Generation Z has come of age and is already shaping the world around them. This includes the digital spaces they occupy.
Who are Generation Z?
Gen Z are defined as people born between 1996 and 2010. Their lives have been shaped by back-to-back crises – economic turmoil, climate change, COVID-19, political division, inequality, social unrest, and many more. Growing up in this age of crisis, many young people have been mobilised into action and have become activists.
A survey by Edelman found that 70% of Gen Z are involved in a social or political cause. This activism is fuelled by a deeply held belief by 51% of Gen Z that their generation can make a bigger difference in the world than politicians.
Whilst they are not the only generation to speak up about injustice, they are the first generation to do so as “digital natives”. This means their activism looks very different to previous youth-led movements.
How are they showing up as activists?
As digital natives, Gen Z are the first generation to grow up with the internet as part of their daily lives. Consequently, they are extremely online and consume content almost constantly.
One study by McKinsey even found that some Gen Zers spend six or more hours per day on their phones. This generation’s heavy use of smartphones gives them access to news and content about social issues at any time of the day. For many teenagers, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are the most popular news sources.
As a result, their constant exposure to injustice via social media makes them extremely aware of the world around them and unable to turn away from the issues that affect them. It is this constant exposure through their digital ecosystem that has spurred so many young people to act with 34% of 8-to-17-year-olds in the U.K. saying that the Internet inspired them to become activists.
But on the other hand, their digital ecosystem is also the arena they use to fight against these issues. They are highly comfortable in these digital spaces and use social media and online platforms to advance their activism and express their political stances in creative ways. Unlike previous generations, Gen Z are more easily able to organise and participate in social change moments using both offline and online methods.
Whilst their activism may start online, Gen Z uses their social media platforms to organise offline too. For example, the School Strike for Climate in 2019 was one of the largest global protests in history and saw 1.4 million children in 110 countries walk out of school to demand action on climate change. This protest initially gathered momentum via digital means with young people using Twitter, Instagram and TikTok as hubs for information and organising.
Part of Gen Z’s success as activists comes from their innate ability to understand social mediums like TikTok or Twitter and how to make things go viral. For example, during the 2020 United States Presidential election, a viral TikTok video spurred young people to rack up fake ticket reservations for a Trump rally to keep seats empty. This activist tactic was rooted in serious support for the Black Lives Matter movement but went viral because young people enjoyed the idea of harmlessly pranking the then-President.
Similarly playful tactics using digital media by Gen Z included flooding Starbucks with fake job applications in a stand for workers’ rights or the use of Twitter memes that satirise misogynist stereotypes in science.
Humour in activism
These tactics are indicative of a wider trend of using humour in digital activism.
Comedy and the use of humour have long been part of the activist toolkit. In the 1960s, Lenny Bruce used his stand-up comedy to attack racism and fight for civil rights. In the 1990s, the Barbie Liberation Organisation doctored the voice boxes on Barbie and G.I. Joe dolls to spark a discussion about gender stereotypes.
In the digital age, humour in activism takes the form of memes, online pranks, clever Twitter clap backs, or TikTok trends. This is particularly prevalent now because social media platforms have unique affordances – features – that lend themselves well to the use of humour in digital activism. For example, Twitter’s word limit and ability to tag users can lead to playful responses to critics that go viral, or Instagram’s visual format allows users to easily create and share memes.
Below are some examples of humour in climate-related digital activism by Gen Z:
An effective tactic or damaging to causes?
The use of humour in digital activism can elicit mixed responses.
On one hand, humour has been argued to be a powerful political tool for activism. Comedy can offer a way to engage public attention on an issue in comparison to dry, scientific facts and statistics.
Moreover, comedy can cut through the fatigue, anxiety, and despair that many people feel when thinking about the world’s most pressing issues such as climate change.
However, it can also be argued that the use of humour risks trivialising serious issues or undermining the message that needs to be delivered. For Gen Z, there is the added risk that the use of humour is interpreted as evidence of their immaturity.
What next for this topic?
In the coming weeks, I will be examining the use of humour by young activists, how social media platforms have specific affordances that enable the use of humour for activism, and the risks and benefits of these tactics.
For my interactive post, I will be learning from Gen Z by issuing a playful quiz that will spark discussion and test your own knowledge of recent Gen Z digital activism.
Join the discussion
One of our objectives for this student project is to generate conversation and debate around the topics we’re covering. As such, we invite you to join the discussion in the comment section below. As with any public forum, we ask that you please keep the conversation respectful and avoid the use of inappropriate or harmful language.
- A big thank you from our team
- No Laughing Matter: Is Gen Z’s use of humour in digital activism helpful or harmful to their causes?
- Echo Chambers of Dissent: The Digital Nexus of Right-Wing Populism and Algorithmic Amplification in Digital Activism
- Tech regulations: are they enough to sustain a democratic development supporting humanitarian development needs and digital activism?
- How governments fight online activism