Gen Z men are having a rough time of it, and our newsfeeds reflect that.
Countless articles report that men are more likely to: kill themselves (and are in record numbers), be lonely, and encounter misinformation, scams and fraud.
And they are less likely to: be in education, employment or training, date, or be breadwinners in their household.
If you are a young man, the message is clear: you are not OK.
Men deserve to be listened to, but society shouldn’t be gratifying their anger (see the great global DEI tear up). Instead, we should be looking at how to connect with young men, seek them out where they are and talk to them in the way they want and about the things that they feel like they are underserved.
But what are the symbols and expressions of masculinity that are appealing and what do they say about what young men are looking for?
To find out, let’s look at four areas of the manosphere that have become synonymous with this generation — that attract consternation and are often labelled as a toxic influence — and examine what they can tell us about Gen Z male needs.
Podcasts — connection and expression
Podcasting is a key channel for amplifying conservative voices, with Trump embarking on a ‘bro podcast tour’ in the run-up to the elections. This is because people listen to them — Acast research shows that 76% of users act on ads they hear in podcasts due to the trust that listeners have in their hosts. Content aside, podcasts represent friendship, community, belonging and learning for men. The hosts laugh, express knowledge, share their points of view and vulnerabilities, and they act as a model for conversations between friends. These interactions, like real friendships, operate outside of a highly scrutinised environment, creating a freedom to express without judgement or censorship; to share and speak openly, to be themselves, vulnerabilities and all.
Cryptocurrencies — hope and aspiration
Men love cryptocurrencies. 67% of crypto owners are male and one study found that Gen Z men in the US are four times more likely to own crypto than have a pension. Crypto is freewheeling, constantly shifting between big wins and big losses, and it is dominated by charismatic characters, celebrities and numbers that contain an awful lot of zeros. The whole thing feels very much like a new American Dream, in which anyone with a bit of pluck and luck has the chance to succeed beyond their wildest dreams. It represents economic enfranchisement, a feeling of potential within a system in which it feels harder every day to be able to create a hopeful future within the traditional working world. Crypto represents the aspiration to control your fortunes, to make decisions that make a difference to your life.
Functional benefits — enabled and healthy
Products with active ingredients are big business for Gen Z men. Vypr reports that twice as many men than women drink energy drinks, and a macho, fratty corner of the internet has been dubbed the Zynternet, after the nicotine pouches (sales of which have increased 42% in the last quarter of 2024) beloved by pranky YouTubers Nelk Boys and Tucker Carlson, and the mixture of bravado and action that they preach. (Carlson has claimed that nicotine is great for focus and increasing testosterone).
Functionals here are a blend of performance and freedom, to be action orientated, to have a goal and the discipline to achieve it. Masculinity is increasingly being tied up with ideas of health and a feeling of being enabled, dynamic — having the physical and mental resources to make things happen.
Gaming — community and structure
Seventy seven per cent of Gen Z men report playing console games at least once a week, and the types of games that they play are telling. Newzoo found that the top three games for Gen Z were adventure games like Minecraft, Fortnite and Call of Duty — all games that are highly social; town squares in which people can assemble within a community. Among Gen Z men, 79% say YouTube is their preferred social media, highlighting a link between gaming and longer form social content (like podcasts). Gaming also offers an opportunity to develop skills and gain respect, and it provides the framework within which to organise around a purpose. Just glance at the gaming communities on Twitch or Discord and you’ll see levels of motivation and participation that are often thought to be missing IRL.
These four spaces are not exclusively male, but they are centres of gravity that appeal to Gen Z men. By looking past the rhetoric we can see the underserved needs they represent: to be open about feelings, to feel like there is a positive future ahead, to feel healthy and enabled, and to find a community that values your achievements, knowledge and skills.
The established approaches by which brands and advertisers have been trying to communicate with this group have clearly failed, if we are surprised by the commentary that has emerged post-Trump election.
Moving forward, this means brands need to adjust not only where they are talking to this group, but how they are talking to them, and what about. So rather than attempting to connect through reactionary appeals for a time before ‘woke’, or playing it safe with nostalgia, advertisers should forge communications that speak to the needs that we have been failing to meet.
Featured image: Vinal Gunasekera / Unsplash
