Whether it’s voting, dating or just making friends, Generation Z is polarized based on gender more than older generations. Gen Z collectively experienced a pandemic, school lockdown drills and increased political chaos, but these shared experiences haven’t entirely united us.

Gen Z has a notable social isolation problem and many Gen Zers are reluctant to date or make friends with people across the aisle. People ages 15-24 spend 70% less time socializing in-person with friends than the same age group did in 2003, according to a 2023 U.S. surgeon general’s advisory.

To address political polarization and Gen Zers’ reluctance to interact with opposing viewpoints, we need to get better at having difficult conversations and finding common ground.

Sofía Gandía, a third-year student at the University of Minnesota, said social isolation is easy for students to fall into, especially on a large campus.

Social isolation can also contribute to political polarization because isolated people don’t get as much exposure to different perspectives, Gandía said.

“It’s an echo chamber of what you believe in, what you think is right,” Gandía said. “Nothing’s ever going to get done in an isolated vacuum, and you also don’t grow or change in an isolated vacuum.”

Online spaces also make it easy to filter out information that contradicts your current viewpoints. While it’s important to look out for misinformation, it’s also important to seek out new perspectives.

“It’s crucial to also choose to go outside of your algorithms, you have to get news from other sources, you have to get perspectives from other sources,” Gandía said. “Media is targeting you on purpose for more engagement, and negativity garners more engagement.”

Howard Lavine, a political science professor at the University, said polarization has become more about the distinction between social groups rather than ideological issues.

“The groups that are associated with the Democratic Party and the groups that are associated with the Republican Party now seem to be more distinctive,” Lavine said.

College-educated, non-religious people living in urban areas, for example, line up with the Democratic Party, while non-college-educated evangelicals living in rural areas mostly identify with the Republican Party, Lavine said. These characteristics have become strongly associated with political party identification.

“Those social tensions have now crossed the boundary into becoming political tensions,” Lavine said. “Those social groups, which were not aligned with party, now have become aligned with party.”

Among these social groups are young men, many of which found a home with President Donald Trump and alt-right influencers. Isolation among Gen Z men also drives many of them to online conservative echo chambers.

Women are having increased career and educational success compared to men, which may contribute to men feeling left behind, Lavine said.

“They’re more likely to go to college, they’re more likely to graduate from college, they’re more likely to become doctors, more likely to become lawyers,” Lavine said. “Women are less likely to want to be with a man who does not have the same cultural preferences and the same financial prospects that they have.”

Right-wing influencers and politicians are enforcing the idea that men are being left behind and mistreated by women, Lavine said.

“There has become a resentful dynamic in the manosphere that women are rejecting them, and they’re angry about that,” Lavine said.

Moral of the story? Women are winning and it’s challenging the patriarchy.

But this makes meaningful political conversations even more important. If we don’t talk about these tensions and changing social norms, polarization will only increase.

Gandía said young men may be avoiding difficult political discussions out of fear of being perceived as ignorant when discussing topics they are unfamiliar with.

“Rather than discussing things badly, things aren’t getting discussed at all,” Gandía said. “I think there’s a huge fear in all of Gen Z, but especially men, of showing vulnerability, and ignorance is vulnerability, especially when things can go so wrong so quickly and permanently when it comes to things being recorded or on social media or just a reputation.”

Angie Hurtado Rivera, a third-year student at the University, said men who occupy conservative online echo chambers face barriers to relationships beyond romantic partners because of the hate and violence perpetrated in these spaces.

“They have these beliefs that are so steeped in violence and domination and power play that it makes it hard for them to even have a friendship relationship,” Hurtado Rivera said. “I do think the loneliness epidemic is being sustained by men themselves.”

The more isolated and polarized we are, the easier it is for politicians to pit us against each other with an us-versus-them narrative. We are more likely to see the other party as the enemy when we don’t interact with people across the aisle.

It becomes easier to forget we’re all real people with complex perspectives.

In the face of an administration that feeds off fear and polarization, one of the most powerful things we can do is find common ground.

This will take compromise and respect from all sides.

We won’t find common ground by listening to politicians who say some people should have rights while others should not. We won’t find common ground by labeling each other as the problem.

We’ll find common ground by talking and seeking understanding in a more equitable world.