The Young Men No One Really Knows

Many Gen Z American men feel socially isolated and adrift. Politically they are moving to the right, which is bad news for the progressive politicians who used to take their support for granted

- NICK REYNOLDS

BORN BETWEEN THE LATE 1990S AND THE EARLY 2010s, Gen Z, the first generation reared on the internet, has come of age; more than 30 million of them the oldest of whom are now 26 years old-have reached legal voting age as of 2021. By 2028, demographers anticipate Gen Z and their older millennial counterparts will constitute most of the U.S. electorate, setting them up to have a profound influence on the direction of the country for decades to come.

Early in their political lives, they've proven to be a reliably Democratic voting bloc at a time the United States finds itself at a crossroads on issues like abortion, labor rights and protections for LGBTQ+ people.

A look under the hood, however, paints a more complicated picture. New data shows there is a growing, gender-based rift emerging in Gen Z between men and women fueled by economic and social strife. Researchers say that presents warning signs for progressives.

The 2023 State of American Men survey, authored by the Equimundo Center for Masculinities and Social Justice, a Washington, D.C.-based NGO, says the trend springs from factors as diverse as an increasing sense of social isolation fueled by young Americans' increasingly online lives to the state of the economy to fears about the rise of artificial intelligence.

Younger male voters today, the authors say, suffer heightened rates of depression and anxiety about their place in society that have pushed them increasingly to the right on issues like gender inequality. "Men in the U.S.," the report reads, "are in trouble." And the data, they say, show America's young women moving in the opposite direction.

A Culture of Isolation

According to the survey, approximately two-thirds of men aged 18-23 feel "no one really knows me" compared to a little more than half of those aged 38-45, a sign researchers say reveals the overall fragility of young males' connections and relationships.