Gen Z Couple Questions Why People Over 35 Are So Scared To Share Their Location With Each Other
For many in Gen Z, sharing locations is considered a no-brainer.
MART PRODUCTION from Pexels | Canva Pro Compared to older generations, young people find that location-sharing isn't that big of a deal. In fact, a Gen Z couple recently questioned why anyone over the age of 35 is so bothered by it, especially if they are married.
Younger generations, who didn't really experience life before cell phones, see it as a way of making sure their significant other is safe at all times and not as the invasion of privacy and lack of trust that older people experience. In a TikTok video, a content creator couple named Maya and Hunter questioned why it's such a big deal for couples to share their locations. They insisted that knowing where the other is gives them peace of mind about the other's safety, but apparently, older generations are less accepting of this.
A Gen Z couple questioned why people over 35 are reluctant to share their location with each other.
"Why does everyone over the age of 35 think that sharing your location with your partner is a prison sentence?" the couple questioned in their video. "Every time we talk to someone older about how we have each other's location, they're like, 'Couldn't be me.'"
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The couple explained that anytime they talk to someone under 35 about location-sharing, they seem to get it a lot more than older adults do. They think of it as more of a convenience or safety thing. It's something that's not that deep for young couples.
Hunter admitted that he doesn't really even remember the last time he checked his wife's location, other than to find out where she had parked the car. The two pointed out that it's usually interesting social commentary to know that people over 35 don't feel the same way about sharing their locations with their partners.
"Everyone over a certain age, we think it's about 35, has this really big issue with a privacy violation and mistrust when you share your location," they continued. "But I feel like with my friends and partner and people I trust, I don't care if they see where I'm going at any time."
For those who didn't grow up with location tracking, the use of it feels like distrust.
The generational wars are still raging, without anyone willing to concede that most of what people get so angry over is simply different strokes for different folks. The location apps are no exception.
Have you ever asked a woman over 35 if you could get something out of her purse? Chances are, she paused before giving you permission or got whatever it was you were looking for herself. This is really no different than that. If you didn't grow up with cell phones and GPS tracking, you learned to trust people when they said I'm 15 minutes away. That's just the way it was.
Neither young people nor older people are wrong in their beliefs on this one. It's just really a matter of preference. A recent Reddit post discussed this very topic, and one commenter summed up the older generational concern, well, stating, "I think getting comfortable with 24/7 surveillance is a bad way to be as a society. I understand why people were into it for their children, but that means that those kids are becoming adults who are comfortable with it and not understanding the usefulness of privacy."
Gen Z is the most likely generation to use location sharing without reservations.
According to a survey from CivicScience, 41% of U.S. adult respondents reported they currently share their location with at least one person. Gen Z adults were found to be the most likely to use location sharing (65%), followed by millennials (45%) and Gen X (42%), and then a minuscule number of adults 55+ at 24 percent.
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In another report from Life360, a popular phone tracking app, Gen Z is 70% more likely than any other age group to share their location with friends. And 94% of Gen Z surveyed said their lives benefit from location sharing. In an interview with BuzzFeed, Dr. Cameron Caswell, an adolescent psychologist, admitted that her own teen daughter will share her location with friends.
"It’s a little about safety, but mostly 'because it’s just fun to see what each other is doing,'" she told the publication. "This isn’t new. In a world where nearly everything is shared, this doesn’t feel invasive to teens — it feels normal. It’s just another way they stay looped into each other’s lives."
For many young people, especially Gen Z, sharing locations is just another way to build and nurture the community we have around us. We tend to look at location-sharing as a way to stay connected, similar to the way that we treat social media and connecting there.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
