By Daniel A. Cox

In Seeking to Stand Out, Gen Z Has Become the Loneliest Generation

Newsletter April 14, 2022

A student walks through an empty school hallway with orange walls.

If you shouted out your name in public, how many people do you think would respond? If you have a common name—Daniel for example—chances are you might get some people to turn around. But sharing your name with multiple classmates, friends, or co-workers is an experience that’s becoming much less common. Parents are increasingly prioritizing distinctiveness when picking out their kids’ names. Joe Pinsker explained in a recent Atlantic article:

“American naming is now in a phase where distinctiveness is a virtue, which is a departure from the mid-century model of success: Today, you excel not by fitting in, but by standing out.”

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Generation Uncoupled

Generation Uncoupled: America's New Gender Divide and the Crisis of Human Connection

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Survey Reports

Daniel A. Cox
July 23, 2026

A Digital Divide in American Adolescence: Gender, Class, and the New Teenage Experience

If teenage years once represented a time of rebellion, teenagers’ lives today are marked less by pushing boundaries and more by building their own. Many teenage experiences are less common than they once were—dating, working a part-time job, and experimenting with drugs and alcohol are less common experiences. The 2026 American Teenagers Survey from the

Daniel A. Cox, Jae Grace, Avery Shields
April 27, 2026

Strangers Next Door: The Decline of Neighborhood Socializing and the Class Divide in Belonging

Acknowledgment The American Enterprise Institute’s Survey Center on American Life is grateful to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation for its generous support of this research. As Americans spend more of their time online, the neighborhood—once a primary physical location for real-world socialization—is playing less of a central role than ever before. Since

In Seeking to Stand Out, Gen Z Has Become the Loneliest Generation

Generation Uncoupled

Survey Reports

A Digital Divide in American Adolescence: Gender, Class, and the New Teenage Experience

Strangers Next Door: The Decline of Neighborhood Socializing and the Class Divide in Belonging

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America’s Loneliness Trap

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