Spirituality: The New Religion of Gen Z
Spir·it·u·al·i·ty
the quality of being concerned with the human spirit or soul as opposed to material or physical things
An article from azcentral says “A study published in 2020 by Springtide Research Institute reported 61% of Generation Z is religiously affiliated while 39% is unaffiliated. Sixty percent of those in Generation Z who are religiously unaffiliated still describe themselves as "at least slightly spiritual," according to the study.”
Gen Z is spiritual, even if they aren’t religious. The meaning of spirituality has deeply evolved in recent times. As a 16-year-old, I believe that there is a new type of spirituality that is becoming very popular with teenagers. It is very important that people, especially teenagers, understand why spirituality is so popular and the benefits and consequences of it.
I see teens engage in this new type of spirituality in many different ways such as self-authenticity, mental health, manifestation, and astrology.
Self-authenticity is arguably the most obvious trend of a new type of spirituality in Gen Z. This is shown in strong beliefs in the fluidity of gender and sexuality, great desire for diversity, and general emphasis on honest self-expression.
An article from Vice says “If the religion of my parents tells me there is a certain ‘right’ way to be a woman, or to be a sexual person, and I reject that one ‘right’ way, then I might very well also reject the religion that promoted it, and seek alternative religious, spiritual, or secular ways of being and belonging.” This is something that so many teenagers feel, so it makes sense that traditional religion feels so wrong and controlling.
Another important aspect of spirituality for Gen Z is mental health. Mental health is becoming a huge topic for everybody, but this trend has really been led by Gen Z. Gen Z believes that mental stability and authenticity is the secret to a good life and is the absolute most important thing. Because of this, there is a huge amount of value and importance put on the mind and the emotions of the individual. We are taught that if you feel something, it is of the utmost importance and should become a priority because feelings can never be wrong.
I’ve recently been very intrigued by the trend in manifestation. TikTok has very much influenced the manifestation trend, and I often see videos on TikTok about manifestation and how to manifest. Teens believe in manifestation and that they can impact an outcome that is seemingly out of their control by connecting with the world in a spiritual way.
Another way that we can see a new form of spirituality is through popular things such as astrology. Whether it be on social media or in conversation with friends, astrology always seems to be a part of the conversation. Astrology isn’t proven science, but it’s still extremely appealing, and even comforting, to Gen Z. “Under conditions of high stress, the individual is prepared to use astrology as a coping device even though under low-stress conditions he does not believe in it” (Article from The Atlantic).
Teens turn to things like indentity, manifestation, and astrology in times of stress and uncertainty. This is actually very similar to how many people treat religion and god in general. It’s far easier to ignore religion when everything is good and easy, but as soon as life gets tough, we all feel an urge to go to something outside of ourselves to help. People often turned to religion, but today’s teenagers are turning towards spirituality.
The question is: Why is spirituality more appealing than religion to teens? Religion arguably has more truth and clear guidelines because of its structure, whereas spirituality is much more fluid and up for interpretation. The thing is, spirituality is the perfect religion for teenagers today because it is fluid and up for interpretation and because of this, it counteracts all the reasons that teens don’t like traditional religion.
Spirituality and all it entails is the new religion of Generation Z.
Teens are leaving traditional religions, and I wrote about it. I interviewed 15 of my Gen Z friends and asked them what they dislike about religion and why they think teens are leaving religion.
Here are two quotes from teens I interviewed for my blog post titled “Why Teens Are Leaving Religion” that I believe show why spirituality is so appealing for today's teens.
“Teens are leaving religion because of social media and the ability to communicate across everywhere super fast and hear lots of different perspectives.”
Spirituality combines all sorts of beliefs and ideas because of social media. Social media opens teens up to a world of ideas, so the idea of following one religion doesn’t always make sense. What makes more sense to teens is a religion that combines many different ideas and focuses on the individual, which is what spirituality does.
“The bad thing about religion is people aren’t open minded about other religions and believe there’s only one way. I don’t like when people take it to extremes and feel like they have to control or convert others.”
As I said earlier, self-authenticity is one of the most important values of Gen Z, and religion often encourages followers to give up themselves and follow a higher power or rules. Spirituality is a religion that doesn’t have any control or guidelines - it’s all up to how the individual feels.
The Benefits of Gen Z’s Religion: Spirituality
There are benefits to these types of spiritual beliefs that are incredibly popular today.
There is a greater focus on mental health and openness about the topic of mental health, which is super important for Gen Z especially, considering social media is shown to have negative affects on teens’ mental health.
With something like manifestation, there is certainly evidence that saying positive things to yourself will give you a more positive mindset, which often leads to positive outcomes. An article from King Mnich talks about the science behind manifestation and the law of attraction, which is the belief that positive or negative thoughts bring positive or negative experiences into a person's life.
The Dangers of Gen Z’s Religion: Spirituality
This new type of spirituality isn’t without flaws, and there are also benefits of traditional religion that spirituality doesn’t have.
There is no doubt that religion does a great job of creating community, I notice this in my own life and church as a Christian. Spirituality doesn’t have as much of a structured community, and teens may feel as though they don’t have a community centered around their beliefs.
Spirituality is extremely adamant on the fact that anything you believe is true is your truth. Spirituality believes that there are many different truths and it is all up to the individual. The problem is, a belief that says truth is only what the individual feels is opposed to objective truth. This can cause a ton of conflict because there are so many subjective truths.
Spirituality is often praised for celebrating diversity. But when it comes to spirituality, anything that opposes a core value is considered evil and is not accepted by spirituality. A very common example of this is when religion says that something like homosexuality is sinful. This guideline opposes the self-authenticity and individual truth value that is the foundation of spirituality. According to spirituality, this religious guideline is morally corrupt and evil. This is a common disagreement I see all the time between religious people and non-religious people that believe in spirituality as I have explained it.
Because of this, a belief system that presents itself as tolerant and open to individual truth and diversity is often incredibly intolerant of religions and general guidelines, which often have good reason and purpose even if they oppose individual truth.
Spirituality will continue to become more and more widespread and may end up dominating traditional religion. It is important that people, especially teenagers, understand why spirituality is so popular and some of the problems that it may cause.
Written by Peyton Price - Entertainment Values
