Gen Z: heavy short‑video use

Gen Z’s social-media diet is tilting hard toward short video, and employers are starting to pull that style into hiring. (later.com) A 2025 roundup by Later, citing research from Opeepl and Attest, said YouTube was Gen Z’s most-used platform at 78%, followed by Instagram at 76%, TikTok at 69% and Snapchat at 43%. The same post said 81% of Gen Zers spend more than an hour a day on social media, and nearly 60% spend three hours or more. (later.com) In the United States, Pew Research Center’s latest teen survey found YouTube reached 90% of teens ages 13 to 17, while TikTok reached 63% and Instagram 61%. Pew also found 73% of teens use YouTube daily and 57% use TikTok daily. (pewresearch.org) Pew’s December 2024 report said nearly half of U.S. teens are online “almost constantly,” based on a survey fielded from September 18 to October 10, 2024. That helps explain why video-first apps now shape not just entertainment habits, but the way younger users expect to present themselves online. (pewresearch.org) The hiring side has been moving in that direction for years through one-way video interviews, where applicants record answers to preset questions instead of speaking live with a recruiter. HireVue, one of the biggest vendors in that market, says companies use the format to speed hiring, remove scheduling barriers and standardize early screening. (hirevue.com) HireVue says its platform lets candidates respond on their own time from any device, and it markets that flexibility as a candidate benefit. On its candidate pages, the company says 42% of HireVue interviews are completed outside normal business hours and reports 90% candidate satisfaction. (hirevue.com) The company also pitches video interviewing as a way to cut review time and hiring costs at scale. On its product pages, HireVue says structured interviewing can reduce screening time by 60%, speed hiring by 90% and lower cost per interview by 50%, though those figures come from vendor materials rather than an independent audit. (hirevue.com) Pew’s 2025 survey of U.S. adults shows the broader platform mix is also shifting upward for video-heavy apps: 84% of adults say they use YouTube, while 37% say they use TikTok. The same report says Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp and Reddit all grew among adults over the past few years. (pewresearch.org) That leaves job seekers in a labor market where talking to a camera is no longer just a creator skill. For younger applicants raised on YouTube and TikTok, the line between social posting and professional self-presentation is getting thinner. (pewresearch.org)