For Gen Z, location sharing on social media goes beyond live-posting what restaurant they’re at or a Facebook check-in. Instead, this gen has grown up accustomed to features like Snapchat’s Snap Map, where they can opt into showing their friends where they are at all times. They’ve also grown up with their parents tracking their location with Apple’s Find My or Life360 and have come to see these apps as another way to connect with friends, too. After all, YPulse’s Mobile/App Behavior data shows 75% of 13-39-year-olds agree, “I’m always connected to my friends because of my phone,” and it’s clearly not through texting alone. Call it their anxious attachment or their comfort with their data being shared, but more young people than you might think are constantly sharing their location online. In 2022, NYT reported that 69% of Gen Z and 77% of Millennials “said they activated location-sharing features at least sometimes,” and it had even become a “fixture” in some friendships. Since then, similar headlines (and even...
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