll emoji is considered too sarcastic to be a part of polite conversation and the dog head is now an outright slight. Consider this information and it is easy to understand how an unassuming millennial could end up ruffling a lot of Gen Z feathers with the use of these graphicons that were hitherto just something lighthearted and fun used to fill up a conversation space.
But, this is not where it ends, according to one research conducted to understand the use of graphicons by China’s Gen Z, this unique visual language is doubling up as an emblem of virtual gifts, a symbol of aesthetic identity, and even a representation of affection language.
In the same report, researchers concluded that Zoomers in China shoulder the collective expectations of their parents and two pairs of grandparents, which means that there are a lot of emotions in the equation, some of them complicated and difficult to express. This is where emojis come to the rescue of the older and younger generations, as these graphicons help the former to understand the younger lot and for the latter to express these difficult emotions without trying to put them into words.
Finally, the respondents of Soul App’s survey expressed their disapproval of anybody who skips through the conversation to move to the very end and responds to just the last message. This behavior, termed “Ctrl+End socializing” is considered rude and may even lead to the end of friendships.
It’s early days Soul App has been providing insights into the attitudes, perceptions, and other aspects of Gen Z’s life. Actually, the platform’s ability to adapt to the changing intergenerational dynamics and its openness and keenness to reflect evolving social norms is what has allowed it to maintain its loyal Zoomer fan base.
The one thing that all their reports have highlighted is that Gen Zers view the world around them differently. So, any individual regardless of age who is mindful of the evolving social etiquette in digital spaces can have a better understanding of Gen Z. The best part is that as Soul App’s report elucidates, simple and small changes to one’s communication style will do the trick.
