Amid rampant AI and social media, Gen Z is turning to religion | Opinion

• Recent research indicates that the number of religious Americans has remained stable.
• A growing number of Gen Zers are identifying as religious or spiritual, slowing a previous rise in secularism.
• Many young people are seeking deeper meaning as an alternative to the pressures of social media.

According to research from the Pew Research Center, the number of Americans who identify as religious has remained stable in the United States for the past several years. Of those surveyed, 86% believe people have a soul or spirit in addition to their physical body, 83% believe in God or a universal spirit, 79% believe there is something spiritual beyond the natural world and 70% believe in heaven, hell or both.

One of the reasons that a previous increase in secularistic thinking is slowing is because Generation Z, born between  1997 and 2012, is becoming more religious, with two-thirds identifying as spiritual, religious and believing in a higher power.

A majority of Gen Zers also believe in the supernatural and that miracles have occurred in their lives.

Young people seeking deeper meaning in life

I believe the reason why this trend is occurring among our young is that the alternative is vacuous and sometimes vicious. A life lived with virtual reality, avatars and online personalities is not fulfilling.

Multiple studies show a correlation between excess social media use and rates of depression and anxiety, low self-esteem, obesity and even violence in our teens. 

It is reassuring to see more Gen Zers opting instead for the community-centric traditional values of church or synagogue. Don’t get me wrong, we still have a long way to go before faith or spirituality helps lead our youth away from the false gods of secularism, where bad actors play on our youth’s insecurity.

The brutal murder and subsequent martyrdom of Charlie Kirk have helped to fuel a surge of religiousness in Gen Z members, with 22% reported becoming spiritually active, 7% politically active, and 6% both more spiritually and more politically active, according to a survey conducted by the Barna Group. 

Religion still has a place in the modern world

I feel strongly this movement toward religion and spirituality on the part of our youth is a very good thing that needs to be cultivated and extended beyond politics or political affiliation. Further, there is no reason that you can’t be religious and use the advantages of technology.

It shouldn’t be automatic that religious youths forsake cell phones or the internet, but simply that this technology not become a false god of its own. 

It is ironic that it took the first millennial saint, also known as the patron saint of the internet, canonized by Pope Leo XIV in September, to teach the world that a website could be a tool of religion for the young.

Carlo Acutis, a gifted computer programmer, created a website cataloging Eucharistic miracles around the world before being diagnosed and dying suddenly of acute leukemia in October 2006 at the age of 15. He offered his suffering for others coping with illness.

His sainthood, as recognized by the Catholic Church, was tied to two miracle cures after his death – the first, in 2013, was a young Brazilian boy named Mattheus Vianna, who was blessed with a relic of Acutis and overnight his severe pancreatic abnormality disappeared (confirmed by medical tests), allowing him to once again keep food down and eat normally. 

The second miracle cure occurred in 2022 when Valeria Valverde, an Italian college student, went into a deep coma following a brain bleed and emergency surgery after a bicycle accident. Her mother prayed at Acutis’ tomb and her daughter made a rapid recovery. 

Whether it’s St. Acutis or Charlie Kirk or role modeling a person’s own family that drives a young person to express a spiritual side while at the same time living in a technological world the way Acutis or Kirk did, this way of coping is extremely important.

Social media was in its infancy in St. Acutis’ time, but Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA has a large social media presence.

The best role models are closest to home

However, the major path to return faith to a central place in a highly divided society remains family. Keep in mind that whereas most baby boomers attended church services with their families when they were children, for Gen Zers, it's less than half.

Religious education has also dwindled to less than half of Gen Zers. This needs to be adjusted to at least expose Gen Zers to a more formal religious education to match their growing curiosity and interest in religion. 

This exposure needs to take place when our children are still young, before they are too ready to permanently replace a dinner conversation, a family outing or a visit to a house of worship with a gleaming metal cell phone. 

Marc Siegel, MD, is a clinical professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Health. He is the author of a new bestseller, "The Miracles Among Us: How God’s Grace Plays a Role in Healing."