One of my good friends put it perfectly, “Social media is everyone’s highlight reel.” Vacation photos, food pics, concert videos, elaborate gender reveals and daily life updates are posted for everyone from your best friend to the person who sat behind you in seventh-grade algebra.
Gen Z appears to be “right sizing” that audience.
A recent House of Communication article reported that 70% of Gen Z engagement on Instagram now occurs through direct messages and private story replies. Instagram’s own evolution supports this trend as Meta continues to add features built around DMs, group chats and private sharing.
The public feed still gets plenty of attention. The conversations that matter, however, may be happening somewhere else. Welcome to the group chat.
Always Online, But Looking for an Exit
The 2025 Gulf South Index found that 93% of Gen Z respondents in the Gulf South spend more than two hours a day on social media. According to a 2024 study by BePresent, Gen Z is twice as likely to spend more than 7 hours per day on their phone compared to all other generations combined.
That is a lot of scrolling, swiping and watching strangers explain why we have all been loading the dishwasher incorrectly.
It’s also a lot of information to process.
Gen Z came of age in an environment where nearly every moment could be photographed, posted and evaluated. Social media made it possible to keep up with hundreds of people at once.
They know their phone is running the show. They would simply like it to take beat.
The 2024 BePresent Digital Wellness Report found that 83% of Gen Z respondents believed they had an unhealthy relationship with their phones. Two-thirds said phone use interfered with their sleep, and 43% said it hurt their productivity.
This does not mean Gen Z is preparing to throw its smartphones into the nearest body of water. It suggests young people are becoming more deliberate about how, where and with whom they spend their time, which I think is awesome new.
Sometimes “becoming deliberate” means actually putting down the phone (maybe even in another room?). Sometimes it means using the same phone to retreat from a public feed into a smaller circle of people they actually know.
The Group Chat Is the New Front Porch
A private message feels different from a public post.
There is no broad audience to impress. No pressure to package a response for everyone who might see it.
The group chat is smaller and more personal. People make plans, exchange recommendations, test opinions and send screenshots of things their close friends must see.
That last part matters. As algorithms create increasingly individualized feeds, two people can follow many of the same accounts and still see completely different versions of the internet. Sharing culture now takes effort. Someone has to send the video, explain the reference or drop the meme into the chat before it disappears into the endless scroll.
In that sense, the group chat is giving people a trusted place to talk about what they are seeing.
The technology is relatively new. Asking your friends what they think is not.
People Who Need People Are the Luckiest People.
The pull toward smaller digital spaces is happening alongside a growing interest in real-world experiences.
Eventbrite’s 2026 Social Study surveyed more than 4,000 people ages 18 to 35 in the United States and United Kingdom. Seventy-nine percent said they planned to attend more events in 2026. Among Gen Z respondents, 74% said in-person experiences were more important than digital ones, while 46% said they were limiting screen time.
Even more telling, 89% of young adults wanted events that helped them feel connected to their local communities.
The Eventbrite study found that young adults are particularly interested in experiences that feel spontaneous, participatory and local. They want neighborhood gatherings, unusual venues and events that make it easy to interact without forcing everyone into a networking circle with name tags.
They want to be around people without having to perform for them.
A concert, festival, block party or dinner with friends offers a shared experience that no algorithm assembled. Everyone saw the same thing. Everyone heard the same joke. Everyone knows why the story is funny later.
No recap post required.
Trust Has Left the Main Feed
This shift is also happening at a moment when trust is increasingly hard to find.
In the 2025 Gulf South Index, 56% of respondents said they were more concerned about false information spreading on social media than about government censorship. Trust declined across nearly every major source of information, while local television news remained the most trusted source at 35% in the Gulf South.
The problem is no longer access to information. We have more access than any generation before us could have imagined. The problem is deciding what deserves our trust.
That challenge may be especially pronounced for Gen Z. The generation spends a significant amount of time in digital spaces where news, entertainment, personal opinion, sponsored content and outright fiction can appear one swipe apart.
When every source is competing for attention, familiarity becomes a shortcut. People may be more willing to consider information sent by a friend because the relationship already carries trust.
Of course, information does not become accurate simply because your funniest friend dropped it in the chat. Friends can share bad information, too, and do it with gusto. Usually a screenshot that cuts off the source.
Bottom line. When people feel uncertain about institutions, platforms and public information, they turn toward relationships.
The Gulf South Knows a Little Something About That
In the Gulf South, the idea that relationships shape decisions is nothing new.
People have always asked family members, neighbors, co-workers and friends where to eat, whom to call and whether a story passes the smell test. Information travels through communities because people trust the person delivering it.
More than 90% of GSI respondents identify family, hard work and money as very important in this part of the world. Community also increased as a personal priority.
Those values become especially important when the wider world feels unstable. Only 39% of Gen Z respondents nationally felt optimistic about the year ahead. In the Gulf South, that figure was considerably higher at 58%, but it still points to a generation approaching the future with a fair amount of uncertainty.
Family, friends and community provide a smaller world that feels more manageable.
Moving a conversation from a public feed to a private chat is the digital version of lowering your voice and talking to the people around the table. Attending a local event instead of watching another video about one is a return to shared experience. Choosing a smaller circle is a way to make an enormous information environment feel human again.
***
Gen Z is not leaving the internet. Anyone waiting for that development should get comfortable.
What appears to be changing is the generation’s definition of meaningful connection.
Public feeds remain sources of entertainment, news and discovery. Private chats offer room for actual conversation. Live events provide shared experiences. Local communities create a sense of belonging that cannot be replicated by having thousands of followers.
The group chat is not the end of social media. It may be Gen Z’s attempt to make social media feel social again.
One of my good friends put it perfectly, “Social media is everyone’s highlight reel.” Vacation photos, food pics, concert videos, elaborate gender reveals and daily life updates are posted for everyone from your best friend to the person who sat behind you in seventh-grade algebra.
Gen Z appears to be “right sizing” that audience.
A recent House of Communication article reported that 70% of Gen Z engagement on Instagram now occurs through direct messages and private story replies. Instagram’s own evolution supports this trend as Meta continues to add features built around DMs, group chats and private sharing.
The public feed still gets plenty of attention. The conversations that matter, however, may be happening somewhere else. Welcome to the group chat.
Always Online, But Looking for an Exit
The 2025 Gulf South Index found that 93% of Gen Z respondents in the Gulf South spend more than two hours a day on social media. According to a 2024 study by BePresent, Gen Z is twice as likely to spend more than 7 hours per day on their phone compared to all other generations combined.
That is a lot of scrolling, swiping and watching strangers explain why we have all been loading the dishwasher incorrectly.
It’s also a lot of information to process.
Gen Z came of age in an environment where nearly every moment could be photographed, posted and evaluated. Social media made it possible to keep up with hundreds of people at once.
They know their phone is running the show. They would simply like it to take beat.
The 2024 BePresent Digital Wellness Report found that 83% of Gen Z respondents believed they had an unhealthy relationship with their phones. Two-thirds said phone use interfered with their sleep, and 43% said it hurt their productivity.
This does not mean Gen Z is preparing to throw its smartphones into the nearest body of water. It suggests young people are becoming more deliberate about how, where and with whom they spend their time, which I think is awesome new.
Sometimes “becoming deliberate” means actually putting down the phone (maybe even in another room?). Sometimes it means using the same phone to retreat from a public feed into a smaller circle of people they actually know.
The Group Chat Is the New Front Porch
A private message feels different from a public post.
There is no broad audience to impress. No pressure to package a response for everyone who might see it.
The group chat is smaller and more personal. People make plans, exchange recommendations, test opinions and send screenshots of things their close friends must see.
That last part matters. As algorithms create increasingly individualized feeds, two people can follow many of the same accounts and still see completely different versions of the internet. Sharing culture now takes effort. Someone has to send the video, explain the reference or drop the meme into the chat before it disappears into the endless scroll.
In that sense, the group chat is giving people a trusted place to talk about what they are seeing.
The technology is relatively new. Asking your friends what they think is not.
People Who Need People Are the Luckiest People.
The pull toward smaller digital spaces is happening alongside a growing interest in real-world experiences.
Eventbrite’s 2026 Social Study surveyed more than 4,000 people ages 18 to 35 in the United States and United Kingdom. Seventy-nine percent said they planned to attend more events in 2026. Among Gen Z respondents, 74% said in-person experiences were more important than digital ones, while 46% said they were limiting screen time.
Even more telling, 89% of young adults wanted events that helped them feel connected to their local communities.
The Eventbrite study found that young adults are particularly interested in experiences that feel spontaneous, participatory and local. They want neighborhood gatherings, unusual venues and events that make it easy to interact without forcing everyone into a networking circle with name tags.
They want to be around people without having to perform for them.
A concert, festival, block party or dinner with friends offers a shared experience that no algorithm assembled. Everyone saw the same thing. Everyone heard the same joke. Everyone knows why the story is funny later.
No recap post required.
Trust Has Left the Main Feed
This shift is also happening at a moment when trust is increasingly hard to find.
In the 2025 Gulf South Index, 56% of respondents said they were more concerned about false information spreading on social media than about government censorship. Trust declined across nearly every major source of information, while local television news remained the most trusted source at 35% in the Gulf South.
The problem is no longer access to information. We have more access than any generation before us could have imagined. The problem is deciding what deserves our trust.
That challenge may be especially pronounced for Gen Z. The generation spends a significant amount of time in digital spaces where news, entertainment, personal opinion, sponsored content and outright fiction can appear one swipe apart.
When every source is competing for attention, familiarity becomes a shortcut. People may be more willing to consider information sent by a friend because the relationship already carries trust.
Of course, information does not become accurate simply because your funniest friend dropped it in the chat. Friends can share bad information, too, and do it with gusto. Usually a screenshot that cuts off the source.
Bottom line. When people feel uncertain about institutions, platforms and public information, they turn toward relationships.
The Gulf South Knows a Little Something About That
In the Gulf South, the idea that relationships shape decisions is nothing new.
People have always asked family members, neighbors, co-workers and friends where to eat, whom to call and whether a story passes the smell test. Information travels through communities because people trust the person delivering it.
More than 90% of GSI respondents identify family, hard work and money as very important in this part of the world. Community also increased as a personal priority.
Those values become especially important when the wider world feels unstable. Only 39% of Gen Z respondents nationally felt optimistic about the year ahead. In the Gulf South, that figure was considerably higher at 58%, but it still points to a generation approaching the future with a fair amount of uncertainty.
Family, friends and community provide a smaller world that feels more manageable.
Moving a conversation from a public feed to a private chat is the digital version of lowering your voice and talking to the people around the table. Attending a local event instead of watching another video about one is a return to shared experience. Choosing a smaller circle is a way to make an enormous information environment feel human again.
***
Gen Z is not leaving the internet. Anyone waiting for that development should get comfortable.
What appears to be changing is the generation’s definition of meaningful connection.
Public feeds remain sources of entertainment, news and discovery. Private chats offer room for actual conversation. Live events provide shared experiences. Local communities create a sense of belonging that cannot be replicated by having thousands of followers.
The group chat is not the end of social media. It may be Gen Z’s attempt to make social media feel social again.
Marc Ehrhardt
President