The Differences Between How Boomers, Millennials, And Gen Zers Post Instagram Stories
Story captions seem to be a surprisingly divisive topic.
ViDI Studio | Shutterstock Whether you're an active poster or a secret skulker, nearly everyone interacts with social media daily. When it comes to different platforms, Instagram seems to be the one app that has bridged the gap between generations, meaning all ages use it. How they use it, well, that's a different story.
Instagram has over 2 billion monthly users. While the majority, about 60%, are Gen Z and millennials, every generation is on the app, and as professional content creator Alexandria Haddad pointed out in a TikTok, each generation of users posts differently.
A seasoned content creator broke down the differences between how boomer, millennial, and Gen Z people post Instagram stories.
Haddad created mock Instagram stories with the same photo of her steak and wine dinner as if she were a member of each generation. She screen-recorded the process of making the posts and picking out different phrases, fonts, and emojis in an effort to highlight the differences.
Haddad, a millennial herself, began with her own generation.
"Millennials love to aesthetically edit their photos and are constantly tagging their partners, friends, restaurants, and locations," she told Newsweek. "They also caption their photos on [Instagram] Stories either with a description of what they are doing or just a witty caption."
For this specific post, Haddad captioned the image of her dinner as "date night," added a few emojis, and tagged both her husband and the restaurant's location.
Next, she attempted to recreate a Gen Z post. On the same photo, she wrote "wine" followed by a handshake emoji and then "steak," all in a small font.
Speaking to Newsweek, she said that the younger generation prefers more simple stories. "Gen Z do not add any text, GIFs, or tags on their story posts in most cases," she observed. "Their stories are either shared photo dumps, zoomed-in photos, or photos that fit the vibe."
Lastly, Haddad channeled boomers, severely rotating the image and captioning it "fabulous dinner" in a large font. Of course, she also had to add some stickers and hashtags — "#datenight" and "#30yearsmarried."
Of those born between 1946 and 1964, Haddad joked that they "take full advantage of editing capabilities."
People were divided over the accuracy of the generational social media stereotypes.
While most people online agreed that the boomer and millennial versions were on point, there was some debate over the Gen Z story.
"Gen Z doesn't post like that; they don't write on their stories," the most liked comment read. "Gen Z is more like a blurry photo of the food and no words," another user wrote.
Other Gen Zers noted that they rarely use captions and wouldn't use the font that Haddad picked out. It seems that one key ingredient Haddad missed to create a perfect story for this tech-savvy generation is a little zoom-in on the photo.
Haddad credited her mistake to the fact that she, herself, is a millennial after one commenter joked "You know you're a millennial when you get the Gen Z one wrong."
As for those in the comments lamenting that Gen X is always overlooked, Haddad said that those born between 1965 and 1980 "aren't chronically online" and often don't post publicly.
It's only natural that every generation is going to use social media differently. As long as you're having fun, post on your social media however you want!
Sahlah Syeda is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.