A Preply survey of 1,400 people in the U.S., UK, Canada and Australia found 58% of Gen Z respondents make small talk face-to-face daily, more than millennials (53%), Gen X (37%) or boomers (31%), complicating their “Gen Z stare” reputation.
Frequent small talk coexists with avoidance: 93% of Gen Z respondents said they use at least one tactic to dodge it, including 41% who look at their phones. At the same time, 73% of Gen Z respondents said they enjoy small talk, and 65% across generations said avoiding conversations had cost them friendships or opportunities.
The survey measures small-talk frequency, not how much people speak overall. A separate analysis of more than 2,100 people reported roughly 300 fewer spoken words per day with each passing year; the decline among people under 25 was about 44% larger than among older participants.
