Diary of a Gen Z Student: How social media shaped my generation

I feel like my adolescence was sacrificed to my phone: friendships were confined to Snapchat. If something wasn’t posted to Instagram, it didn’t really count

Jane Cowan: "The reality is this is a generation that received most of their sex education online." Picture: Moya Nolan

I was recently informed that every time a video is played, it has to be rewound before it can be played again. I’m saying this to describe the extent to which I have no concept of a world without ubiquitous technology and social media.

I was in primary school when I got my first phone, and I was in primary school when I made my first Snapchat and Instagram accounts. For my generation, that’s nothing unusual. Gen Z grew up on social media.