Mary Jane Copps is raking in thousands of dollars for teaching Generation Z-ers — who have spent most of their lives only using texts — to have actual conversations via telephone.
Business Insider published a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/woman-charges-480-hour-gen-z-workers-overcome-phone-fear-2022-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> Monday on Copps — who has dubbed herself &#8220;The Phone Lady&#8221; — revealing that she charges up to $480 per hour for private lessons in phone etiquette for those who either don&#8217;t understand how to use a phone in the workplace or who have a phobia around doing so.
VeryWellMind <a href="https://www.verywellmind.com/afraid-making-phone-calls-tips-3024317" target="_blank" rel="noopener">defines</a> Phone Anxiety as &#8220;the fear of making or answering phone calls (also known as telephobia)&#8221; and notes that it &#8220;is a common fear among those with social anxiety disorder (SAD).&#8221; Emotional symptoms of Phone Anxiety include: &#8220;Avoiding making calls or having others call you, delaying making or answering phone calls, obsessing about what was said after calls, stressing about embarrassing yourself, worrying about bothering the other person, and worrying about what you will say.&#8221;
Copps told Insider that she had seen the rise of what she referred to as &#8220;phone phobia&#8221; — which coincided with the rise of smartphone usage and text/chat features coupled with the gradual death of the traditional home telephone. A recent Fox News <a href="https://www.fox9.com/video/1159341" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> explored the rise of phone phobia, especially among younger generations.
&#8220;Gen Z have never had the skills given to them. In my generation, the phone was on the wall in everyone&#8217;s house, and we were taught to answer it and make calls at a young age,&#8221; Copps told Insider. &#8220;Now we have several generations that were never taught anything about talking on the phone, and people have removed phones from their homes.&#8221;
But phones are still part of the job in many workplaces — whether they be retail stores, restaurants, or offices — and prospective employees who don&#8217;t have previous experience carrying on a telephone conversation may find themselves feeling anxious when the situation arises at work.
Copps said that her consultancy was designed to ease that anxiety and give clients the skills and confidence to answer phones effectively and with less stress. Toward that end, she charges up to $480 an hour for individual coaching and $365 for 30-minute webinars. Her program also includes corporate workshops, for which she charges $3,500 daily.

Businesswoman tangled up in telephone cord

Woman Rakes In The Dough Teaching Scared Gen-Z-ers How To Actually Talk On Phones

Anxiety

cell phones

General

Generation Z

Millennials

U.S.

Daily Wire host <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/matt-walsh" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Matt Walsh</a> mocked <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/twitter" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a> employees who spend their days enjoying the firm’s fancy office amenities rather than actually working.
As billionaire entrepreneur <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> took control of Twitter this week, a report indicated that he planned to whittle the social media company’s workforce from 7,500 to 2,000. Walsh remarked during an episode of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/the-matt-walsh-show" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Matt Walsh Show</a>” that the move is well-advised given Twitter employees’ bent toward the censorship of free speech and, apparently, laziness.
The acclaimed culture warrior and mastermind behind “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/videos/what-is-a-woman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">What is a Woman?</a>” watched a Twitter employee’s “day in the life” <a href="https://twitter.com/libsoftiktok/status/1585395267552960512" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a>, which involved yoga studios, specialty coffees, foosball, rooftop lounges, and a glass of red wine on tap to finish the day. To her credit, she managed to squeeze a 15-minute meeting in between all of her relaxation.
“No work was done at all,” Walsh commented. “I think there’s a lot of fat we can trim here. I really think there is. He wants to fire 75% of employees; I think you can probably fire 90% and you’ll be fine. … If you have time for yoga and foosball and meditation during the workday, you aren’t needed.”
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Walsh then offered a further piece of advice for Musk as he revamps the leftist social media giant: “If I was an employer, I might put all of that stuff in the office just so that I can fire whoever uses it. It gives people an opportunity to tell on themselves.”
Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-elon-musk-proposes-twitter-buyout-at-54-20-per-share-trading-halted-as-stock-price-soars" target="_blank" rel="noopener">revived</a> efforts to purchase Twitter earlier this month after fighting the company in court over his <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-purge-is-coming-twitter-explodes-after-elon-musk-tanks-44-billion-deal" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attempt to cancel</a> a previous offer, a move he said was driven by concerns that executives were underestimating the number of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-the-latest-in-the-elon-musk-twitter-legal-feud" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fake accounts</a> on the platform. The world’s richest man <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-elon-musk-officially-takes-over-twitter-as-sale-is-now-final-top-execs-fired-report-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">immediately fired</a> CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and censorship czar Vijaya Gadde, who had a role in removing former President Donald Trump from the platform and suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story days before the election of 2020. Walsh, however, had a sage piece of advice for any remaining workers who desire to keep their heads.
“If you want to have job security … you have to make yourself irreplaceable,” Walsh explained. “Your value to your employer increases with the degree of your irreplaceability. If they can find just anyone off the street to do your job, then you have almost no value as an employee.”
Twitter employees are not the only Silicon Valley residents addicted to deluxe workplace amenities. One product manager at Meta filmed her own “day in the life” <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/video-of-23-year-old-meta-employee-enjoying-perks-goes-viral-as-investor-tells-zuckerberg-to-cut-headcount" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> complete with a workout, a large plate of freshly cooked breakfast food, and a custom coffee made with a high-end machine, yet included no mention of staff meetings, reports, work calendars, laptops, or anything else related to bringing a consumer product through its various stages of development. She had scribbled the words “work, workout, vibe” in her to-do list.
As with Twitter, the adults in the room are encouraging Meta leadership to send a few employees packing. Altimeter Capital Management <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/investor-tells-zuckerberg-to-cut-headcount-cool-down-metaverse-push-since-no-one-knows-what-it-even-means" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pressed</a> CEO Mark Zuckerberg to reform the company’s hiring practices and focus on core competencies amid the challenging macroeconomic environment, noting that Meta has more than tripled its workforce from 25,000 people to 85,000 people over the past four years.

Matt Walsh

I’d ‘Fire Whoever Uses’ Them: Matt Walsh Responds To Posh Amenities At Twitter Offices

Matt Walsh Reacts To Twitter Employee Whose 'Day In The Life' Includes Yoga And Foosball At Work

Elon Musk

Twitter

A video of a young <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/meta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Meta</a> employee enjoying company perks and not appearing to do much work has gone viral and drawn online mockery just as company founder <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/mark-zuckerberg?_gl=1*6z1goy*_ga*OTAwNTI1NTYwLjE2MTM5NzIxMzI.*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTY2NjcxOTc5Ny4xMzg3LjEuMTY2NjcxOTgxOC4zOS4wLjA." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mark Zuckerberg</a> faces pressure from investors to cut headcount.
In the &#8220;day in the life&#8221; video, Riley Rojas described herself as a product manager at Meta, which <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facebook-changes-company-name-to-meta-will-focus-on-bringing-the-metaverse-to-life" target="_blank" rel="noopener">changed its name</a> from Facebook last year. The video, which has since garnered more than 1.5 million views on Twitter after its original posting on TikTok, is long on Meta&#8217;s benefits and short on staff meetings, reports, work calendars, laptops, or anything else related to shepherding a consumer product through its various stages of development.
According to her video, Rojas works out before fixing herself a large plate of freshly cooked breakfast food at the Meta office and making herself a coffee with a high-end machine. She says she “did some work on the roof,” a modern lounge with sofas and a fireplace, before grabbing lunch and returning home on a shuttle, after which she spent the evening with friends and her boyfriend.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%24META&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">$META</a> bagholders in shambles. <a href="https://t.co/0ZZ9KsxGTd">pic.twitter.com/0ZZ9KsxGTd</a>
— TTI (@TikTokInvestors) <a href="https://twitter.com/TikTokInvestors/status/1584593828769845248?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 24, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Social media users also noticed Rojas’ journal, which she filled out before her morning exercise routine. Rojas had written “affirmations” such as “I am beautiful, I am smart, I am amazing, I am capable, I love my life.” Under her “to do” list, she had written “work, workout, vibe.”
Rojas’ profile on LinkedIn is impressive: She attended the London School of Economics and the University of California Los Angeles. She has been working at Meta for nearly two years and is presently a product manager for advertising monetization.
The video happened to gain traction online as Altimeter Capital Management <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/investor-tells-zuckerberg-to-cut-headcount-cool-down-metaverse-push-since-no-one-knows-what-it-even-means" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pressed</a> Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to reform the company’s hiring practices and focus on core competencies amid the challenging macroeconomic environment. A letter written by Altimeter CEO Brad Gerstner said that the social media company has drifted into a “land of excess” and “lack of focus and fitness.”
Among other actions, Gerstner suggested a three-step plan centered upon investing no more than $5 billion into technologies related to the metaverse, an immersive virtual reality that the company forecasts will serve as the next phase of digital communication and reducing at least one-fifth of headcount expenses. The letter noted that Meta has more than tripled its workforce from 25,000 people to 85,000 people over the past four years.
“It is a poorly kept secret in Silicon Valley that companies ranging from Google to Meta to Twitter to Uber could achieve similar levels of revenue with far fewer people,” Gerstner contended. “I would take it a step further and argue that these incredible companies would run even better and more efficiently without the layers and lethargy that comes with this extreme rate of employee expansion.”
Share prices for Meta have plummeted 59.9% since the beginning of the year, significantly trailing the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the technology-heavy NASDAQ, which have fallen 13.4% and 29.7%, respectively.
Technology companies were among the first to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/recession-fears-lead-big-tech-companies-to-pause-hiring-cut-jobs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lay off large numbers</a> of employees when the stock market began its most recent decline. Elon Musk, slated to purchase Twitter, reportedly plans to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-elon-musk-to-gut-twitter-report-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cut headcount</a> at the social media company from 7,500 to 2,000.
Reducing a large share of employee-related expenditures would bring Meta to human capital investment levels seen toward the middle of last year. “I don’t think anybody would argue that Meta wasn’t sufficiently staffed in 2021 to tackle a business that looks similar to how it looks today,” Gerstner continued.

Modern open plan office space interior

Video Of 23-Year-Old Meta Employee Enjoying Perks Goes Viral As Investor Tells Zuckerberg To Cut Headcount

Meta Employee Details A Typical Workday At The Company. It Entails Very Little Work.

Economy

Facebook

Mark Zuckerberg

Karoline Leavitt

MAGA Republican Wins NH Primary, Could Become Youngest Woman Ever Elected To Congress

MAGA Republican Karoline Leavitt Wins NH Primary, Could Become Youngest Woman Elected To Congress 

America First

MAGA

New Hampshire

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/generation-z" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Generation Z</a> is four times more likely than past generations to require financial assistance from family members when buying their first <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">home</a>.
According to data from luxury real estate firm <a href="https://www.rubyhome.com/">RubyHome</a> obtained by The Daily Wire, 79% of members of Generation Z received financial help from their parents when buying their first property — a substantial increase from the 19% of Baby Boomers and Silent Generation members who reported the same.
“When combined, data show that adults under 45 are more than three times as likely as people 45 and older to say their parents gave them a property outright or paid the entire deposit,” the RubyHome analysis summarized.
Prices for single family homes have soared over the past two years. In the second quarter of 2022, the median sale price of a home in the United States was $440,300, according to <a href="https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/MSPUS">data</a> from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, marking a 36% rise from $322,600 in the second quarter of 2020.
Younger Americans have been particularly impacted by the dismal real estate market. An <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/half-of-millennials-cant-afford-to-rent-a-one-bedroom-apartment-in-californias-biggest-cities">analysis</a> from Filterbuy indicated that at least half of Millennials — defined by the company as those between 24 and 39 years old — are unable to afford a one-bedroom apartment in many major American cities. For the metropolitan area surrounding Los Angeles, California, median wages are $36,649 while the annual wage needed to rent a one-bedroom apartment is $72,560.
“The combination of rising rents and stagnant wages has been a challenge for Americans of all stripes, but certain groups have been more disadvantaged by this state of affairs than others,” Filterbuy explained. “Even well-off households are feeling pressure, as rising real estate costs price would-be buyers out and keep them competing for space in the rental market — and as they spend more on rent, they have a harder time saving for homeownership.”
Another recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/young-americans-dont-see-a-point-in-saving-for-retirement-in-a-post-covid-world">study</a> from financial services company Fidelity shows that the economic turmoil of the last two years has disrupted many Americans’ savings behavior. Roughly 55% of “Next Gen” — which the study defines as Americans between the ages of 18 and 35 — said that they placed their retirement plans on hold as COVID rapidly spread through the United States, while 45% do not “see a point in saving until things return to normal.” Roughly 39% of young adults therefore “plan to retire later.”
The dire financial straits impacting many members of Generation Z reflect a broader <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-decline-of-the-american-family-shown-in-4-statistics">social decline</a> in the United States. Last year, the population of the United States <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/in-2021-americas-population-grew-at-slowest-rate-since-founding-of-the-nation">grew</a> at its slowest pace since the nation’s founding, according to <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/12/us-population-grew-in-2021-slowest-rate-since-founding-of-the-nation.html">data</a> from the Census Bureau. Among other reasons for the decline, the agency cited “decreasing fertility” and “increasing mortality due to an aging population,” as well as the onset of COVID. Meanwhile, only 17.8% of America’s 130 million households <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/only-18-of-american-households-are-families-with-married-parents">feature</a> married parents with children — a decline from over 40% in 1970.
Over the past several months, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly criticized the notion that the world is at <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/overpopulation-fears-give-way-to-another-bogeyman-a-fertility-slump">risk of overpopulation</a>.
“I think one of the biggest risks to civilization is the low birthrate and the rapidly declining birthrate,” Musk <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-warns-civilization-will-crumble-without-people-having-more-kids">explained</a> at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit last year. “And yet, so many people, including smart people, think that there are too many people in the world and think that the population is growing out of control. It’s completely the opposite. Please look at the numbers — if people don’t have more children, civilization is going to crumble, mark my words.”

Aerial photography of suburbs, NY

Four Times As Many Generation Z Members Got Parents’ Help Purchasing First Home Than Past Generations

Generation Z Struggles To Buy New Homes Without Aid From Parents

Housing

Money

Poverty

Mobs of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/generation-z">high school boys</a> are dressing to the nines and flooding <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/movies">movie</a> theaters to watch the latest flick in the “Despicable Me” franchise, leading some theaters to turn away the dapper young gentlemen.
“Minions: The Rise of Gru” — which centers upon the antics of an 11-year-old version of hero Felonious Gru and his playful “minion” allies — earned $125 million in its opening weekend, setting an all-time record for a weekend falling on or around the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/4th-of-july">Fourth of July</a> holiday, according to <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/minions-fourth-of-july-box-office/">The Wrap</a>. Young people participating in the “gentleminion” trend appear to have aided the new film.
“High schoolers have been showing up to movie theaters in large groups, donning suits and even smoking cigars as part of an ironic online love for the movie,” <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/gentleminions-tiktok-trend-despicable-me-movie-suits-cinema-1721380">Newsweek</a> summarized. “Many even go one step further, moshing and cheering loudly inside the movie theater.”
Footage of the trend has garnered millions of views on social media.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Why Minions is crushing the box office. <a href="https://t.co/IsFSW7Tkrf">pic.twitter.com/IsFSW7Tkrf</a>
&mdash; Rob Keyes (@rob_keyes) <a href="https://twitter.com/rob_keyes/status/1543457909899763713?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2022</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I love being gen z. We have so much power😭💀💀🤌🏼 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/tiktok?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#tiktok</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/MinionsTheRiseOfGru?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#MinionsTheRiseOfGru</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Minions?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Minions</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gentleminions?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gentleminions</a> <a href="https://t.co/2OUarPhubj">pic.twitter.com/2OUarPhubj</a>
&mdash; Mr. Worldwide (@FairiesUnite) <a href="https://twitter.com/FairiesUnite/status/1543380224288739331?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 2, 2022</a></blockquote>
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better start believing it. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gentleminions?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gentleminions</a> <a href="https://t.co/54Yo8652r3">pic.twitter.com/54Yo8652r3</a>
&mdash; leviticus (@dramatdc) <a href="https://twitter.com/dramatdc/status/1543731748869136384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Jim Orr, Universal Pictures president of domestic distribution, could not be more thrilled with the enthusiasm. “The movie is playing to a very broad audience, as well to families and the very young,” he told <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/minions-rise-of-gru-meme-gentleminions-1235175207/">The Hollywood Reporter</a>.
“The audience was more than eager to come out and see this movie,” Orr added. “It is so gratifying to see this sort of box office.”
The skeleton of the “Tickets to X” meme, however, is not new. As Mat Jones of <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/gentleminions-meme-minions-the-rise-of-gru-suits">IGN</a> explained, the format centers upon “juxtaposing popular characters with their intent to see a movie which doesn’t necessarily reflect the tone of their own world.” For example, depicting the cast of “Breaking Bad” gathering to view the latest “Barbie” film is “clearly inherently funny.”
Yet not everyone in the movie business is happy with the trend, as reports of theaters banning suit-clad young people from seeing “The Rise of Gru” are also circulating on social media. A spokesperson for British theater company Odeon confirmed to Newsweek that &#8220;due to a small number of incidents in our cinemas over the weekend we have had to restrict access in some circumstances.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Thoroughly entertained by this sign <a href="https://twitter.com/ODEONCinemas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ODEONCinemas</a> and then saw a bunch of kids in suits refused entry! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gentleminions?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#gentleminions</a> <a href="https://t.co/zo7seJ5COl">pic.twitter.com/zo7seJ5COl</a>
&mdash; 𝔾𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝔻𝕦𝕕𝕤 (@gillduds) <a href="https://twitter.com/gillduds/status/1543600645294415872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 3, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Stephen Healy — whose TikTok of his friends attending a showing of “The Rise of Gru” earned over 11 million views — condemned the backlash against the “gentleminions.”
&#8220;There wasn&#8217;t much reaction if I can recall because we walked into the cinema late because we were too busy filming, but I do remember some laughs and stares as we walked down the stairs,” he told Newsweek.
Members of Gen Z enjoy an incredible degree of unpredictable and unorthodox market power. Teenagers duped Sony — the company behind failed superhero flick “Morbius”— into releasing the movie for a second time after ironically praising it through a flurry of internet memes. A <a href="https://www.change.org/p/we-were-all-busy-that-weekend-please-bring-morbius-to-the-theatre-a-third-time">petition</a> entitled “We Were All Busy That Weekend — Please Bring Morbius to the Theatre a Third Time” then gained tens of thousands of signatures.
In 2020, TikTok pranksters may have played a role in <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-team-denies-tiktok-pranksters-were-cause-of-low-rally-attendance">sabotaging</a> a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for former President Donald Trump. Campaign manager Brad Parscale blamed the low attendance on “fake news media warning people away from the rally because of COVID and protestors, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire.”
Internet culture has also had tangible impacts on the stock market. In 2021, Wall Street was left reeling after amateur investors <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-4-business-moguls-cheering-for-the-little-guys-in-the-gamestop-fiasco">poured money</a> into GameStop and other companies heavily <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xszj1flDxl0">bet against</a> by financiers. Hedge fund Melvin Capital alone <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bloodbath-hedge-fund-short-sale-losses-top-1-billion-following-gamestop-stock-surge">lost</a> 53% on its investments in a single month.

Universal Studios Hollywood Celebrates The Premiere Of New 3D Ultra HD digital Animation Adventure “Despicable Me Minion Mayhem”

‘Gentleminions’: Movie Theaters Frazzled As Mobs Of High School Boys Don Suits To Watch ‘Despicable Me’ Sequel

Here's Why High Schoolers Are Donning Suits And Watching The Latest 'Despicable Me' Movie

Hollywood

Movies

Young Americans are overwhelmingly in support of more parental control over education, a comprehensive survey released Tuesday reveals.
In a national poll of 18 to 29-year-olds from the <a href="https://iop.harvard.edu/youth-poll/spring-2022-harvard-youth-poll">Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School</a>, 46% of respondents agree with the statement that “parents should have more control over their children’s education than they do now,” while only 23% disagreed.
Republicans were far more in support of the assertion, with 64% agreeing and 14% disagreeing. Meanwhile, 35% of Democrats agreed while 31% disagreed. Independent and unaffiliated young voters also showed a high degree of support for parental rights in education, with 44% agreeing and 20% disagreeing.
The poll therefore shows broad support for the parental rights movement across party lines for young Americans, which has gained steam following the revelation of leftist agendas in many curricula and government schools closing their doors over COVID-19.
As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/as-private-and-charter-schools-grew-1-4-million-children-left-traditional-public-schools-during-covid">reported</a>, homeschooling rates across the United States grew between 5.4% and 11% from March 2020 to September 2020 alone. By the summer of 2021, 5 million American children were <a href="https://www.axios.com/homeschooling-pandemic-critical-mass-013e4f01-c962-4e38-8cb7-8079bb597540.html">receiving</a> their education at home.
However, many progressives still insist that rising support for parental rights is only attributable to conservative activism. “Instead of everybody joining together in America to get us out of the effects of the pandemic,” American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/teachers-union-president-slams-changes-in-education-laws">claimed</a>, “these right-wing ideologues are just trying to create fear and anxiety and anger exploiting the fear that parents already have in order to win elections and end public education as we know it.”
The Harvard Kennedy School poll also shows that 85% of young Americans support government measures to address student debt. While 38% approve of full debt cancellation, 27% agree with the government assisting with repayment options that do not involve debt cancellation; 21% prefer debt cancellation for those with the most need, and 13% believe that the government should not alter its current policy.
Although support for full cancellation increased by 5% since 2020, preference for the government helping with repayment fell by 8%.
Prominent Democrats — including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) — pin President Joe Biden’s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/aoc-offers-thoughts-on-why-bidens-poll-numbers-are-dropping">dropping</a> poll numbers on his neglect of issues relevant to young Americans, including student debt cancellation. 
“It’s actually young people who have not really been served,” Ocasio-Cortez recently told Fox Business. “And their priorities were in BBB, which Sen. Manchin has essentially stalled. And yet, you know, student loan debt and significant forgiveness of student loans, what the president can do to serve them.”
Indeed, the Harvard Kennedy School poll shows that support for President Biden among young people has fallen 18% in the past year. While 36% of respondents referred to Biden’s “ineffectiveness,” 14% pointed to “not following through on campaign promises” and 10% referenced “not sharing my values.”

School Bus Stop In Muhlenberg Pennsylvania

Young Americans Want More Parental Control Over Education By 2-To-1 Margin, New Survey Finds

Education

Parenting

Student Loans

There was a time when Facebook was for old people, Instagram and TikTok were for young people, and Twitter was for, well, boring people.
But more and more young people are deciding that all of social media is a huge time suck, pointless &#8212; perhaps even detrimental &#8212; and bailing altogether.
&#8220;Zoomers are known for being glued to their phones, but some twenty-somethings are taking a stand against all-consuming apps such as TikTok and Instagram,&#8221; the New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/18/the-ultimate-waste-gen-z-says-no-to-tiktok-social-media/">reported</a>. &#8220;Calling them &#8216;toxic&#8217; and &#8216;obsessive,&#8217; these young people say they’re regaining control of their time by stepping away from the scroll.&#8221;
The Post piece cites a recent survey of 10,000 teens commissioned by investment bank <a href="https://piper2.bluematrix.com/docs/pdf/3bad99c6-e44a-4424-8fb1-0e3adfcbd1d4.pdf?utm_source=morning_brew&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=mb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Piper Sandler</a> that found &#8220;only 22% of respondents between the ages of 7 and 22 named Meta’s popular photo-sharing platform as their favorite app, down from 31% in spring 2020.&#8221;
&#8220;When you delete it you realize you don’t need it,” Gabriella Steinerman, 20, told the Post. &#8220;The economics major dumped both Instagram and TikTok back in 2019, and said the relief she felt after unplugging was almost immediate.&#8221;
In an even more extensive <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-29296-3#MOESM1">study</a> of more than 84,000 young people released last month, researchers found that use of social media is linked to poor mental health for adolescents and teenagers, especially around puberty.
The study found young people who spend a lot of time on social media can have poor body image and low self-esteem.
&#8220;Narrowing in on adolescents, the team found that for people in the 16- to 21-year-old age range, both very low and very high social media use were both linked with lower life satisfaction,&#8221; The Verge <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/3/29/23000460/social-media-mental-health-window-puberty">reported</a>, citing the study. &#8220;In 10- to 15-year-olds, there wasn’t much difference in life satisfaction between kids reporting low and high social media use. But in that group, girls with high social media use had lower life satisfaction than boys.&#8221;
In another study, this one in March 2020, researchers found that 32% of young, female Instagram subscribers were harmed by the platform, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739?mod=hp_lead_pos7" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a> to the Wall Street Journal. &#8220;They found it exacerbates negative body image, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and, in extreme cases, suicidal thoughts,&#8221; the Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/09/16/instagram-wreaking-havoc-young-girls-and-it-knows-it/">reported</a> at the time.
And a December survey from Tallo <a href="https://tallo.com/blog/how-gen-z-feels-about-integrating-social-media-and-education/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a> that 56% of members of Generation Z said “social media has led them to feel left out by their peers.”
According to the Tallo poll, 75% of young women using social media platforms were prompted “to compare themselves to peers.”
&#8220;82% of Gen Zers said that social media had proven to be a distraction to them while doing schoolwork,&#8221; Tallo wrote. &#8220;It was also revealed that 3 in 4 female respondents said that social media has caused them to compare themselves to peers, while only 56% of males said the same and more than half of all respondents (56%) indicated that social media has led them to feel left out by their peers.&#8221;
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to josephcurl@dailywire.com and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.

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‘Toxic And Obsessive’: Young People Bailing On Social Media

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Millennials and members of Generation Z are relying heavily upon cryptocurrencies for their retirement savings, according to a poll released earlier this month.
The 2022 <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/financial-literacy-survey-5223919">Investopedia Financial Literacy Survey</a> asked over 4,000 American adults in the Gen Z, Millennial, Generation X, and Baby Boomer generations about their saving, investing, and taxpaying habits. Among other findings, the investment dictionary revealed that 28% of Millennials — those between the ages of 26 and 41 — expect to use cryptocurrencies to support themselves in their latter years. Nearly 20% of Gen Z — those between 18 and 25 years old — said the same.
Gen Z, Millennials, and Gen X also foresee their cryptocurrency assets yielding stronger returns than their holdings in stocks, real estate, or mutual funds.
“For younger investors, cryptocurrency is clearly not just a fun asset to trade in order to make fast money,” Investopedia editor-in-chief Caleb Silver explained. “They are depending on generating returns from cryptocurrency to build wealth and fund their retirement, which is concerning given the lack of education around investing in crypto, and the fact it is still not regulated by the industry.”
Indeed, just over one quarter of American adults reported that they have “advanced” knowledge of cryptocurrency — a form of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/what-exactly-is-bitcoin-heres-how-the-worlds-largest-cryptocurrency-actually-works">decentralized</a> digital money that can be transferred between users’ virtual wallets — while 49% have “beginner” knowledge.
Meanwhile, only 49% of Americans have “advanced” knowledge of paying taxes. 47% have “advanced” knowledge of saving, 45% of borrowing and managing debt, and 36% of investing.
Young Americans also expect to stop working at younger ages than their parents and grandparents. The median age at which Gen Z expects to stop working is 57; for Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers, expected ages are 61, 64, and 68, respectively.
“Our relationship to money, investing and financial planning has radically changed in the past few years, as new asset classes like crypto and NFTs have emerged just as millions of people are taking their first steps into investing,” Silver added. “What hasn’t changed is the need for relevant financial education — but in a modernized curriculum that addresses these new financial products and services, designed to serve the people who are dependent on them to build their wealth.”
Data from credit bureau Experian released in 2019 <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/select/average-american-debt-by-age/">show</a> that the average American household finds itself in $90,460 in debt — from mortgages and student debt to credit cards and personal loans. Members of Gen Z owe an average of $9,593; Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers respectively owe $78,396, $135,841, and $96,984.
Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis <a href="https://www.minneapolisfed.org/economic-research/conferences/~/media/files/research/events/2014_05-22/Brown_Financial_Education.pdf">indicates</a> that “financial literacy reduces exposure to housing and consumption debt” and “reduces the prevalence of bankruptcy,” while leading to “a lower likelihood of having any outstanding debt.”

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Gen Z, Millennials Are Relying On Crypto For Their Retirements

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The bad news continues for President Joe Biden, as new data shows Biden&#8217;s approval rating among young people has collapsed by double digits in his first 14 months as president.
According to a report from <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/391733/biden-job-approval-down-among-younger-generations.aspx">Gallup</a>, over the course of Biden&#8217;s presidency so far, his approval rating declined by 19 points among millennials, from 60% approval to 41%, and 21 points among Generation Z, from 60% to 39%. Older generations, meanwhile, had changed their opinions significantly less. &#8220;As a result, older Americans are now more likely to approve of the president than younger Americans are,&#8221; Gallup reported.
The report analyzed aggregate data from Gallup&#8217;s polling over three distinct periods: January-June 2021, the first six months of his presidency, what the report called the &#8220;honeymoon phase&#8221;; July and August 2021; and September 2021-March 2022. Gallup interviewed some 6,000 U.S. adults in each of the two six-month periods, and another 2,000 adults in July and August 2021.
&#8220;During Biden&#8217;s honeymoon period, 60% of both Generation Z adults and millennials approved of the job he was doing, putting these groups above the national average approval rating. By the summer, as coronavirus cases unexpectedly rose, Biden had lost significant support among Generation Z, millennials and Generation X, ranging from seven- to 10-percentage-point drops,&#8221; Gallup reported. &#8220;All generational groups have become less approving of Biden since the summer, after the troubled U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in late August 2021.&#8221;
Older generations were less inclined to change their opinion of Biden. Baby boomers&#8217; opinions of Biden changed little: their approval of Biden stood at 53% during the &#8220;honeymoon phase,&#8221; dropped to 52% during the summer of 2021, and dropped again to 46% in fall 2021 and early 2022. &#8220;Traditionalists,&#8221; the generation before baby boomers, did not change their opinion of Biden much at all. Their opinion stood at 48% after Biden took office, dipped to 47% in the summer, then rose back to 48%.
Previous polls have also shown that Biden&#8217;s approval is experiencing a collapse among key demographics. The Daily Wire reported in February that Biden&#8217;s approval rating fell 10 points among <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-sees-double-digit-drop-in-approval-among-black-voters-even-worse-among-young-black-voters-survey">African American voters</a> over the course of the year 2021, from 86% to 76%, and fell by a massive 25 points among young black voters especially, from 88% to 63%, according to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-sees-double-digit-drop-in-approval-among-black-voters-even-worse-among-young-black-voters-survey">focus group</a> conducted by Democratic surveyor Navigator Research.
New York Democratic Congresswoman <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2022/03/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-i-was-right-about-joe-manchin.html">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> also warned that the Biden administration was experiencing a collapse of support from young people, who make up much of the base of the party. “We need to acknowledge that this isn’t just about middle of the road, an increasingly narrow band of independent voters. This is really about the collapse of support among young people, among the Democratic base, who are feeling that they worked overtime to get this president elected and aren’t necessarily being seen,” she told the New Yorker in an interview.
Biden has also hit the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-hits-lowest-approval-ratings-of-his-presidency-in-two-more-polls">lowest overall approval rating</a> of his presidency so far, according to recent polling. The Daily Wire reported:
<blockquote>The <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/13/bidens-approval-falls-to-new-low-amid-economic-pessimism-cnbc-survey-finds.html?&amp;qsearchterm=biden%20approval">CNBC All-America Economic Survey</a> of 800 Americans taken between April 7 and 10 found that most people did not think the American economy was doing well&#8230;
The survey also found that Biden’s approval had sunk to a new low of 38% overall, with 53% disapproval. Just 35% of voters approved of Biden’s handling of the economy, while 60% disapproved. Biden’s approval on the Ukraine crisis was slightly higher: 40% of respondents approved of his handling of the Russian invasion, while 49% disapproved.
The <a href="https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3843">Quinnipiac</a> poll of more than 1,400 adults, conducted between April 7 and 11, found similar results on Biden and Ukraine: 39% of respondents said they approved of Biden’s handling of the invasion. Overall, Biden’s general approval rating dropped to just 33%, matching his low point in Quinnipiac’s polling from January, with 54% disapproving, one point higher than in January. Biden also matched his lowest mark among registered voters, with just 35% approval, while 55% disapproved, also one point higher than January.</blockquote>

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Report: Biden’s Support Among Young People Collapsed By Double Digits In His First 14 Months In Office

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Among American teenagers, TikTok is now more popular than Instagram and Snapchat.
According to a report from <a href="https://www.forrester.com/blogs/weekly-usage-of-tiktok-surpasses-instagram-among-us-gen-z-youth/">Forrester Research</a>, the video sharing site has surpassed all other social media platforms apart from YouTube:
<blockquote>Instagram is becoming cheugy for Gen Z youth. Forrester just got data back from its Forrester Analytics Consumer Technographics® US Youth Survey, 2021, which shows a 13-point year-over-year increase in weekly usage of TikTok (from 50% to 63%) among US Gen Z youth (ages 12–17). For that same audience base, Instagram weekly usage declined 4 points year over year from 61% in 2020 to 57% in 2021, while Snapchat remained flat at 54%.
Although TikTok overtook Instagram in 2021, it’s still not the top “social media” app among Gen Z. According to Forrester’s 2021 Consumer Technographics US Youth Survey, 72% of US youth (ages 12–17) use YouTube at least weekly — representing a 3-point increase from 2020.</blockquote>
When Forrester sought to understand why teenagers prefer TikTok, the most popular answers included:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Entertainment value. Respondents frequently used the word “fun” and “funny” when relaying their kids’ preference for TikTok. As one respondent said: “It has funnier videos.”</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Short-form variety. TikTok is seen among US youth as an entertaining way to pass the time. The platform’s endless scroll of a random variety of short video clips keeps them engaged.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Positive self-expression. The “positivity of TikTok” was cited by several respondents emphasizing their ability to freely express themselves (i.e., dancing) — some of whom are motivated by the potential of fame.</li>
</ul>
Last year, President Trump considered banning TikTok — which is owned by Beijing-based technology firm ByteDance — amid national security concerns. However, President Biden <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-kills-trump-ban-on-tiktok-and-other-chinese-apps-accused-of-spying-instead-asks-for-further-investigation">reversed</a> his predecessor’s order in June.
Describing China as a “foreign adversary” that “continues to threaten the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,” Biden’s executive order instructs the federal government to “evaluate these threats through rigorous, evidence-based analysis and should address any unacceptable or undue risks consistent with overall national security, foreign policy, and economic objectives, including the preservation and demonstration of America’s core values and fundamental freedoms.”
More recently, some doctors have attributed a surge in physical tics among teenage girls to TikTok. According to medical journal articles, physicians observed that the girls had been looking at videos of influencers on TikTok who claimed to have Tourette syndrome. The Daily Wire’s Charlotte Pence Bond <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/teenage-girls-could-be-developing-tics-from-watching-tiktok-report">explained</a> that the phenomenon “seemed to coincide with the beginning of the pandemic, and pediatric movement-disorder facilities around the United States have also stated they’ve seen a flood of teenage girls with similar symptoms.”
“There are some kids who watch social media and develop tics and some who don’t have any access to social media and develop tics,” Dr. Joseph McGuire told The Wall Street Journal. “I think there are a lot of contributing factors, including anxiety, depression and stress.”
A TikTok spokeswoman reportedly commented: “The safety and well-being of our community is our priority, and we’re consulting with industry experts to better understand this specific experience.”

TikTok Surges Past Instagram And Snapchat As Top App For Gen Z

Social media application Snapchat is rolling out a new platform to help its users launch political campaigns.
According to Snap — the California-based company behind Snapchat — “<a href="https://newsroom.snap.com/run-for-office">Run for Office</a>” will help digital natives across the United States actively engage with democracy:
<blockquote>Powered with information from BallotReady, this simple tool will help Snapchatters explore hundreds of opportunities to run for local office based on the issues they care most about — from City Neighborhood Board and Township Council to School Board and State Representative.
We know this next generation is the most diverse, yet currently only 6% of state legislators are under the age of 35. We hope our Run for Office initiative will help shape a more equitable, and reflective, democracy that includes all Americans, including young people.</blockquote>
Run for Office will let users “identify a set of issues they are passionate about.” The app will then filter through a curated list of 75,000 upcoming federal, state, and local elections to “surface roles they may be interested in.”
Through Snapchat, which reaches 90% of Americans between the ages of thirteen and twenty-four, users can also “nominate friends to run for office” and connect with candidate recruitment organizations across the political spectrum — including the LGBTQ Victory Institute, Emerge, and Run GenZ.
During the 2020 election, Snapchat reportedly <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/22/register-to-vote-twitter-facebook-snapchat/">registered</a> 750,000 young people to vote, recruiting Snoop Dogg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and former President Obama to promote National Voter Registration Day.
Twenty-four-year-old Iowa State Rep. Joe Mitchell (R-IA) — a co-founder of Run GenZ — told <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043017903/snapchat-is-adding-a-feature-to-help-young-users-run-for-political-office?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter">NPR</a> that he wants to see young people &#8220;having a seat at the table, being equally represented&#8221; at all levels of government.
A’Shanti Gholar of Emerge — which works to elect Democratic women — likewise told the outlet: &#8220;One of the things that I love about the youngest generation of voters, especially when it comes to running for office, being politically engaged, making their voices heard, is that they&#8217;re not asking for permission, that they are just doing it.”
Polling <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/poll-critical-race-theory-more-favorable-among-gen-z-than-capitalism">reveals</a> that Gen Z — the young adults and teenagers born between 1997 and 2008 — generally lean toward the political Left. For example, a Morning Consult survey shows that only 19% hold a negative view of Critical Race Theory, while 31% hold a negative view about capitalism. Meanwhile, only 24% see socialism in a negative light.
The same survey reveals, however, that Gen Z is more opposed to “cancel culture” than any other generation. 55% of Gen Z disagrees with the movement — in contrast to 50% of Baby Boomers.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Iowa State Rep. Joe Mitchell is 21-years-old. He is 24.

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Snapchat Creates Tool To Help Gen Z’ers Run For Office

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