Marketers are waking up to a hard truth: social media’s once-unrivaled grip on young audiences is starting to slip. As platforms drown in endless content and shallow interactions, Gen Zs are pulling back, seeking something deeper — and throwing a wrench in marketing’s best-laid plans. 

What should concern brands most, though, is the growing disillusionment this is creating among Gen Z. While they love having endless content at their fingertips, it’s become too much of a good thing: 56% say they often feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content they encounter on social media. Meanwhile, Zs are painfully aware of the amount of marketing they’re encountering — and of how it’s disrupting their ability to actually connect: Three-quarters of Zs agree that the presence of too many ads has ruined their experience on their favorite platforms, as ads and sponsored content drown out genuine posts from friends and communities.

The Viral Void

Many marketers today focus their brief on “make it go viral.” In our study, a quarter of marketers even admitted that their strategy is to “jump on as many viral trends as possible.” Anecdotally, many marketers say the hardest part about reaching Zs today is getting viral trends right: “[Gen Z is] only interested in the latest trends,” one marketer told us. “If it isn’t popular they aren’t interested.” But the truth is, viral trends just don’t move the needle anymore. Once culturally significant, many Zs see viral moments as fleeting, forgettable blips that fade as fast as they emerge.

In fact, 83% of Zs say they can easily spot when brands are trying too hard to go viral — which doesn’t influence their purchasing behavior, but does read as cringe. Take it from Juliana, 21, in Austin, TX: “Brands are just keeping up with trends. When I start to see a trend happen I’ve gotten to know, like, ‘Okay, the brands are going to do their thing.’” 

The downfall of viral clout is also beginning to shift Gen Z’s perspective on how they present themselves online. Despite spending more time on social media, many Zs are posting far less. Why? The pressure to gain algorithmic approval has turned social media into a space where only the most watered-down, palatable versions of self get noticed, which is just too one-dimensional to create true connections.

Community Calling

As their favorite platforms become saturated in content and starved of social interaction, Zs face a harsh reality: the social structures handed down to them — both online and off — are failing to meet their needs. After all, culture itself has fractured: trust in traditional institutions is at an all-time low, political divisions are wider than ever, and already-precarious social structures were dealt a final blow by you-know-what in 2020. The result? A full-blown “social recession,” loneliness epidemic, and mental health crisis.

Of course, this isn’t exactly new information — we’ve long known that Zs have come of age in tumultuous times. But throughout, they’ve had social media to fill in the gaps left by traditional community and culture. Now, that illusion has shattered. Zs acknowledge that people today are technically more connected than they were 10 years ago, but they don’t feel more connected: Zs say the last decade has made people more lonely and less community-oriented. To put it another way, two-thirds of Zs now agree, “The promise of social media uniting humanity is broken.”

In the midst of this social and cultural breakdown, Zs are placing a new premium on community and belonging: 84% say being part of a community is important to them, even more so than standing out as “popular.” This is a huge culture shift — and opportunity — for marketers. As important as community is to this generation, most Zs feel that it’s harder than ever to find like-minded people to connect with — and more than a third say they’re not currently part of a community. As Mary, 22, in Glendale, CA told us, though she’s craving more genuine connection, “I feel like actively trying to (establish connections) is interpreted as really weird in the social world.” Brands that can step in to help them form the relationships that resonate in their lives will become indispensable. But first, they need to understand what community looks like for Zs today.

As major social media platforms fall short of offering the authentic connections Gen Z crave, Zs are building a new interwoven landscape of “in” groups that build belonging through an overlapping web of intimacy, exclusivity, and IRL.

Full Circle Social

Beyond becoming all media and no social, there’s another reason why the major social platforms no longer fit Gen Z’s needs — they were built for a Millennial world. Starting as private spaces to connect with only your closest friends (MySpace Top 8, anyone?), social media eventually became a gateway to a vast, anonymous world beyond Millennials’ physical communities. Millennials were the first generation that had access to the vast “everybody” — and they inherently knew how to straddle their online and offline connections.

But for Gen Z, the social landscape is different. Growing up with Millennial social media as their norm, they’ve always been connected to the vast “everybody,” but watched as their real-world communities grew smaller and more fragmented. The challenge for Zs isn’t about reaching the masses; it’s about finding the meaningful, intimate connections that are no longer a given. Now, when asked how they define community, Zs’ top answer is “a sense of belonging: a place where I feel accepted, valued, and part of something larger than myself.” (Shared interests are still important, but ranked No. 2.) That sense of belonging is foundational to how Zs see and shape themselves, especially during formative times in their lives. Chappell Roan, for example, recently said that one of her biggest regrets in life is not using Tumblr when she was younger, a space of belonging that could have been an instant gateway to cool girl communities, from the Sky Ferreira fandom to Rookie Mag.

Nouveau Culture Clubs

In their effort to find belonging, Zs are quitting major social media platforms en masse — and investing themselves instead in niche digital spaces that foster a unique sense of belonging. While Instagram, TikTok, and X are all about engaging the masses, 73% of Zs say that “privacy and exclusivity” is an important feature in the online communities they participate in. Seeking a respite from the frenetic clout-chasing of other social platforms, Zs are turning to a new guard of culture clubs: including Discord servers, Slack channels, Patreons, Substacks, encrypted group chats, text groups, Tumblr Communities, podcasts, and more. 79% of Zs say they feel a sense of belonging in these digital communities — more so than from local communities (64%), the workplace (61%), sport teams and clubs (60%), or religious or spiritual groups (51%). 

The driving appeal of these communities, according to our research, is that they bring together passionate, dedicated young people to discuss their corner of culture (often ad nauseam). Community bonds are forged and reinforced through multilayered in-jokes, gossip, grief, memes, languages, characters, aesthetics, and often out and proud weirdness. When asked what’s most important when it comes to digital communities, Zs ranked their top three features as: high-quality content and discussions, feeling safe and secure, and meaningful interactions with members.

Recognizing the power of small dedicated communities, music artists have recently made a point of leaning into the more intimate spaces of their most avid fans. Taylor Swift posts voice memos on Tumblr, giving her most passionate fans an in-depth glimpse into her songwriting process. Lizzo shared an emotional essay on Tumblr about how she learned to stop suppressing her emotions, urging fans to read it “if u need something to end the scrolling for a sec.” And Travis Scott personally posted to Tumblr the ticket announcement for a one-night-only show celebrating the anniversary of his debut mixtape, ensuring that fans who snagged the $10 tickets to the 1,000 cap venue were highly-invested community members.

And while “community” has become synonymous with digital, Zs are increasingly eager to make connections IRL too. 62% of Zs say it’s very important that the online communities they participate in include the integration of digital and IRL activities. This is playing out across categories. For example, live speed dating events are flourishing amid dating app fatigue. Gen Z podcast listeners are selling out live events as they seek communal listening experiences among fellow fans. (Alex Cooper, host of Gen Z fave Call Her Daddy recently extended her live variety show tour to meet demand.)

Tumblr users are bridging the gap into the physical world, too, through a secret password of sorts: If a Tumblr users sees someone in the real world who looks like they might be on Tumblr, they’ll say “I like your shoelaces,” to which the other person will know how to respond if they are (iykyk!). Brands — especially those that are primarily digital — can foster community by inviting Gen Zs into shared IRL experiences, or by supporting them as they forge their own IRL connections.

Tandem Fandoms

While Gen Z communities are tight-knit and intimate, their shared passions are reverberating out and shaping mainstream culture. From Swifties to the Beyhive to fanfic addicts and beyond, Gen Z standoms have become a major economic and cultural force. Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, for instance, generated billions of dollars in consumer spending in the U.S., and Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour is said to have kicked off inflation in Sweden. Fanfiction communities influence everything from book sales to film adaptations. K‑pop stans have affected politics around the globe. And these fandoms have sparked worldwide, IRL trends too: Swifties swapped beaded friendship bracelets at her shows, landing on wrists around the globe.

While Millennial fandoms drew participants deeper into singular niche interests, Zs are breaking down silos to connect across interests and platforms — creating a layered, intersecting, and sprawling web of communities. 81% of Zs who consider themselves part of a community say they’re part of more than one community, and a full quarter say they’re part of five or more communities. Angie, 20, described her personal mix of online communities as a digital campus. “You get access to different communities like book clubs, basketball group chats, finance 101,” she told us. “It opens you up to different groups and is a way to connect yourself without having to give your phone number out.”

So, while marketers often think that their biggest win is to “go viral,” connecting with these small, niche, and passionate communities actually has the potential to make a much deeper impact, especially over time. The opportunity is especially great because Gen Zs welcome brands to connect through community — and are actually eager for brands to bring them closer to like-minded peers. Nearly two-thirds of Zs (62%) agreed with the statement: “Brands that align with my fandom feel like true allies.” As Zs continue to gravitate towards more curated and exclusive social circles, brands will find deeper consumer interactions by fostering close-knit connections and delivering on the promise of real community.

Gen Z is rewriting the rules of influence, and shifting the focus from followers to genuine connections. From peers and employees to community-driven creators, influencers that can build trust and meaningful engagement across multiple platforms are the ones drawing Zs in.