Why Gen Z Is Rethinking Death and Digital Legacy

Why Is Gen Z Talking About Death More Openly Than Any Previous Generation?

Gen Z is talking about death more openly because they are the first generation for whom mortality has been a constant, algorithmically delivered presence since childhood. School shootings, a global pandemic, climate catastrophe, and an endless scroll of tragedy have made death inescapable in ways that previous generations could compartmentalize. Rather than retreating into denial, much of Gen Z has responded by pulling death into the light — discussing it, joking about it, and planning for it at ages that would have baffled their grandparents.

A 2021 survey reported by VICE found that Gen Z respondents were four times more likely than Baby Boomers to plan ahead and make a bucket list, despite having decades more time on their side (VICE, 2021). A separate survey of 90 Gen Z Canadians conducted by TalkDeath found that over 80% of participants regularly consumed media with overt themes of death and dying, and more than 80% said they approached death with humor (TalkDeath, 2022). This is not morbidity — it is a coping strategy for a generation that has been staring at mortality since adolescence.

What makes this generational shift significant is not just attitudinal. It is behavioral. Gen Z is beginning to engage with estate planning, digital legacy tools, and end-of-life conversations at younger ages than Millennials, Gen X, or Boomers ever did. And unlike previous generations, they approach these topics digitally — through apps, TikTok, and online platforms rather than through attorneys and notarized documents. The implications for how we think about legacy, death preparation, and afterlife communication are profound.

What Shaped Gen Z's Relationship with Mortality?

Gen Z's relationship with mortality was shaped by an unprecedented convergence of constant digital exposure to death, a global pandemic during their formative years, climate existentialism, and a mental health crisis that forced earlier-than-normal confrontations with the fragility of life.

How Did Social Media Change the Way Young People Experience Death?

Social media changed the experience of death by collapsing the distance between tragedy and the individual. Previous generations encountered death through evening news broadcasts or word of mouth — curated, scheduled, and compartmentalized. Gen Z encounters it in real time, sandwiched between memes and makeup tutorials. A school shooting is live-tweeted. A friend's overdose is announced via Instagram Story. A war plays out in TikTok clips. Sociologists Barney Glaser and Anselm Strauss described the traditional Western approach to death as a "closed awareness context" — a cultural agreement to push death away through denial and silence. Gen Z has shattered that context. As the TalkDeath survey noted, "social media places tragedy at our fingertips, and that tragedy is almost impossible to escape" (TalkDeath, 2022).

This constant exposure has a documented psychological cost, but it has also produced something unexpected: fluency. Gen Z discusses death with a directness that older generations find either refreshing or unsettling. They are not afraid of the topic because they have never known a world without it in their feeds.

How Did COVID-19 Accelerate Death Awareness Among Young People?

COVID-19 accelerated death awareness by making mortality tangible and personal for millions of young people who had previously thought of death as abstract. Caring.com's 2021 Wills and Estate Planning Study found that the number of young adults (18–34) with a will increased by 63% since 2020, and for the first time in the survey's history, young adults were more likely to have a will than middle-aged adults aged 35–54 (Caring.com, 2021). Roughly 45% of young adults said COVID-19 specifically motivated them to consider estate planning. Researchers Jacobsen and Petersen compared the pandemic's psychological effect to World War I, arguing that the "bulwark that humanity steadily crafted against death was slowly dissolved" as mass death entered daily life (Jacobsen & Petersen, 2020).

The pandemic coincided with Gen Z's late adolescence and early adulthood — a developmental window when identity formation and existential questioning are already at their peak. The result was a generation that did not simply observe a health crisis but internalized it as a permanent data point about the unreliability of tomorrow.

Why Does Climate Anxiety Make Gen Z Think About Death Differently?

Climate anxiety makes Gen Z think about death differently because it reframes mortality from an individual event into an existential, collective threat. A landmark 2021 study published in The Lancet Planetary Health surveyed 10,000 young people across ten countries and found that 75% said "the future is frightening," 56% said "humanity is doomed," and more than 50% reported feeling sad, anxious, angry, powerless, and guilty about climate change (Hickman et al., The Lancet Planetary Health, 2021). When you believe the planet's future is at stake, your own mortality ceases to be the most frightening thing on the horizon — and that shift in perspective opens the door to planning, discussion, and acceptance.

For many Gen Z individuals, death is intertwined with social justice. The TalkDeath survey found that respondents connected mortality to privilege and power, particularly the ability to have a "good death" — one that is dignified, painless, and on one's own terms. Events such as the murder of George Floyd amplified this connection, framing death as not only inevitable but deeply unequal (TalkDeath, 2022).

How Is Gen Z Redefining What "Legacy" Means?

Gen Z is redefining legacy by expanding it beyond financial assets and physical possessions to include digital identity, online presence, and personal messages. For a generation that has documented its life on social media since childhood, what happens to those profiles, posts, and messages after death is not a peripheral concern — it is central to how they think about being remembered.

Why Do Young People View Social Media Profiles as Part of Their Legacy?

Young people view social media profiles as part of their legacy because, for many, these profiles are the most comprehensive record of who they are. Trust & Will's 2025 Estate Planning Report — the largest estate planning survey ever conducted — found that Gen Z is the only generation where a notable portion (11%) wants their social media accounts actively maintained after death, far higher than the 1% among the Silent Generation (Trust & Will, 2025). While 40% of Americans overall want their accounts deleted after death, Millennials are evenly split, with 32% wanting deletion and 32% preferring preservation. Gen Z's desire for active maintenance reflects a fundamentally different relationship with digital identity — one where the online self is not separate from the "real" self but an extension of it.

An estimated 30 million Facebook accounts already belong to deceased individuals, and that number grows daily (ExpressVPN, 2024). Facebook is projected to have 278 million deceased profiles by 2100. These digital remains are not just data — for the bereaved, they are spaces of memory, continuing connection, and sometimes profound comfort. A study published in OMEGA – Journal of Death and Dying found that Facebook facilitates "continuing bonds" with the deceased, allowing the bereaved to maintain a sense of the relationship beyond death (Kasket, OMEGA, 2023).

How Does Gen Z Feel About AI Versions of Themselves After Death?

Gen Z is the most open generation to the idea of AI-generated digital selves, though acceptance is far from universal. The Trust & Will 2025 report found that while 47% of Americans overall find the concept "unsettling or unnatural," Gen Z (36%) is the least likely generation to feel discomfort — compared to 71% of the Silent Generation. Among Gen Z, 16% said they would feel comfortable with AI replicating their persona after death, and another 24% said they would consider it if the result felt realistic or if their loved ones wanted it (Trust & Will, 2025).

This openness reflects Gen Z's comfort with technology and their experience growing up alongside increasingly sophisticated AI tools. It also reflects a generation that has watched loved ones — or at least their digital representations — persist on social media after death and found that persistence meaningful rather than disturbing. Whether or not AI-driven afterlife tools become mainstream, the willingness to consider them reveals a generation that is actively reimagining what it means to leave something behind.

Why Does Digital Privacy After Death Matter to Gen Z?

Digital privacy after death matters to Gen Z more than to any other generation because they have the largest digital footprint and the most to protect. The Trust & Will 2025 report found that 52% of Gen Z respondents said it was important that their private messages remain private from their families after death — compared to only 12% of the Silent Generation (Trust & Will, 2025). This concern makes practical sense: Gen Z's digital communications span text messages, DMs, emails, dating app conversations, and encrypted chats, and much of this content was never intended for a wider audience.

The legal framework is catching up. The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA), adopted by most U.S. states, governs executor access to digital assets, but its protections depend on proactive planning. Unless you specify access permissions through a platform's own legacy tools or a clause in your will, your private messages may be locked away forever — or exposed in probate. Our complete guide to digital legacy planning walks through every step of this process.

How Is the Death Positive Movement Influencing Gen Z?

The Death Positive Movement is influencing Gen Z by providing a philosophical and cultural framework for the openness toward mortality that their lived experience has already cultivated. Founded by mortician Caitlin Doughty in 2011 through The Order of the Good Death, the movement encourages open conversations about death, advocates for funeral industry transparency, and rejects the cultural taboo around mortality (The Order of the Good Death, 2024).

What Is "DeathTok" and Why Has It Exploded?

"DeathTok" is the informal name for a thriving community on TikTok where morticians, funeral directors, hospice workers, and grief counselors create content about death, dying, burial practices, and bereavement. The hashtag #DeathTok has accumulated tens of thousands of posts, and individual creators like Lauren the Mortician and Jasmine the Mortician have built audiences of hundreds of thousands of followers — predominantly Gen Z and younger Millennials. These creators demystify the death care industry, answer questions about embalming and cremation, share behind-the-scenes looks at funeral homes, and discuss grief with a blend of candor and dark humor that resonates deeply with younger audiences.

Caitlin Doughty's "Ask a Mortician" YouTube channel, which predated DeathTok by years, laid much of the groundwork. Her bestselling books — including Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? — brought death positivity to mainstream audiences. The migration of this content to TikTok represents a generational shift in both medium and tone: where Doughty's early work was educational and literary, DeathTok is rapid-fire, irreverent, and conversational. Caring.com's 2025 Wills and Estate Planning Study noted that TikTok partnerships promoting estate planning websites in 2024 may explain why the 18–34 cohort showed higher estate planning participation than the 35–54 cohort for the first time (Caring.com, 2025).

How Are Green Burials and Alternative Funerals Reflecting Gen Z Values?

Green burials and alternative funeral options reflect Gen Z's environmental consciousness and their rejection of traditional industry norms. According to the National Funeral Directors Association's 2025 Consumer Awareness and Preferences Report, 61.4% of consumers would be interested in exploring green funeral options — a steady rise from 55% in 2021 (NFDA, 2025). Human composting (natural organic reduction) and water cremation (alkaline hydrolysis) are gaining traction, particularly among younger demographics. Interestingly, an NFDA generational survey found that Gen Z actually prefers traditional burial (37%) over cremation at higher rates than Boomers — but with a twist: many Gen Z respondents are drawn to the idea of casket burial because they want physical spaces where the living can visit, suggesting an emphasis on connection and continuing bonds rather than convention (Connecting Directors, 2024).

What Does Gen Z's Estate Planning Behavior Actually Look Like?

Gen Z's estate planning behavior is a paradox: they are more philosophically open to end-of-life planning than any previous generation at the same age, yet they remain the least likely to have formal documents in place. Understanding this gap is essential for anyone trying to reach younger audiences with legacy planning tools.

How Many Young Adults Actually Have a Will or Estate Plan?

According to Trust & Will's 2025 Estate Planning Report, only 15% of Gen Z have a will, making them the least prepared generation by formal measures. Millennials fare only slightly better at 22%. In total, 55% of Americans have no estate plan at all (Trust & Will, 2025). However, these numbers tell an incomplete story. As an Empower research study found, 41% of Gen Z and younger Millennials have either worked with an estate professional or plan to — a higher rate of intent than older generations showed at the same age (Empower, 2024).

The disconnect between openness and action is largely a function of age and life stage. Most Gen Z members do not yet have the assets, dependents, or life events (marriage, homeownership, parenthood) that traditionally trigger estate planning. But they do have digital assets, online identities, and strong opinions about what should happen to them — a form of legacy awareness that previous generations typically did not develop until middle age.

Why Are Digital Tools More Appealing Than Traditional Estate Planning?

Digital tools are more appealing to Gen Z because they match the way this generation already interacts with the world — through mobile apps, short-form video, and platforms they can access without scheduling an appointment or visiting an office. Trust & Will, Willing, and FreeWill have all reported growth among younger users who are drawn to the ability to create a will in under 30 minutes on their phone. Meanwhile, services like LastWithYou address a dimension of legacy that traditional estate planning ignores entirely: the emotional and relational dimension.

A will distributes your assets. A trust controls their timing. But neither says "I love you." For a generation that communicates primarily through text, video, and voice messages, the idea of recording afterlife messages — personal words delivered to loved ones after death — aligns naturally with how they already express themselves. This is not a replacement for legal planning; it is the emotional layer that legal documents cannot provide. To explore what these messages look like in practice, see our guide on what an afterlife message is and how it works.

What Does This Generational Shift Mean for the Future of Legacy?

This generational shift means that the concept of legacy is expanding irreversibly beyond money and property to include digital identity, personal messages, and curated online presence. The $84 trillion Great Wealth Transfer — the largest intergenerational transfer of assets in history — will flow from Baby Boomers to Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z through 2045 (Fortune, 2025). But for Gen Z, inheriting wealth is only part of the story. They also want to inherit — and leave — meaning.

How Will Technology Continue to Reshape End-of-Life Planning?

Technology will continue to reshape end-of-life planning by making it more accessible, more personal, and more integrated with how people already live their digital lives. The Digital Legacy Association's 2024 Digital Death Survey, the largest study of its kind, is mapping how technology changes attitudes and behaviors around death planning across demographics (Digital Legacy Association, 2024). Early indications suggest a growing expectation — especially among younger respondents — that digital tools will handle not only asset distribution but also memory preservation, message delivery, and even AI-assisted continuation of the deceased's digital presence.

For an industry that has historically relied on in-person consultations, paper documents, and generational deference to tradition, this is a seismic shift. The estate planning companies that will thrive are those that meet Gen Z where they already are: on their phones, in their apps, and in the 30-second video format they have grown up with. And the emotional legacy tools — services like afterlife message platforms — will become as standard a part of end-of-life planning as life insurance is today.

Why Should Gen Z Start Planning Now — Even Without Major Assets?

Gen Z should start planning now because legacy is not about how much you own — it is about what you leave behind for the people who love you. You do not need a house, a retirement account, or a spouse to have a legacy worth protecting. You have a digital identity that needs direction. You have relationships that deserve the words you might not get to say in person. And as research on bereaved families shows, the most common regret is not financial — it is emotional. It is the conversation that never happened, the "I love you" that was assumed but never recorded.

Starting with a free afterlife message is the simplest possible entry point. It takes less time than posting an Instagram Story, costs nothing, and creates something your loved ones will treasure. The legal and financial planning can follow — and it should. But the emotional planning is where Gen Z is already ahead of every generation before them. The challenge is converting that awareness into action.

Conclusion

Gen Z is not morbid. They are realistic. Shaped by social media, a pandemic, climate anxiety, and a mental health crisis that forced early confrontation with mortality, they have developed a relationship with death that is more open, more digital, and more intentional than anything seen in previous generations. They want their social media profiles curated after death. They are curious about AI-generated afterlives. They joke about death because they have been staring at it since they were teenagers, and humor is how they reclaim agency over the one thing no one can control.

The estate planning industry, the funeral industry, and the legacy tools ecosystem are all scrambling to catch up. The data is clear: Gen Z wants planning to be digital, fast, personal, and meaningful — and they want it to address not just who gets the money but who gets the message. With only 15% of Gen Z holding a will but 41% intending to plan, the window of opportunity to engage this generation is wide open. The organizations and tools that meet them with empathy, technology, and simplicity will define how the next generation of legacy is built.

Death is no longer the conversation people avoid. For Gen Z, it is the conversation that was never optional to begin with.