Boomers are more likely to leave a comment on social media than Gen Z
Social media posts literally depend on our interactions. Thanks to them, they can spread like wildfire. About a quarter of us don’t react to posts at all, while the rest show their appreciation by liking, commenting, or sharing them.
Half of the population shows their interest in a social media post by leaving a like or a heart. The second most common way to show support is by sending the post to friends and acquaintances via private message—a quarter of people interact with posts this way. A similar percentage shares an interesting post on their profile or publicly with their network of contacts. About one-fifth of people add a comment.
Likes come more often from women and Gen Z, while comments from Boomers
You’re more likely to get a “like” from women (55 percent) or younger members of Generation Z (75 percent). If your audience consists mainly of men, there’s no need to panic if engagement with your posts is lower—men simply interact less with social media posts than women do.
A cross-generational perspective also reveals interesting differences in our online behavior. If a post resonates with Gen Z, they are much more likely to forward it to their friends in a private message than to share it publicly. However, this changes with age—older generations, on the other hand, typically share posts publicly. This is especially true for Generation X.
We’ve also observed other differences as people get older. Older generations are twice as likely to comment on a post compared to the youngest Gen Zers. Nearly a quarter of Boomers comment on posts, but only 12 percent of Gen Zers do.
Half of people also react to brand posts
We don’t have to know each other. Half of the people who regularly engage with social media posts do so even when the post is shared by a celebrity or the brand itself. This is particularly true of younger generations. Men are more likely than women to regularly engage with posts by celebrities and brands.
Survey Information
A total of 999 respondents participated in the online survey. Data was collected from a representative sample of the online population aged 18 and older via an online questionnaire from April 2 to April 9, 2025. This survey was funded by NMS Market Research.
Author
Denisa Lakatošová, NMS Market Research Slovakia – [email protected]