Journal of Youth Studies

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#GenZ on TikTok: the collective online self-Portrait

of the social media generation

Catherine Cheng Stahl & Ioana Literat

To cite this article: Catherine Cheng Stahl & Ioana Literat (2023) #GenZ on TikTok: the
collective online self-Portrait of the social media generation, Journal of Youth Studies, 26:7,
925-946, DOI: 10.1080/13676261.2022.2053671

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2022.2053671

Published online: 01 Apr 2022.

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JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES
2023, VOL. 26, NO. 7, 925–946
https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2022.2053671

#GenZ on TikTok: the collective online self-Portrait of the

social media generation
a b
Catherine Cheng Stahl and Ioana Literat
a
Department of Curriculum and Teaching, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, USA;
b
Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology, Teachers College, Columbia University,
New York, USA

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

In contrast to academic and popular accounts that present Received 15 June 2021
generational characteristics from the outside, in a top-down Accepted 10 March 2022
manner, we explore how Gen Z constructs, narrates, and projects
KEYWORDS
itself in real-time on TikTok—a prominent social media platform, Social media; TikTok; Gen Z;
dominated by Gen Z, that provides a valuable window into youth collective identity;
experience and cultural production. Based on a thematic analysis generations
of 1918 public videos tagged #GenZ, as well as salient comments
posted on these videos, we aim to explore inductively how Gen Z
collectively portrays itself on TikTok. Our findings illustrate how,
via creative processes of both internal and external self-definition,
Gen Z portrays itself as a generation of contrasts: powerful and
self-assured, yet vulnerable and damaged. Videos embrace a
playful self-reflexivity about time that embodies Gen Z’s self-
awareness, sense of unity, and collective spirit. This research
contributes to our understanding of both generational identity
and youth social media participation; sitting at the intersection of
these two bodies of knowledge, it facilitates a nuanced
understanding of youth self-representation, online collective
expression, and multimodal communication practices on a
critically understudied social media platform.

As the largest, fastest-growing, most racially and ethnically diverse, most globally con-
nected, and on track to be the best-educated generation (Dimock 2019; Fry and Parker
2018; Hamblin and Totten 2020; McCrindle & Wolfinger, 2014; Parker and Igielnik 2020),
Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012; hereafter referred to as Gen Z) represents
a powerful force. Continuously in-the-making and regularly making headlines, this gener-
ation has attracted the attention of politicians, researchers, demographers, and marketers
alike. However, with few exceptions (e.g. Combi 2015; Hamblin and Totten 2020), most of
these narratives are portrayals of Gen Z from the outside, in a top-down fashion.
Indeed, traditionally, generational characteristics have been ascribed in a top-down
manner (e.g. by researchers, demographers, brands); yet, as we argue here, the self-
definition of Gen Z is also happening in real-time, online. As the so-called social media

CONTACT Catherine Cheng Stahl cyc2151@tc.columbia.edu Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 West
120th Street, 306 Zankel Hall, New York, NY 1002, USA https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-heng, https://www.
linkedin.com/in/ioanaiterat2b2321 @ChengStahl, @IoanaLiterat
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
926 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

generation (Pew Research Center 2021), Gen Zers readily take to online spaces to share
their voice on their own terms. In particular, TikTok—as Gen Z’s ‘home turf’ (Maguire
2021; Wallaroo Media 2021) and a key space for youth collective online expression
(Literat and Kligler-Vilenchik 2019)—is a valuable window into youth attitudes and per-
ceptions, including their expression of generational identity. TikTok allows us to
observe the process of generational self-definition in a social context, surfacing the
self-representations shared by and for those who make up this generation.
In light of these aims and possibilities, our study therefore asks: how does Gen Z col-
lectively portray itself on TikTok? Our inquiry is based on the qualitative analysis of a large
and diverse corpus of 1918 TikTok videos tagged #GenZ, as well as salient comments
posted on these videos. The videos were identified using the hashtag—in this case,
#GenZ, the top hashtag related to this generational identity—as a methodological tool
for data selection, and approached inductively via thematic analysis.
Engaging in this analysis enabled us to grasp, in a more naturalistic manner, the emer-
gent collective identity of Gen Z, as shared on social media, while making valuable con-
tributions to existing knowledge on youth generational identity and social media
expression. Our findings surface defining narratives that Gen Z collectively (co-)constructs
and propagates on TikTok—as powerful yet vulnerable, self-assured yet damaged, nostal-
gic about the past yet consumed by future projections—while our grounded analysis
foregrounds the ways in which these narratives both reinforce and destabilize each
other. Based on these findings, we also derive significant implications for understanding
and supporting youth online participation and wellbeing, foregrounding areas of need
and opportunity as voiced by youth themselves.

Literature review
Defining generations
While approaches to conceptualizing generations can vary, sociological perspectives have
endured over biological ones. Sociologists see generations (e.g. peer groups, age cohorts)
as instrumental to exploring subject formation in private and public realms and, hence, to
understanding larger social configurations and cultural continuity and rupture (Durham
and Cole 2007). The seminal scholarship of Mannheim (1972/1952), especially, highlights
how coming-of-age-youth’s common ‘social location’ and shared experiences enable col-
lective consciousness that shape historical and cultural change. This focus on youth in
generational research also extends to contemporary scholarship. For instance, taking a
global approach, Durham and Cole (2007) illustrate how ‘regeneration’—a concept that
‘captures the multiple ways in which age figures centrally in how families, communities,
and social relationships regenerate in the contemporary moment’ (p. 17)—can offer a
powerful lens to gain more nuanced insights into how globalizing trends take shape
and, more broadly, how our world is being remade through the intimacy of intergenera-
tional relations.
Today, the most widely accepted sociological definition conceptualizes generations
as a group of people born in the same period of approximately 20 years, who share a
time and space in history that lends them a collective persona (Strauss and Howe
1991) and are ‘united by age and life stage, conditions and technology, events and
 JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES 927

experiences’ (McCrindle and Wolfinger 2014, p.3). There is no dearth of labels and con-
cepts attached to generations. Baby Boomers were the first to be given a generational
label, and since then, applying generational nomenclature has become common prac-
tice, reflecting a desire to capture the commonalities shaping generational profiles
(McCrindle and Wolfinger 2014). Indeed, generational labels communicate as much
a sense of belonging to a collective cultural identity as a marker of division among
coexisting generations. They relate to particular historical eras (e.g. Millennials,
1960s generation) or formative events (e.g. Vietnam generation, Cold War generation),
demographic conditions (e.g. Baby Boomers), characters of reach (e.g. global gener-
ations), and common personality traits (e.g. lost generation, silent generation, gener-
ation me) (Bolin 2016). Generational identity may not adequately represent
individual identity, but exploring the broad trends and times shaping this collective
identity can help cultivate intergenerational community building and mutual under-
standing (Madden 2019).

Generation Z
Gen Z, the generation of interest in this study, is the post-Millennial cohort born
between 1997 and 2012 (Dimock 2019). Gen Zers have been collectively shaped by
a climate of political polarization; a sophisticated digital ecosystem; and dramatic
shifts in schooling, work, and everyday life amidst the coronavirus pandemic (Parker
and Igielnik 2020). Gen Z is known to care deeply and to mobilize itself for a variety
of causes (Francis and Hoefel 2018; Parker and Igielnik 2020; Seemiller and Grace
2018), making the label of ‘protest generation’ especially fitting (Hamblin and
Totten 2020). Wellbeing is an important enduring topic for Gen Zers and they are
known to be generally comfortable talking openly about mental health, especially
during COVID-19, which has disproportionately affected this generation (GlobalWebIn-
dex 2020; Hamblin and Totten 2020; Zeng and Abidin 2021). As the generation getting
ready to enter the workforce in large numbers, Gen Z values safety and security, flexi-
bility and increased mobility, community and collaboration, inclusion, dialogue, sus-
tained relationships, fun, and entrepreneurship (Madden 2019; McCrindle and
Wolfinger 2014; Seemiller and Grace 2018).
More specifically, in the United States context, Gen Z is quite literally changing the face
of the country as the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in history (Parker and
Igielnik 2020). Comfort with diversity also extends into Gen Zers’ social attitudes and per-
spectives; more so than any other generation, Gen Z sees interracial and same-sex
relationships as beneficial for society and most readily embraces gender-neutral pro-
nouns and gender fluidity (Parker and Igielnik 2020). This is not surprising given that
this generation not only grew up with expanded family structures (e.g. single-parent,
same-sex couples, multigenerational households) and evolving gender norms, but also,
in many cases, has been the product of these shifting dynamics (Seemiller and Grace
2018). Gen Z’s embrace of fluidity also extends beyond gender and sexuality into politics
and brand preferences (Francis and Hoefel 2018; GlobalWebIndex 2020; IPSOS MORI
2018).
In unpacking the social forces that shape generational identities and experiences,
media(tization) has often been foregrounded, given the rapidly transforming media
928 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

and technology landscapes that have impacted generations differently, shaping the for-
mation of distinct generational identities (Bolin 2016). While Baby Boomers grew up with
the expansion of television, Generation X (Gen X) had its childhood shaped by the emer-
ging computer revolution, and Generation Y (i.e. Millennials) experienced the explosion of
the Internet (Dimock 2019; Madden 2019), Gen Z came of age in the image- and infor-
mation-saturated twenty-first century. Worldwide, Gen Z internet users spend over
eight hours on their devices each day (GlobalWebIndex 2020). Due to the prominence
of Wi-Fi and digital media in their lives, Gen Z does not distinguish between the digital
and physical worlds (Madden 2019) and, instead, has ‘seamlessly integrated technology
into almost all areas of their lives, thereby being known as digital integrators’ (McCrindle
& Wolfinger, 2010, p. 15).

Youth and/on social media

A growing interdisciplinary body of research has examined the ways in which social media
platforms represent important outlets for youth expression, civic engagement, political
participation, informal learning, and collective meaning-making (see, e.g. Literat and
Kligler-Vilenchik 2018, 2019; boyd 2014; Jenkins et al. 2016; Velasquez and LaRose
2015; Vromen, Xenos, and Loader 2015). Studies show that social media provide young
people with personal empowerment, expanded access and connectivity, community
and identity formation, a means for organizing their social life, and multiple possibilities
for interaction that adult-mediated and physical spaces may limit (see, e.g. Fu and Cook
2020; Gangneux 2019). For Gen Zers specifically, social media has been a channel for
mobilizing and activism (see, e.g. Hamblin and Totten 2020; Zeng and Abidin 2021), as
well as building their personal and professional brands (Viţelar 2019). At the same time,
however, these platforms can also breed toxicity and harmful experiences (e.g. cyberbul-
lying, friendship fallouts, peer pressure), which can contribute to diminished self-worth,
increased stress and anxiety, envy, loneliness, or apathy (Gangneux 2019; GlobalWebIn-
dex 2020; IPSOS MORI 2018; Madden 2019; Ohannessian and Vannucci 2020; Seemiller
and Grace 2018). Privacy, user activity surveillance, and data-mining are other common
concerns pertaining to young people’s social media usage that coexist with the platforms’
social benefits (Fu and Cook 2020; Gangneux 2019). In short, social and participatory
media platforms afford today’s young people a vital, dynamic space for both their individ-
ual and collective identity expression (boyd 2014; Vromen, Xenos, and Loader 2015; Zeng
and Abidin 2021), but not without risks and active negotiations of time and relationships
(Gangneux 2019).
As we argue here, social media can also provide a perceptive portal into Gen Z’s
self-portrayal, foregrounding young people’s own nuanced cultural and linguistic reper-
toires. Gen Z has been mediatized and politicized (see, e.g. Lorenz, Browning, and
Frenkel 2020; Orlowski 2020), spoken about and stereotyped. But with a few notable
exceptions, Gen Z voices and perspectives have been comparably sparse in the litera-
ture; more recent Gen Z publications that do center youth voices have concentrated
specifically on Australian (Madden 2019) and British (Combi 2015) contexts. Thus, in
contrast to existing research that presents generational characteristics from a top-
down manner (see, e.g. GlobalWebIndex 2020; McCrindle and Wolfinger 2014; Seemiller
and Grace 2018), our aim here is to explore how Gen Z constructs, narrates, and
 JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES 929

projects itself in a participatory digital space dominated by young people: the promi-
nent social media site TikTok.

TikTok as a key contemporary space for youth online expression

Our research site, TikTok, is a popular social media app that revolves around the creation
and sharing of short looping videos. Videos can be soundtracked with a vast selection of
music and recorded sounds, and span a wide spectrum in terms of genre, with comedy,
music/dance, and lifestyle videos being particularly popular on the platform. The app has
over 1 billion monthly active users worldwide, and more than 130 million of them are in
the United States (Wallaroo Media 2021). The popularity of the platform grew significantly
during the COVID-19 pandemic (Kennedy 2020), and its tremendous impact in terms of
setting trends, originating viral content, and shaping contemporary culture is well recog-
nized. TikTok is especially popular among youth; over 60% of TikTok users are Gen Zers,
and its most-followed content creators belong to this generation (Maguire 2021; Wallaroo
Media 2021).
Burgeoning interdisciplinary research on TikTok (see Zeng, Abidin, and Schäfer 2021
for an overview of existing literature) has revealed the platform’s increasingly signifi-
cant role as a contemporary space for youth self-expression (e.g. Schellewald 2021;
Zeng and Abidin 2021), sociality (e.g. Literat 2021; Kennedy 2020), and political voice
(e.g. Literat and Kligler-Vilenchik 2021; Hautea et al. 2021; Zeng and Abidin 2021).
In a study particularly relevant to the present article, Zeng and Abidin (2021) examined
#OkBoomer memes on TikTok as an insight into young people’s political culture; their
study exemplifies the memefication of generational discourse on TikTok and fore-
grounds some of the ways in which youth deploy platform affordances and cultural
resources to construct an image of Boomers as the ‘imagined other.’ Studies have
also examined TikTok as a source of information in youth lives (see, e.g. Hautea
et al. 2021; Vázquez-Herrero, Negreira-Rey, and López-García 2020) and noted its sig-
nificant role in shaping contemporary internet celebrity culture (Abidin 2020; Kennedy
2020). At the same time, recent studies have also pointed to more problematic aspects
of youth participation on TikTok, including issues related to privacy (De Leyn et al.
2021), misinformation (Literat et al. 2021), and extremist political discourse
(Weimann and Masri 2020).
Its popularity with young people and impact on youth culture make TikTok a valuable
window into youth experience (Literat 2021); at the same time, the affordances of the
platform are highly relevant here too. Indeed, TikTok is a fitting lens for this study not
only due to its immense popularity with Gen Zers, but also because it is tied to voice
in intimate ways, through its very affordances and expressive ethos (Literat 2021; Schel-
lewald 2021; Zeng and Abidin 2021; Zulli and Zulli, 2020). Making use of the platform’s
affordances in very particular ways, TikTok videos thus tap into platform-specific ‘commu-
nicative forms’ (Schellewald 2021) to represent the self along both individual and collec-
tive dimensions (Literat and Kligler-Vilenchik 2019; Zeng and Abidin 2021). By exploring
how Gen Z collectively portrays itself on TikTok, our study takes up Schellewald’s
(2021) call to shed light onto the role of TikTok in young people’s everyday communica-
tive practices. In doing so, this research also makes a significant contribution to the litera-
ture on youth social media participation, by facilitating a nuanced understanding of youth
930 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

self-representation and communication on a wildly popular yet critically understudied

social media platform and surfacing the collective aspects that shape young people’s
expressive practices online.

Methods
In creating our data corpus on TikTok, we relied on the hashtag as a methodological tool
for data selection. Since content is deliberately labeled to be visible in connection to a
particular topic, hashtags enable the identification of a data corpus that is at once inten-
tional and inherently collective—an ideal combination given the topic of this research. In
January 2021, we first put together a list of all hashtags related to Gen Z based on the top
search results within TikTok. For each one, we noted metrics like total views and number
of videos, calculated the views-to-video ratio, and wrote open-ended comments on the
key thematic territory and modes of expression that characterized each of them. Out of
these hashtags, the most popular by far was #GenZ (4.1 billion views), followed by #Gen-
erationZ (132.1 million views) and, in order of decreasing popularity, more specific hash-
tags like #GenZhumor, #GenZforJesus, #GenZTattoo, #GenZavage, #GenZforBiden,
#GenZParents, #GenZTikTok, and #GenZRevolution. Following this audit of 21 hashtags,
we decided to focus on the most popular hashtag, #GenZ, which allows us to best
answer our research question—by capturing a broader set of Gen Z associations and rep-
resentations—and which produced a corpus that is large yet manageable for qualitative
data analysis: 1918 publicly posted videos.1
TikTok as a research site is plagued by notorious methodological difficulties (see Literat
2021; Literat and Kligler-Vilenchik 2019; Schellewald 2021), including very limited in-app
search and filtering capabilities, as well as a prohibition against automated scraping. As
such, over the course of three months from February through April of 2021, we analyzed
individual #GenZ videos within the app itself, by viewing, screenshotting or downloading
salient content, and taking copious notes.2 We also read comments posted on these
videos and took notes on the most relevant ones; comments are thus treated here as
an auxiliary source of data.
Given our focus on exploring the experiences, perceptions, and self-representations
of Gen Z as manifested in their social media discourses, we adopted qualitative the-
matic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) in approaching the data. Themes were gener-
ated inductively from the data corpus in an iterative manner, and our analysis was
structured by three general phases. We began by immersing ourselves in the individ-
ual videos, jotting down striking phrases verbatim (e.g. ‘a different breed,’ ‘we are
webbed together,’ ‘not afraid to die,’ ‘powerful’) and recurring ideas and motifs
(e.g. skeleton emoji, mental health, nostalgia, hacks), while also making note of
overall communicative modes (e.g. humorous skits, green screen, infinite audio
loop). We then went over these extensive notes and initial codes, searching for over-
arching patterns, pooling data extracts that conveyed similar meanings, and creating
themes and subthemes (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Finally, we went back to review par-
ticular videos and transcribe salient audio clips to ensure that our generated themes
captured the ‘essence’ of our data. Throughout this process, we attended to tensions
and unanticipated insights, as much as we did to content that confirmed our key the-
matic groups.
 JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES 931

While our chosen methodological approach does not allow us to pinpoint the specific
demographic profile of users included in our corpus, we infer that a vast majority are from
the United States (due to the language of the videos and the cultural references, slang,
and accents represented), and that the majority of posters are youth (in view of the
nature of the #GenZ hashtag and the previously cited age demographics of TikTok).
While all videos in our corpus are publicly posted, due to the likelihood that many
users in our corpus are minors—and in recognition of the complexity of online privacy
(franzke et al. 2020)—we also took further precautions to anonymize usernames and
omit personally identifiable information in video descriptions or screenshots. This study
was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Teachers College, Columbia University.

Findings
‘Gen Z is an entirely different breed’: external and internal definitions of
generational identity
We find that Gen Z discourse on TikTok is marked by a strong sense of generational
identity, which is manifested both externally, via playful opposition to other gener-
ations, and internally, through references to a shared sociocultural, political, and
emotional heritage.
Frequently using comedy, music, and dance—in line with the ethos of the platform—
Gen Z creators craft playful ways to distinguish themselves from other generations. While
the primary target are Millennials (who are seen as ‘weaker,’ ‘easily offended,’ ‘too ideal-
istic,’ and quintessentially ‘individualistic’), contrasts with Boomers and Gen Xers are also
addressed in creative ways. For instance, @papaglen, a popular Gen Z content creator
with a wide following, performs humorous skits and reenactments, often portraying
Gen Z in conversation with Boomers to illustrate how ‘Gen Z is an entirely different
breed.’ Similarly, other videos rely on comedic skits to differentiate Gen Z from older gen-
erations, reenacting everyday interactions between Gen X parents and Gen Z children
(e.g. eating out at restaurants) that highlight how embarrassing—and how unlike them
—Gen X parents are. Adopting a different approach but making similar points, @thegen-
zlink, a prominent #GenZ voice with several dozen videos for each of her series (e.g. ‘Gen-
eration Z Facts,’ ‘Generation Z talk’), uses dance to highlight generational differences.
While performing solo dance routines in the intimate space of her home, she presents
facts about her generation in relation to other generations: ‘About 75% of our generation
approves of gay marriage … . Compared to … 45% of Boomers, 59% of Gen X, 73% of Mil-
lennials’ (Figure 1). Blending statistics with dance moves and sound clips, she invites
others on TikTok to join in in the comments, by responding to these ‘facts’ that distinguish
Gen Z from other generations.
Besides defining themselves in opposition to other generations, Gen Zers also define
themselves internally, through a shared heritage and shared trauma; the message is,
Gen Z has gone through a lot, so they need to stick together. In videos and comments
alike, Gen Zers on TikTok talk about how they grew up too fast in a world that
changed quickly with the arrival of the internet and social media (e.g. ‘POV me, age 9,
giving advice on how to cope with divorce on Yahoo Answers with the username luv-
spongebob37’), and how they lived through traumatic events like multiple school
932 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

Figure 1. @thegenzlink blends dance routines with statistics to explain how her generation, Gen Z, is
different from other generations

shootings; the rise of white supremacy, racism, xenophobia, transphobia, police brutality,
political polarization; and the worsening climate change crisis, among others. This shared
lived history contributes to a collective trauma that shows up not only in the content of
#relatable TikTok videos, thereby driving their virality, but also in the comments section,
which serves as an outlet for release, support, and discussion.
In one powerfully evocative video with more than 2 million likes (Figure 2), @makernick
embraces the infinite loop aesthetic that encapsulates the ‘doom and gloom 24 h news
cycle’ that Gen Z has lived through. In original audio, the user narrates the following:
Gen Z doesn’t feel anything. Our generation was born with the collapse of the twin towers.
Our childhood was structured around the market crash of 2008 and we’ve become accus-
tomed to school during an internationally devastating viral pandemic. Tragedy has sur-
rounded us as long as we’ve been on this planet, so it’s nearly impossible for us to be
disturbed by literally anything.

In another prominent video, @genzseven films themselves scrolling through an extensive

Google Doc that outlines various topics from their book in progress ‘about everything gen
Z has had to go through’ (Figure 3). As @genzseven scrolls down through the document,
there are headings that read ‘How the school system has failed us,’ ‘School Shootings,’ and
 JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES 933

Figure 2. Screenshots from @makernick’s video, captioned ‘Gen Z out here [not] feeling a damn
thing,’ illustrating the collective trauma of a generation

Figure 3. @genzseven outlining the many traumatic, formative experiences Gen Z has had to live
through
934 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

‘Normalized abuse,’ among others. These are dense, complex topics, which makes the
accompanying audio of Jaron Staiger’s ‘DANNYS BEANS’ (an infinite looping of ‘beans,
beans, beans, beans … ’) jarring to those unfamiliar with Gen Z humor. The comments
section for this video contains an extensive crowdsourced list of additional shared experi-
ences to be included in @genzseven’s book. These include the ‘foster care system and ICE’
(a comment with 10.9 K likes), ‘how [the school system] doesn’t work in favor for neuro-
divergent people’ (6,934 likes), ‘toxicity on social media (you have to be ‘perfect’ to be
accepted)’ (5,550 likes), and ‘systemic oppression towards minorities. Climate change
and pollution. Social inequality. Social stratification’ (1,664 likes).
Yet, despite this strong sense of unity and generational identity, there is also acknowl-
edgement of differences within Gen Z and often heated discussion regarding genera-
tional thresholds. Much of this debate happens in the comment sections:
No. 1996–2010 is Gen Z. Gen Alpha is 2010-2025. (@_taytay_)

Tbh born in 1993–6 transition area are feeling like both Y and Z. We’re living Hanna Montana
life but with the worst of two worlds lmao (@darkempressrenee)

Okay but 1995–1999 should be considered millennials, they act just like millennials way more
than gen z (@haleyf53)

As illustrated above, Gen Zers seem passionate about self-definition and figuring out
where they belong—and interestingly, this happens alongside Gen Z’s self-proclaimed
emphasis on embracing blurriness and fluidity and opposing narrow definitions and bin-
aries. Indeed, this is an important site of tension: wanting to gain clarity on one’s genera-
tional identity while being open to vagueness and lack of definition in one’s individual
identity.

‘The strongest generation’ yet ‘scared to order at McDonald’s’: outward

strength and agency but inner vulnerability and anxiety
Gen Zers on TikTok see their own generation as the most united, with its own multilayered
communication mode (including Gen Z lingo—e.g. no cap, bruh, blippi, but go off I guess,
dead, YEET, simp, periodt, it’s the … for me, sus, goat, glowup—and sophisticated uses of
memes and emojis), as well as its own humor, shared characteristics, and way of
moving through the world (see Figure 4 for some common self-ascribed descriptors).
Perhaps the most salient common characteristic of Gen Z, as depicted on TikTok, is its
collective agency and activist spirit. Whereas older generations are often talked about as
being complacent with the realities of the world, Gen Z sees its own generation as refus-
ing to settle with the status quo. Gen Z’s sense of agency is particularly tangible in the
realm of political activism and civic engagement. Self-declared in videos and comments
as ‘the most diverse’ and also ‘the most political’ generation in U.S. history, ‘pro every-
thing’ and against labels, Gen Z ‘will stand up for the right things.’ Gen Zers see them-
selves as capable, resourceful, informed, action-oriented, and fearless—aptly captured
by this video caption from @songversetulips: ‘Name one thing Gen Z can’t do .’ Their
boldness manifests in the way they—again, often humorously—publicly call out their
own community or family members (Figure 5); speak (back) to authorities without hesita-
tion, while other generations hold back (Figure 6); and deliberately ‘piss off racists’ (Figure
 JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES 935

Figure 4. An overview of common characteristics of Gen Z self-professed by @sahnineet

Figure 5. @collinchewsnewts has the following to say after locking out the family: ‘can’t help ya now ’

7), to outline just a few salient examples. Numerous videos also portray their commitment
to social justice and the different ways they use their voice to call attention to injustices
and systemic oppressions. @ohnorabbit’s prominent video, posted in the summer of 2020
936 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

Figure 6. Screenshots of @DaniJax55 performing a skit comparing how three generations react differ-
ently to cops: ‘I’m gonna beat the sh*t out of you’ (Gen Z) vs ‘don’t say that [beat the sh*t out of you]’
(Boomers) vs hysterical laughter (Millennials)

Figure 7. Screenshots from a video captioned ‘Keep making racists angry,’ in which @pubguy97
explains to ‘#whitepeople’ how ‘white culture is oppression’

at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, exemplifies this focus. The video juxta-
poses clips of news anchors talking about ‘Gen Z’ with footage of young activist
crowds marching with signs, a monument being toppled over, police cars burning, and
other visible signs of protest. In their own words, this video illustrates ‘how powerful
 JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES 937

Gen z can be’ and how they are ‘going to change this country’ and be ‘on the right side of
history.’ Illustrating TikTok’s self-referentiality, the soundtrack to the video is a remix of a
prominent TikTok activist’s viral recording, which rallies others to ‘pick it up’ rather than
keep ‘talking about a revolution.’ The video clearly resonated on the platform, garnering
more than 270k likes and 18.4k shares.
Another common characteristic often brought up in videos and comments is Gen
Z’s tech savviness, and the various implications thereof. On the one hand, their tech
savviness is often framed as an advantage, contributing to their resourceful and
action-oriented disposition. Also, as a generation that grew up on and with social
media during economically precarious times, Gen Z portrays itself as adept at monetiz-
ing their digital labor, often by working TikTok’s algorithm while tapping into their
generation’s strong sense of unity and mutual support (‘I know my new song will
blow up because Gen Z runs the world’).
On the other hand, growing up digital is also depicted as having stunted or burdened
Gen Z in multiple ways. Numerous videos shed light on how this tech savviness actually
created or deepened a generational gap between Gen Zers and their parents. For
instance, @thebrownollie’s video (Figure 8) argues that helping parents out with digital
literacy makes Gen Zers feel like they cannot go to their parents for advice on other impor-
tant social aspects of life. Editing together found footage to make his point, @thebrownol-
lie’s voiceover reads:
We’ve always heard the phrase ‘my parents don’t understand me’ but due to the sudden
change in life from the arrival of the internet and social media, this increased the disconnect
and lack of understanding from parents to their children. It has caused a strange power
dynamic where the child is having to teach their parents how to conduct themselves
online … Making the young adult feel more intelligent, which causes them to resent and dis-
respect their parents … . Now a young adult feels as though they can’t go to their parents to

Figure 8. @thebrownollie narrating how ‘the enormous generational gap’ forces Gen Z to ‘handle a
majority of their problems’ with little parental guidance
938 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

ask for help on different social situations, like how to talk to a boy or how to deal with hate
online … . It’s just the repercussions of the world being changed so quickly. That’s what
causes the enormous generational gap of Gen Z.

This shared sentiment of growing up too fast has contributed to perplexing con-
trasts that are an integral part of Gen Z. Whereas on the outside, this generation pre-
sents itself as having figured things out (i.e. self-sufficient, resourceful, informed, and
independent, particularly when it comes to moving through digital spaces—as
described above), on the inside, they are struggling. On TikTok, Gen Zers are open
and casual about discussions of mental health, trauma, and depression. Shared
among them is a frustration that older generations, especially Gen X parents, lack
knowledge about mental health. Consequently, these young people are taking
matters into their own hands—sometimes, quite literally, with meditative art-making
captured on video (see Figure 9)—and turning to the comments section for mutual
support in processing their collective trauma. In the videos that invite such public dis-
cussion, users typically embrace a specific brand of dark, self-deprecating humor that
makes light of discussing or enacting death—a phenomenon we refer to as performing
death discourses. Indeed, there is a pervasive death discourse that manifests itself, for

Figure 9. Screenshot from @landonzaleski’s meditative #BoostYourMood video capturing the salience
of mental health struggles in everyday #genz life
 JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES 939

instance, in video skits like ‘Things Gen Z would say before dying,’ in darkly humorous
comments (e.g. ‘Before my time to go … make sure it’s a closed casket … I don’t want
anyone to see my side profile’), via mentions of deadly events (e.g. Michael Jackson’s
death, the Sandy Hook shooting, the Boston bombing), or through the extensive use of
skull emojis.
What becomes evident in surveying the characteristics of Gen Z is that beyond their
projected outward strength and collective agency, Gen Zers are also a vulnerable
group. As multiple videos argue, they are a generation of contrasts. Gen Z will ‘verbally
abuse a racist, crack a joke about their mental health and pick up a tear gas canister
with their bare hands, but get nervous when they have to call to make a doctors [sic]
appointment.’ Gen Z might regard itself as the ‘strongest generation’ and ‘will show
the world whos [sic] BOSS’ and yet be ‘scared to order at McDonald’s’ (Figure 4). In
short, #GenZ videos on TikTok depict a generation that is full of contrasts, extremes,
and complex range.

‘I always wanted to grow up but now i just wanna go back’: collective self-
reflexivity about time
While our analysis so far has focused on how Gen Z, as a generation, collectively defines
and describes itself on TikTok, the third and final theme articulates a central tension sur-
rounding the notion of time in relation to these acts of self-definition and self-description.
Within the #GenZ space on TikTok, time is both a playful construct and a site of tension.
Videos play with constant shifts in time—forward and backward—and seem to reflect
Gen Z’s self-perception of being caught in-between: wanting to be taken seriously and
yet not ready to enter the ‘adult world.’
On the one hand, TikTok videos reveal the multiple ways this generation imagines
itself in the future (e.g. ‘can’t wait to see how we’re going to be like when we’re
adults’). Among the most popular ‘genres’ of #GenZ videos are the ‘Gen Z as … ’
videos in which TikTok users imagine and act out how this generation would act and
be in various social roles and professions currently reserved for adults (e.g. as
parents, grandparents, therapists, waiters, the president, news anchors, lawyers, real-
tors, make-up artists, teachers, FBI agents, 911 operators, uber drivers, surgeons, life-
guards). These videos (see, e.g. Figure 10) are grounded in Gen Zers’ perception of
themselves as a collective and embody a kind of Gen Z humor that is difficult to articu-
late but easily recognizable. Significantly, these videos convey how Gen Z is holding on
to its youth, playfully imagining future roles and professions but hesitant to step into
that world.
Indeed, there is a parallel ethos of not being ready to grow up, and not being ready for
the next generation (i.e. Gen Alpha) to take over. Many videos are ‘throwback’ in nature,
remixing childhood songs and documenting the things that are now considered vintage
and retro (e.g. Vine, Instagram, Snapchat, LED lights, pegging). Some are presented in the
playful, gamified language of challenges—namely, how many of these songs, facts, toys,
or artifacts one can name. These videos articulate a strong sense of nostalgia and a fear
that time will pass too quickly—and that TikTok, too, will become a thing of the past with
the next generation (‘omg TikTok is gonna be like vine [a similar social media app that is
now defunct] rip’). In one particular video that ‘was sad to make ,’ @avismaria tours
940 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

Figure 10. @thesmellyash (left; nearly 1M likes) projects how a Gen Z president in year 2049 might
sound, look, and act and @blingbabe (right; 2.4M likes) imagines how a generation that hates babies
might deal with parenting—the most popular enacted role

through ‘#genZ #childhoodmemories’ as objects familiar to her generation (e.g. Silly

Bandz, Hill Climb Racing, Webkinz, scooter boards, Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, Nintendo
DS) flash in and out with increasing frequency while a wordless version of ‘The Star-
spangled Banner’ plays in the background, as if to deliver a new national anthem that
belongs to Gen Z specifically (Figure 11).
With 29.3 K responses, the comments section buzzed with collective nostalgia, reveal-
ing an acute awareness of the passing of time and speaking to Gen Z’s desire to embrace a
collective identity built on unity:
I knew every single one (@shichi_shimo, 71250 likes)

I always wanted to grow up but Now i just wanna go back (@jia_51, 6210 likes)

Whether looking forward or looking back, these videos communicate a self-reflexivity

about time—particularly how Gen Zers on TikTok are trying to hold on to their playfulness
and stretch out their youth as much as possible. Even as they publicly ‘wonder what we’ll
be like as adults,’ Gen Zers are not ready to succumb to the dullness and complacency
that characterizes how they see older generations. Even while engaging in serious
 JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES 941

Figure 11. @avismaria’s beloved video (1.1M likes) inviting fellow Gen Zers to ‘take a look back at our
childhood’

matters like social justice and political activism, they do not perceive themselves as being
adults. They are a generation embodying complexities that speak to coming of age in a
time characterized by rapid technological changes and global political, economic, and
environmental unrest. Within and across this turbulent landscape, social media platforms
like TikTok act, in some ways, like a time capsule, capturing the stories, dreams, lived rea-
lities, fears, and anxieties of a generation that grew up speaking the many languages of
the Internet.

Discussion
Diving into our data pool of almost 2000 public TikTok videos and associated comments
surfaced a rich, real-time, grassroots perspective on how Gen Z sees itself. Our findings
illustrate how, via creative processes of both internal and external self-definition, Gen Z
portrays itself on TikTok as a generation of contrasts: powerful and self-assured, yet vul-
nerable and damaged. Throughout, there is a playful self-reflexivity about time that per-
fectly captures Gen Z’s self-awareness and collective spirit. Indeed, what we found
particularly striking in Gen Z’s portrayal of itself—whether past, present, or future—is
the enduring sense of unity and collective agency. Repeatedly reaching for the collective
‘we’ rather than the singular ‘I,’ Gen Zers find power in their collective voice and in crea-
tively expressing their generational ethos (Zeng and Abidin 2021)—or, what Bolin (2016)
terms ‘generational we-sense’ (p. 92)—on a social media platform that encourages imita-
tion and replication (Zulli & Zulli, 2020).
Apparent in the data corpus is how Gen Zers lean into the affordances of TikTok—with
its capacity to facilitate richly layered expression (Hautea et al. 2021; Schellewald 2021)
and perceived relatability (Abidin 2020)—to express themselves both individually and col-
lectively. From remixed sounds to personalized hashtags, analog aesthetics to #spoken-
word and #PhotoStory, dance routines to green screen effects, Gen Z performs the
voicing of its identity in divergent ways. As a platform, TikTok is particularly fitting for
the kind of expressive, image-centric proclivities of this generation (Francis and Hoefel
942 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

2018; GlobalWebIndex 2020; Ohannessian and Vannucci 2020). Beyond supporting indi-
vidual self-expression, the platform also facilitates collective expression and belonging.
Though ephemeral in nature, the short-video form of #GenZ videos ‘facilitates meaningful
social interaction through enacting a site of momentary copresence that brokers aware-
ness for the life circumstances of distant others’ (Schellewald 2021, 1439)—or, in this case,
the shared experiences of growing up Gen Z. Our study reveals the ways in which TikTok
functions as a time capsule for a generation making sense of itself in relation to pasts and
futures, and we echo Zeng and Abidin’s (2021) argument that Gen Z TikTok reflects a
strong sense of collective identity and self-awareness. In this sense, Gen Z TikTok could
be seen as a distinct space within the platform itself, not unlike the many incarnations
of Alt TikTok (see Wylde 2020); indeed, as our data illustrate, #GenZ content on TikTok
shares the irreverence, inclusivity, and surreal humor of Alt TikTok, yet—in view of the
age demographics of the platform itself—it is also, unavoidably, quintessentially main-
stream, in contrast to the niche quality of Alt TikTok spaces.
It is not surprising that a platform that affords collective expression and generational
self-construction through mediated nostalgia (Bolin 2016) also serves as a space for
support (see also Literat 2021; Zeng and Abidin 2021). The videos as a whole communi-
cate a strong sense of generational solidarity and a tangible care—sometimes wrapped in
typical Gen Z humor—reminding each other that they are not the only ones dealing with
enduring trauma or feeling a particular mood.
While top reasons for using TikTok are to find entertaining videos and to fill up their free
time, one in three Gen Zers turn to social media for mental health support as well (Global-
WebIndex 2020). Indeed, videos in our corpus illustrate how TikTok appears to be a source
of inspiration, support, and strength, as well as a much-needed space for important mental
health conversations often missing from educational or familial contexts.
While Gen Zers’ sustained collective efficacy and supportive ethos in this context are
admirable, it is nonetheless important to consider how their proactive digital outreach
might reflect both an overcompensation for their distrust of and frustrations with older
adults (see also Zeng and Abidin 2021) and a dearth of support from family who might
tend to take a hands-off approach to parenting (Seemiller and Grace 2018). Indeed, we
found that Gen Z youth on TikTok express a critical need for support and a desire to
be taken seriously. A common theme in our findings is how Gen Z feels underestimated,
unseen, and antagonized by older generations, particularly Gen X and Boomers. Whether
it is because of the mirage that Gen Zers are independent and self-reliant or because of a
general lack of understanding of Gen Z’s unique early life experiences, adult generations
—from Gen Zers’ perspective—are not doing enough to support their mental health
needs. The #GenZ videos in our data corpus frequently showed the ways this generation
is trying to counter, rewrite, and add nuance to deficit-oriented narratives that frame Gen
Z as silly, not serious, lazy, or easily triggered—not unlike how #OkBoomer memes are
employed as counter-reactions to intergenerational discord (Zeng and Abidin 2021).
The genre of videos performing death discourses, in particular, both expand and speak
against simplistic and deficit-oriented reports that frame social media usage as respon-
sible for increased suicide rates (Orlowski 2020) and as contributing to the development
of delinquent behaviors (Ohannessian and Vannucci 2020). Underlying Gen Z’s ‘counter-
narratives’ is a genuine desire to be better understood beyond its projected personas.
 JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES 943

Part of supporting and taking Gen Zers more seriously involves seeing and hearing
them through their own preferred modes of self-expression, which TikTok seamlessly
facilitates. Gen Zers are sometimes characterized as ‘identity nomads’ who regard ‘the
self [as] a place to experiment, test, and change’ (Francis and Hoefel 2018, n.p.). Especially
in this light, expanding notions of meaning-making to include multimodal forms needs to
be part of the ongoing effort to understand the many ways that young people compose
the stories of their lives and navigate their ascribed societal identities (see, e.g. Hautea
et al. 2021; Vasudevan, Schultz, and Bateman 2010). While the TikTok videos that
young people create are humorous and entertaining, they are also thoughtful, rigorous,
and richly layered, communicating the lasting effects of not-too-distant events (e.g. mul-
tiple school and mass shootings, economic recession, family separations at the border) on
the generation that experienced them. Taken together, as educators and as caretakers of
today’s youth, we need to take young people’s personhood seriously (Vasudevan 2015) as
it plays out on TikTok or elsewhere.
While we find that the multiple forms of voicing facilitated by TikTok afford a certain
authenticity and complexity, we are also cognizant of the limitations posed by this
research site and methodological approach. For one, we only analyzed public videos,
due to both logistical and ethical reasons; we imagine that private videos tagged
#GenZ might differ from this public corpus in significant ways. For another, by analyzing
#GenZ videos posted in English, the majority of which were shared by American users, our
findings are situated within the sociopolitical and historical contexts of the United States.
Future research could expand to understand Gen Z collective identity in other national,
linguistic, and cultural contexts, as manifested on social media. Relatedly, we also recog-
nize that the data analyzed here were posted by a subsample of particularly digitally savvy
and connected youth; like Kennedy (2020), we are attuned to the question of who is not
represented in this TikTok sample—and in the platform’s cultural space more largely.
Therefore, we acknowledge that our capacity to generalize our findings about Gen Z to
even the United States context is constrained.
Despite these shortcomings, our study contributes important bottom-up insights to
the relatively sparse literature on youth collective self-perceptions on a prominent yet
understudied social networking site. Of further inquiry could be an in-depth exploration
of how Gen Z’s perceived strength, unity, and agency play out in other dimensions of its
digitally connected life. This could have important implications in terms of the design of
civic education for expanded youth political engagement and electoral participation
(Jenkins et al. 2016; Vromen, Xenos, and Loader 2015), the work of political expression
and activism (Liou and Literat 2020; Literat and Kligler-Vilenchik 2018, 2019; Hautea
et al. 2021; Velasquez and LaRose 2015; Zeng and Abidin 2021), and, more generally,
the ways adults could better support young people moving forward—making this an
ongoing vital direction for future research. Lastly, as a generation more likely to be the
children of immigrants rather than foreign-born (Parker and Igielnik 2020) and projected
to become majority non-white by 2026 (U.S. Census Bureau 2017), Gen Z harbors enor-
mously vast, rich, and nuanced identities. As such, taking an intersectional approach
with future research to unpack the layers of experiences of this generation would not
only be generative but crucial.
944 C. CHENG STAHL AND I. LITERAT

Notes
1. It is worth noting that the number of private videos shared with this hashtag is unknown, and
that private videos are not included in this analysis, due to both practical and ethical reasons.
The analyzed corpus also excludes a small number of videos in languages other than English.
2. While 1918 is the final count of videos analyzed, the number of available videos fluctuated
during the 3 months-long data collection and analysis process, as some videos were
deleted or made private, while newer ones were added. Testament to the methodological
difficulties cited above, there was no way to identify the newly added or recently removed
videos, nor filter newer videos from older ones; such challenges reinforce the nature of
TikTok as a fluid research site (Schellewald 2021) and might help explain the relative scarcity
of research on the platform, despite its popularity and cultural significance.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

ORCID
Catherine Cheng Stahl http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3752-7012
Ioana Literat http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8192-769X

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