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Weekend Reads: Those Terrible Teenage Years

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Weekend Reads: Those Terrible Teenage Years

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Teenagers have a roller coaster of emotions and sometimes forget that everything will be okay. Teenagers are struggling with anxiety more than any other problem. There’s a good chance that it is anxiety that is driving teenagers to escape into screens as a way to flee fears.

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Thinking about the lives of young people today and what they need most.

By Kathleen O'Brien

Ms. O'Brien is a staff editor for the Opinion section.

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Elsie Fisher as Kayla in the film "Eighth Grade." Credit Credit Josh Ethan Johnson/A24

I watched the superb movie "Eighth Grade" this week, a film about the awkward inner life of a girl about to finish middle school. Her agonies made me squirm and recall my own emotional roller coaster at that age. The mom in me wanted to let her know that everything would be O.K.

So this weekend I wanted to share some favorite recent pieces on the fraught teen years. Several I found revolved around the anxiety many teens feel. What can adults do to understand what they are going through? What should we remember as we try to guide them through rough times? These might be a starting point for answers.

Other writers were grappling with issues like racial bias and the cultural forces that contribute to school shootings. All I could think was that our young people deserve a better world than the one we're leaving them - and I hope we can create it. One of my favorites in this collection argues for lowering the voting age to 16. A little power at the ballot box could go a long way.

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Credit Anna Parini

Teenagers are struggling with anxiety more than any other problem, perhaps more than ever before, the psychologist Tracy Dennis-Tiwary writes. There's a good chance that it is anxiety that is driving teenagers (and the rest of us) to escape into screens as a way to flee fears.

There is a darker side to adolescence that, until recently, was poorly understood: a surge during teenage years in anxiety and fearfulness, the psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman writes. Largely because of a quirk of brain development, adolescents, on average, have a harder time learning how not to be afraid than either children or adults.

Also from Laurence Steinberg: We lament the delayed entry of young people into adulthood. But prolonged adolescence, in the right circumstances, is actually a good thing. It fosters novelty-seeking and the acquisition of new skills.

Josephine Sittenfeld, a photographer, was sorting through her high school bedroom and created this poignant photo essay about what she discovered. "My takeaways from a weekend visiting my former self? I was boy-crazy. I worked really hard in school. I yearned for a bigger, more exciting life."

After the March for Our Lives rally, the historian Jon Grinspan wrote about times that young Americans changed the country's politics, even in periods of bleak partisan divide. Will they do it again?

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Opinion | Weekend Reads: Those Terrible Teenage Years

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Thinking about the lives of young people today and what they need most. By Kathleen O'Brien Ms. O'Brien is a staff editor for the Opinion section. I watched the superb movie "Eighth Grade" this week, a film about the awkward inner life of a girl about to finish middle school.

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Facebook see's its Gen Z audience slipping away to Snapchat

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Facebook see's its Gen Z audience slipping away to Snapchat

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Teenagers don't use Facebook, in fact we say "Facebook is for old people", age of 30-60. Snapchat is more better because we post stories and text our friends. To us Facebook was never something we used. Facebook could find some comfort in the fact that it owns the youthful Instagram, Snapchat the rival destination of choice among youth. Snapchat already has more 12- to 24-year-old users than Instagram, and is still adding more users in that age range than Instagram. This year, Instagram will add 1.6 million users younger than 24, while Snapchat will add 1.9 million.

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Facebook is not just losing its audience, it's losing its youth.

The social network is expected to shed 18-to-24-year-old users this year for the first time, according to a new report from eMarketer, which predicts a 5.6 decline for the age group on Facebook. The analytics and data firm had already predicted a decline in usage of kids younger than 18, but now sees that exodus widening.

The age group younger than 25 years old is typically considered Gen Z, while the cohort directly older are millennials.

Facebook could find some comfort in the fact that it owns the youthful Instagram, but rival Snapchat might be the new destination of choice among youth, according to eMarketer. Snapchat already has more 12- to 24-year-old users than Instagram, and is still adding more users in that age range than Instagram, eMarketer says.

This year, Instagram will add 1.6 million users younger than 24, while Snapchat will add 1.9 million, eMarketer says.

"It's not surprising based on the data I've seen," says Brian Wieser, an analyst at Pivotal Research. "Facebook has a user and usage problem, certainly, but like TV it's a 'least-bad alternative' for many marketers."

Last week, Facebook reported quarterly earnings, and revealed that the number of daily users in North America decreased for the first time, to 184 million from 185 million. Facebook also said people were spending 50 million fewer minutes a day on the platform.

The decline in usage coincided with Facebook facing up to its problems with false news, a toxic political atmosphere, and general dissatisfaction detected among its user base. At the start of the year, Facebook promised changes to its product to try to brighten the mood and foster more community pride on the social network.

Where Facebook is growing is with older audiences. People older than 65 are its fastest-growing group, according to Wieser.

Facebook still has 1.4 billion daily active users globally and Instagram has more than 500 million, while Snapchat has 187 million daily active users. Twitter, which only reveals monthly active users, has 330 million.

That massive user base will likely insulate Facebook from any dip in younger audiences, according to Noah Mallin, head of experience, content and sponsorships at Wavemaker. "They're probably not too worried," Mallin says. "Facebook isn't just Facebook, they've got Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. That age group is pretty well represented."

Still, for a company like Snapchat that's confronting the Facebook empire, any gains help. The messaging and media app relies on its popularity with youth to offer advertisers an audience that is hard to reach elsewhere.

As Snapchat matures, however, it has the opposite problem to Facebook: It needs to attract older people in order to grow further. Then the cycle of young people fleeing a once-hot property could start again.

"Snapchat could eventually experience more growth in older age groups, since it's redesigning its platform to be easier to use," eMarketer's Debra Aho Williamson said in Monday's report. "The question will be whether younger users will still find Snapchat cool if more of their parents and grandparents are on it. That's the predicament Facebook is in."

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Facebook Sees Its Gen Z Audience Slipping Away to Snapchat

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Facebook is not just losing its audience, it's losing its youth. The social network is expected to shed 18-to-24-year-old users this year for the first time, according to a new report from eMarketer, which predicts a 5.6 decline for the age group on Facebook.

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Did Juul Lure Teenagers and Get ‘Customers for Life’?

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Did Juul Lure Teenagers and Get ‘Customers for Life’?

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The company quickly realized that teenagers were using them because they posted images of themselves vaping Juuls all over social media. Since teenagers smoke juuls they will get addicted and buy flavors for life because addiction. Juuls are replaced by cigarettes.

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Juul is under federal investigation for marketing its discreet, flash-drive-resembling e-cigarette product to youth. Credit Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times

The e-cigarette company says it never sought teenage users, but the F.D.A. is investigating whether Juul intentionally marketed its devices to youth.

Juul is under federal investigation for marketing its discreet, flash-drive-resembling e-cigarette product to youth. Credit Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO - The leaders of a small start-up, PAX Labs, gathered at a board meeting in early 2015 to review the marketing strategy for its sleek new electronic cigarette, called Juul. They watched video clips of hip young people, posed flirtatiously holding Juuls. And they talked about the name of the gadget, meant to suggest an object of beauty and to catch on as a verb - as in "to Juul."

While the campaign wasn't targeted specifically at teenagers, a former senior manager said that he and others in the company were well aware it could appeal to them. After Juuls went on sale in June 2015, he said, the company quickly realized that teenagers were, in fact, using them because they posted images of themselves vaping Juuls on social media.

The former manager said the company was careful to make sure the models in its original campaign were at least 21, but it wasn't until late 2016 or January 2017 that the company said it decided the models in all Juul ads should be over age 35 - to be "better aligned" with a mission of focusing on adult smokers. Only in June of this year did the company again change its policy, this time to using only real people who had switched from cigarettes to Juul.

The company recently modified the names of its flavors - using creme instead of crème brûlée and cucumber instead of cool cucumber. Juul said it "heard the criticism" that teenagers might be attracted to the flavors and "responded by simplifying the names and losing the descriptors."

The sales campaigns for Juuls - now hugely popular with teenagers across the nation - are at the heart of a federal investigation into whether the company intentionally marketed its devices to youth. The attorney general of Massachusetts, also investigating the company, contends that Juul has been luring teenagers to try the product and has introduced many to nicotine. Her investigation will examine Juul's efforts to audit its own website and other online retailers that sell its products to see how effective they are at preventing minors from accessing Juul or Juul-compatible products. (Federal law prohibits sales of e-cigarettes to anyone under 18.)

"From our perspective, this is not about getting adults to stop smoking," the Massachusetts attorney general, Maura Healey, said in an interview. "This is about getting kids to start vaping, and make money and have them as customers for life."

And Cult Collective, the marketing company that created the 2015 campaign, "Vaporized," claims on its website that the work "created ridiculous enthusiasm" for the campaign hashtag, part of a larger advertising effort that included music event sponsorships and retail marketing. A spokesman for Cult Collective declined to comment.

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Examples of Juul's advertising from 2015. The company's current marketing is far more sober-looking, with a less colorful, more adult design.

The company, now called Juul Labs, denies that it ever sought to attract teenagers. James Monsees, one of the company's co-founders, said selling Juuls to youth was "antithetical to the company's mission."

The original sales campaign was aimed at persuading adult smokers in their 20s and 30s to try an alternative to cigarettes, but it "failed to gain traction on social media and failed to gain sales" and was abandoned after five months, in the fall of 2015, said a company spokesman, Matt David.

Mr. David said sales didn't take off until 2017, after Juul had improved its sales and distribution expertise, and, by then, had a more sober online marketing campaign.

The former Juul manager, who spoke to The New York Times on the condition that his name not be used, saying he worried about facing the ire of the company, said that within months of Juul's 2015 introduction, it became evident that teenagers were either buying Juuls online or finding others who made the purchases for them. Some people bought more Juul kits on the company's website than they could individually use - sometimes 10 or more devices.

"First, they just knew it was being bought for resale," said the former senior manager, who was briefed on the company's business strategy. "Then, when they saw the social media, in fall and winter of 2015, they suspected it was teens."

The Food and Drug Administration announced it was investigating Juul's marketing efforts in April. Juuls and other e-cigarettes are regulated by the F.D.A. as tobacco products because nicotine derives from tobacco leaves. E-cigarette users inhale far fewer toxins than do smokers of traditional cigarettes. The nicotine inhaled while vaping is less a concern for adults than these toxins, but it remains a serious health issue for teenagers, whose brains are still developing.

The Juul story highlights a central dilemma in public health. Cigarettes remain the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than 480,000 people a year. But will it be possible to get people who are addicted to cigarettes to switch to e-cigarettes, which are less harmful, without enticing a new generation or non-smokers to try them?

Juul, in a letter responding to the F.D.A.'s demand for documents, said it had converted one million smokers to Juul, but the company data is drawn from self-reported surveys on its website and is unverifiable.
[Here's how schools are dealing with the rise in popularity of e-cigarettes.]
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who heads the F.D.A., declined to comment on the agency's investigation of Juul. But he has long been hopeful that e-cigarettes or other similar devices, properly regulated, will prove a safer alternative to smoking and help people quit the deadly habit. Before becoming F.D.A. commissioner, he served on the board of directors of Kure, a retailer that sells e-cigarette products.

"Two-thirds of adult smokers have stated they want to quit," he said. "They know it's hard, and they've probably tried many times to quit. We must recognize the potential for innovation to lead to less harmful products."
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But Eric Lindblom, a former F.D.A. tobacco official who heads the tobacco control program at Georgetown Law, said Juul's internal concerns about teenage use demonstrate they are in some ways "no different than the cigarette industry."

"They are going to maximize their sales and profits any way they can," he said. "They are going to do that within the law, but they are going to press the gray areas as much as they can."

Over the last three years, Juul has had a meteoric rise. It has become the dominant seller of e-cigarettes, now controlling a remarkable 72 percent of the market, according to Nielsen data. In July, the company completed a round of fund-raising for $1.2 billion, putting it in rarefied air. From a virtual standing-start in 2015, it is now valued by investors at $16 billion.

Across the country, Juuls have become so popular that "Juuling" has indeed become a verb, and officials from several state governments have sent alerts to schools warning them about the problem.

A survey of adolescent drug use last year found that 11 percent of 12th graders, 8.2 percent of 10th graders and 3.5 percent of eighth graders had vaped nicotine in the previous 30 days.

Juul's other co-founder, Adam Bowen, said that he was aware early on of the risks e-cigarettes posed to teenagers, and that the company had tried to make the gadgets "as adult-oriented as possible," purposely choosing not to use cartoon characters or candy names for its flavors.

The F.D.A. has ordered Juul to turn over the company's research and marketing documents, including focus group data and toxicology reports, to determine whether it intentionally courted the youth market.

The day after receiving the F.D.A. letter, Juul announced it would spend $30 million to combat underage vaping and recruited Tom Miller, the attorney general of Iowa, who helped lead the multistate 1998 master settlement with tobacco companies, to run an advisory board to counsel Juul on its efforts. Mr. Miller said recommendations might include more controls on social media marketing and better surveillance of retail outlets, but the ultimate decision on how to spend the money remains with Juul.

Mr. Miller says he sees huge potential in e-cigarettes. He believes Juul and other e-cigarette companies have already helped lower the adult smoking rate to 13.9 percent in 2017 from 16.8 percent in 2014. "The only plausible explanation is e-cigarettes," he said.

A report from Citigroup, citing Nielsen data, said that sales of traditional cigarettes dropped 6 percent in the first quarter of this year and "it's impossible to say what has caused the change for sure but the most obvious case is Juul."

Juul recently deleted months of social media posts, including ones with images of cool-looking young people vaping Juuls. This spring it made major changes to its website, which had prominently displayed a Juul surrounded by luscious-looking images of fruit and the words "Mango, it's back." The site is now a more sober-looking affair, featuring video of adults vaping with a tagline "For smokers. By design." Across the top of the page, visitors are invited to "learn about our youth prevention efforts."

Mr. Bowen, 42, and Mr. Monsees, 38, the company's founders, met in 2003 in a graduate product-design program at Stanford University, bonding over brainstorming sessions and cigarettes. Both had been smokers since their teens, and both have since quit; Mr. Monsees regularly uses a Juul.

The culmination of the program was a masters thesis, and both had struggled to find a worthy subject. In 2004, about six months before the thesis was due, they got to talking about their smoking habits and, within days, were excitedly sending emails back and forth about developing an alternative to cigarettes.

Big tobacco companies were experimenting with e-cigarettes, but there was no real market for them until around 2010, when NJoy, an Arizona company, became the industry's first darling. By 2013, e-cigarettes were a $1.7-billion-a-year business, still only a small fraction of the $90 billion cigarette business.

But then NJoy gambled on an e-cigarette that looked virtually identical to a cigarette. It was a mistake, said Craig Weiss, the chief executive who pushed the so-called cigalike strategy and now consults for Juul. As NJoy's fortuned flagged, he said he realized that people didn't want a product that looked so much like a cigarette that it still left them with the stigma of being a smoker. NJoy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2016, later re-emerging.

Juul initially developed a product in 2010 that looked like a fountain pen and distributed it in specialty vape shops. Its sales grew to a modest $30 million by 2015.

Then the company found its current design, a sleek stick that looks like a flash drive, and largely stumbled onto a new way of delivering nicotine: it mixes nicotine with a chemical called benzoic acid. The result is that when Juul users inhale, they get a very quick and powerful burst of nicotine. This gives smokers a more cigarette-like experience, but medical researchers say it also makes the product more addictive for youth.

The company launched its new product in June 2015, with starter kits costing $35, and packs of four nicotine refill cartridges selling for $16 - each roughly the equivalent of the cost of a pack of cigarettes. According to Nielsen, sales in the first month were roughly $1,500 and reached over $1 million that December. It began a steady climb, and then experienced explosive growth in the beginning of 2017, with sales rising 627 percent in the four weeks ending June 17, 2017, according to Nielsen and Wells Fargo Securities.

The company said that toward the end of 2016 and around the beginning of 2017, it changed its social marketing campaign and guidelines to require all models to be over the age of 35.

In the last two months, Juul has removed the flavor focus and now uses only "real people" who have used Juul to switch from smoking cigarettes, the company said.

Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said that he was prepared to be a fan of a product like Juul if it is responsibly marketed and shown to help adults quit smoking. But he cited a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that in 2017 2.1 million high schoolers and middle schoolers used e-cigarettes - "and the reports about high school students using Juul are rampant," he said.

Mr. Myers observed that Juul "delivers nicotine so much better than any comparable product on the market," and so its popularity means that "both the hopes of the e-cig fans, and fears of those concerned about e-cigs and kids, rise exponentially."

On Jan. 23, The Boulder Daily Camera published a front-page story about the growing concerns of local educators in Colorado about student use of Juuls.

Five days later, Carrie Yantzer, the principal at Nederland Middle-Senior High School, received an email that immediately struck her as suspicious. The writer introduced himself as Bruce Harter, a former educator working with Juul to develop an anti-vaping curriculum for schools.

[Here's why public health experts believe vaping may lure teenagers into smoking.]
"I read about the challenges you're having with Juul," Mr. Harter wrote. He offered a free, three-hour curriculum provided by Juul to discourage teens from using e-cigarettes by teaching them about their brains and giving them mindfulness exercises.

"What we've found from focus groups with teenage Juul users is that young people don't understand the dangers of nicotine addiction," the letter read. "They sometimes feel 'pushed' by friends to use e-cigarettes. We also found that they don't have operative ways to deal with stress and the emotional ups and downs of their lives right now."

Ms. Yantzer was angry. "It sounded preposterous," she said, and the company "deceptive."

She wasn't the only school administrator to get such a letter. The Boulder school district and, ultimately, the state of Colorado condemned the offer as a brand-building exercise that was tone-deaf at the very least.

"The way we see this is a fox guarding the henhouse," said Alison Reidmohr, tobacco communications specialist for the Colorado Department of Public Health. "A company that stands to profit from, and currently profit off, youth using a product can't be trusted to prevent use of this product."

Ashley Gould, Juul's chief administrative officer, said the company, because it has not built management around former tobacco-industry employees, was unaware the tactic had been used by cigarette companies. However, Juul's board of directors includes experienced investors, including Nicholas Pritzker, a billionaire whose family controlled one of the country's largest chewing tobacco companies, Conwood, which was acquired in 2006 by Reynolds American for $3.5 billion.

For its part, Juul said it was still deciding what to do with that school program. Ms. Gould said the company did not realize the curriculum would offend or that the idea harked to a tactic big tobacco companies used decades ago. "We didn't know," she said. "We should've known."

Juul has a new innovation in the works, a Bluetooth-enabled version of its e-cigarette that it hopes could push more smokers to switch without risking youth uptake. Mr. Monsees called it a "smart" e-cigarette.

The Bluetooth-equipped Juul might provide a way for adult vapers to measure their nicotine use. It also might discourage teen use by disabling the device unless it's in the presence of its adult buyer, perhaps by linking it to the buyer's cellphone. The solution would still require effective controls on sales to minors at brick-and-mortar stores and online retail outlets.

Juul officials contend their ability to offer such innovations is hamstrung by regulatory policies. The company is building a high-powered operation in Washington to help it navigate such issues. It's run by Tevi Troy, a political strategist who worked with Dr. Gottlieb, the F.D.A. commissioner, at the Department of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush and who wrote an opinion article with him for The Wall Street Journal.

The company has also hired Jim Esquea, who was an assistant secretary at the health department during the Obama administration, and Gerald Masoudi, a former F.D.A. chief counsel.

The company is also ratcheting up its lobbying efforts. It has reported spending $450,000 on lobbying so far in 2018 - substantially more than the $120,000 reported spent for all of 2017. It also recently started a political action committee, although no donations have yet been reported. In June, Kevin Burns, Juul's chief executive, gave $50,000 to the Republican congressional leadership fund.

The centerpiece of Dr. Gottlieb's tobacco control strategy is a plan that would potentially greatly benefit e-cigarette companies, including Juul. It would require tobacco companies to reduce nicotine levels in traditional cigarettes so much that they were no longer addictive. The proposal is still in the early discussion phase, with the tobacco industry strongly opposed. But it would potentially make Juul, a potent nicotine delivery device, far more appealing to smokers.

Mr. Monsees, a Juul co-founder, says he believes that e-cigarettes are a key to reducing smoking, and can be profitable without sales to teenagers.

"Yes, I want to make money," he said. "I'm on the board with a fiduciary duty that obligates me to make money."

But he added, "The best investor return in the long term comes from more adults turning away from combustible cigarettes."

Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks contributed reporting from Washington.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Investigators Ask if Vaping Ads Tried to Hook Teenagers for Life. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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Did Juul Lure Teenagers and Get 'Customers for Life'?

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The e-cigarette company says it never sought teenage users, but the F.D.A. is investigating whether Juul intentionally marketed its devices to youth. Juul is under federal investigation for marketing its discreet, flash-drive-resembling e-cigarette product to youth.

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The Boy on the Bus: A 16-Year-Old Recounts a Terror Attack

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The Boy on the Bus: A 16-Year-Old Recounts a Terror Attack

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He could hear the sound of gunfire nearby, the cries for help from his bus driver, and frantic pleas from a passer-by that someone call 911.  It was 3 p.m. on Halloween. In all, 8 people were killed with others injured in that afternoon’s terrorist attack.  Noah was unscathed, at least physically, but for a 16-year-old with Down syndrome, there were moments of terror and confusion.

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Noah Salz, right, and his brother, Jake, with their beagle, Peanut, in their Brooklyn apartment on Friday, 10 days after a truck barreled down a bike path and crashed into Noah's bus in an attack that killed eight. Credit Credit Hilary Swift for The New York Times

Noah Salz sat there seemingly stunned with his headphones around his neck, the matron on his small yellow school bus across his lap, bleeding. The side of the bus had completely caved in. He could hear the sound of gunfire nearby, the cries for help from his bus driver, and frantic pleas from a passer-by that someone call 911.

Not far away, along the Hudson River bike path, a pickup truck had left a roughly mile-long stretch of carnage - mangled bodies and bicycles. Then it had slammed into his school bus. It was 3 p.m. on Halloween. In all, eight people were killed with others injured in that afternoon's terrorist attack, but one of the most ineradicable images in those first frantic moments was that of the crushed school bus - the bus that had stopped a driver bent on sowing death and pain. Who was inside and what happened to them?

It was Noah, along with a female student, the matron and the bus driver. The three of them were injured. Noah was unscathed, at least physically, but for a 16-year-old with Down syndrome, there were moments of terror and confusion.

"He was in the middle of a terrorist attack," Noah's mother, Kim Salz, said in their home in Brooklyn. "He's completely fine. Mentally, I don't know."

Noah returned to school the next day, and resumed taking the bus that shuttles him to his high school in the East Village twice a week. Mrs. Salz said she follows Noah's lead and discusses the attack only when he brings it up. "We're slowly adjusting and figuring it out," she said. "I'm thankful he was sheltered from the worst of it."

Although Noah heard the gunfire, he did not see when a police officer shot Sayfullo Saipov, 29, the driver charged in the attack. He also did not see the dead and injured along the bike path.

Noah sat at his family's dining room table Friday night, his beagle, Peanut, in a chair beside him.

"I got scared," he said. "I had glass on me. I was crying. I'm pretty scared when bad things happen."

He remembers the gunshots, and the purple gloves that emergency medical technicians wore as they checked him and asked him questions: "Where are you from?" "What's your date of birth?"

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The bus that the motorist hit had four people on it: Noah, a female student, the matron and the bus driver. The three of them were injured. Noah was unscathed, at least physically. Credit Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press

Noah called his mother and asked her to pick him up, but he was not sure where he was. Brooklyn maybe, he told her.

Mrs. Salz said Noah typically called to let her know that he had boarded the bus, but that day his voice was shaky, and she immediately knew something was wrong. An emergency medical worker explained that the bus had been involved in an accident and that he was unharmed, but that he had to be transported to the hospital as a precaution. Panicked, he resisted.

"No, no. I don't want to do it," Noah cried, his mother said.

Mrs. Salz reassured Noah on the phone that he was fine and that he needed to follow instructions from the emergency workers. She told him that his father, David Salz, who works downtown, would meet him at the hospital. Noah said his bus driver also helped to keep him calm. He said the driver held him as emergency workers pushed the two on a stretcher to an ambulance.

Mrs. Salz had no idea that her son had been involved in much more than a routine accident. After learning that the area was placed on lockdown because of a "police situation," she said she searched online for news updates and saw initial reports about the crash, and later of road rage and gunfire. She still did not yet know that her son had survived a terrorist attack.

"I'm concerned like, 'Oh my God,' but my son is O.K.," she said. "I didn't know anything other than that."

Mr. Salz met his son at the hospital, and Mrs. Salz went out trick-or-treating in the Park Slope neighborhood with their daughter, Talia, 9, and younger son, Jake, 14. Noah was supposed to be there with them dressed as a witch doctor. It was when she was out that Mrs. Salz learned the harrowing details of what had happened.

"I was disappointed because I had to stay in Lower Manhattan," Noah said about missing out on Halloween festivities with his siblings.

On their way back from trick-or-treating, Mrs. Salz, Talia and Jake boarded a train at Seventh Avenue and happened to get in the same car that Noah and Mr. Salz were in. Noah's mother and siblings rushed over to greet him. Talia hugged her brother and asked him if he was O.K. She even shared some of her Halloween candy with him, an unusual move, Mrs. Salz said.

After the attack, Talia slept in her parents' bed and told them she did not feel comfortable taking the bus to school. So her mother took her to school by bicycle, then her father took her once on the city bus. Jake has not talked much about what happened. Mrs. Salz said Noah had not cried, but he did tell her that "the matron fell on him, was crying for help and her face scared him."

Last week, Talia rode the school bus and slept in her room for the first time since the attack. Noah quickly returned to his routine. Missing school, he said, was not an option. On Friday night, before he retreated to his room to complete his homework, Noah said, "This week I'm happy."

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A19 of the New York edition with the headline: 'I Had Glass on Me. I Was Crying': Boy on Bus Recounts Terrorist Attack. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe

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The Boy on the Bus: A 16-Year-Old Recounts a Terror Attack

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Noah Salz sat there seemingly stunned with his headphones around his neck, the matron on his small yellow school bus across his lap, bleeding. The side of the bus had completely caved in. He could hear the sound of gunfire nearby, the cries for help from his bus driver, and frantic pleas from a passer-by that someone call 911.

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19 Signs That Gen Z is living 2 years ahead of us

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19 Signs That Gen Z is living 2 years ahead of us

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Gen Z generation cares so much about Instagram like and followers. New dancing trends are really in like "Keke Challenge" and etc, but the Yodeling kid is also a trend right now. They make everything into a meme.

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19 Signs That Gen Z Is Living Two Steps Ahead Of Us

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This article is accurate because teenagers are rated R, for example bad words, sexual things, and drugs. Gen Z is wired to electronics, we know everything about them. Teenagers are more independent and don't like when we have "helicopter parents".

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What do you need to know about the kids in Generation Z? Here are some of the most important things.

1. They're everywhere. Gen Z-those born between 1996 and 2014-makes up 24.3 percent of the U.S. population, according to U.S. Census estimates for 2016. That's more than millennials (22.1 percent), more than Gen X (19 percent), and more than baby boomers (22.9 percent). By 2020, The Washington Post says, Z's will have about $3 trillion in purchasing power.

2. They've always been wired. They've never known a world without the internet or cell phones; younger Z's have never known a world without smart phones. Google has always existed. They take Wi-Fi for granted.

They spend between six and nine hours a day absorbing media, according to a survey from Common Sense Media. Among teens, 92 percent go online daily, Pew Research reports.

Their preferred mode of communication is digital, primarily through social media and texting. Drew Wike, director of student ministries at Greenwood Baptist Church in Florence, South Carolina, recently noticed some of his students sitting together in a restaurant. "They weren't talking to each other," he says. "They were texting each other."

3. They've seen porn. And maybe lots of it. No other generation has had pornography so readily available, literally at their fingertips. A survey of college students in New England found 73 percent had seen porn online before they turned 18.

"Sexting"-sending and receiving sexually explicit text messages-starts early for many Z's. A survey of middle-school-aged students in Los Angeles found 25 percent said they'd received a sext.

A smaller study of college students by professors at Drexel University found more than half (54 percent) reported sending a sext before they turned 18, often as a form of flirting.

4. They're more accepting of sexual fluidity. Gen Z supports gay marriage and transgender rights. For them, such things are part of everyday life. It would be rare for a Z to not have a friend from the LGBT community.

Additionally, a 2016 survey of gender and sexuality by J. Walter Thompson Company, a New York-based marketing firm, found only 48 percent of those 13 to 20 years old described themselves as "completely heterosexual," compared to 65 percent of those 21 to 34.

In his book, White describes the Gen Z attitude as "an increasing sexual fluidity that refuses either the homosexual or heterosexual label. The idea is that both labels are repressive."

5. They're racially diverse . . . and multiracial. Z's have friends from a variety of ethnicities. About half of kids under 5 in the U.S. are ethnic minorities, according to the U.S. Census. Six of the 15 most common last names in the United States were of Hispanic origin in 2010, compared to none of the top 15 in 1990, the Census Bureau says. If your church's congregation is not diverse, Z's will wonder why.

And when Z's get married, they're more likely than their forebears to wed someone of another ethnic group. About 1 in 6 marriages today are of an interracial couple, according to Pew Research. In 1980, the rate was fewer than 1 in 10.

6. They're pretty independent. Gen Xers, repeatedly warned about "helicopter parenting," have reacted by giving their kids-Z's-plenty of space. This hands-off parenting has yielded both pros and cons.

On the pro side, Z's are pretty self-directed and confident. On the con side, they're not necessarily equipped with much real-life wisdom or many boundaries. In an age of cyber-bullying, sexting, internet porn, and hooking up-not to mention hacking, scams, and identity theft-the consequences can be dangerous.

7. They're aware of a troubled planet. Most Z's have grown up since 9/11 and have only known a world where terrorist attacks are the norm. Additionally, they've lived through the Great Recession, and they've seen their parents, or many of their friends' parents, struggle through job losses, foreclosures, and more.

"They're a hopeful generation, but realistic," says Josh Branum, family pastor at Faithbridge Church in Jacksonville, Florida. "They see the world for what it is. They're not afraid, but they're going into it with their eyes wide open."

8. They're justice-minded. Partly because of No. 7 above, Z's want to make a difference in the world. Like millennials before them, they're keenly aware of justice issues concerning poverty, human trafficking, refugees, racism, and more.

They want opportunities to have an impact, and they're likely to become generous givers to charitable organizations as adults.

"They're kids who volunteer, who have a heart for mission and justice, who sign up for things that previous generations didn't," says Burns. "It's part of their DNA."

9. They're post-Christian. Almost a quarter (23 percent) of America's adults-and a third of millennials-are "nones," claiming no religious identity at all, according to Pew Research. Many Z's are growing up in homes where there's no religion whatsoever, and they may have no experience of religion.

"Gen Z is very secularized," says Rick Eubanks, student minister at Oak Grove Baptist Church in Burleson, Texas. "Previous generations grew up with some Judeo-Christian values of the past, at least as a reference point. Today's generation has little to no acquaintance with the gospel.

"So we have to start with square one: This is a Bible. It has 66 books. It has your story and God's story. We have to speak in simple terms."

10. They're open to faith. Although only 4 in 10 attend religious services weekly, 78 percent of older Gen Z's say they believe in God, according to a survey by Northeastern University. They view religious leaders as better role models than celebrities, professional athletes, or political leaders.

"They're hungry for spiritual things," says Eubanks. "They're seeking something outside of themselves, which can be a good thing."

There are more characteristics to Z's, of course, but White sums it up like this:

First, they are lost. They are not simply living in and being shaped by a post-Christian cultural context. They do not even have a memory of the gospel. The degree of spiritual illiteracy is simply stunning. ... [Second], they are leaderless. Little if any direction is coming from their families, and even less from their attempts to access guidance from the internet. ... So how can they be reached?

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10 Traits of Generation Z | Facts & Trends

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Page 2 of 3 What do you need to know about the kids in Generation Z? Here are some of the most important things. 1. They're everywhere. Gen Z-those born between 1996 and 2014-makes up 24.3 percent of the U.S. population, according to U.S. Census estimates for 2016.

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This commercial is a stereo type about adults constantly having to clean up the kids mess. Babies make a mess and then when they are a little older they make a mess. But in reality Elementary, Middle School, and High school kids don't make a mess but they just want you to buy their wipes because "kids are messy".

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Sorry Millennials, Only Gen Z'ers Are Passing This Quiz

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Sorry Millennials, Only Gen Z'ers Are Passing This Quiz

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This quiz requires most celebrities and social media Gen Z should know. Its has stuff about Musical.ly and Snapchat which all teenagers in my grade and all of highschool know because its what we have and go on 24/7, even if we dont have an account we still now what it is. Social Media and Calebs have all Gen Z's attention.

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Sorry Millennials, Only Gen Z'ers Are Passing This Quiz

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The New Rules of Style, according to Generation Z

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The New Rules of Style, according to Generation Z

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Generation Z has been more popular and has been changing quick. The trends are more different then they used to be. In fact, Aeropostale, one of the top teen retailers, have fallen from a valuation of $2.68 to $2 billion.

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The New Rules Of Style, According To Generation Z

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Since every company is focused on millennials, why should the fashion industry start thinking about the next generation? Well, Generation Z is changing the fashion industry, and they are changing it fast.

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Companies That Do These 8 Things Will Attract Generation Z

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Companies That Do These 8 Things Will Attract Generation Z

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Companies want to attract people and mainly attract Gen Z because it's the new generation. The top is for talent searches: modeling, acting, singing, and photography. The 7 other things are: Offer Internships, Provide Cross-Organization Exposure, Co-Design Career Plans, Deliver Relevant Training,  Lead by Coaching, and Prioritize Diversity and Inclusion.

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While this isn't a comprehensive list, it's a strong start to attracting and retaining Generation Z and positively positioning your organization in the increasingly competitive talent market.

The 8-Point Checklist to Attract and Retain Generation Z

1. Digitalize Talent Attraction 3. Provide Cross-Organization Exposure 4. Co-Design Career Plans
Witnessing the heavy burden of student debt caused for Millennials, Generation Z is eager to pay as they go with 70 percent contributing to their college tuition through a salary earned from a job in college. Leverage Generation Z's desire to get to work early as an opportunity to scout talent. ( Read this to learn specific steps that SAP is taking to employ Generation Z.)
5. Deliver Relevant Training
Generation Z has a desire to enter fields and organizations with room for long-term growth. While 83 percent of new graduates agree that their education prepared them well for their career, they are looking to their employer to partner in their next phase of growth and development. "Partner" is the key word as Generation Z is interested in co-designing their career plan with their employer and then taking advantage of the professional development opportunities available to them to help them advance in their careers.

Growing up in a fast and untethered world where information is instantly accessible, Generation Z demands the same flexibility, accessibility, and speed from the training their employer offers. Services like 21Mill.com that deliver training in an on-demand, micro-learning, and mobile-first format will become the new norm for training the next generation workforce.
8. Prioritize Diversity and Inclusion
The leadership style that resonates best with Generation Z is coaching. Generation Z will turn to Google, YouTube, or Alexa first for answers instead of their future managers. Therefore managers must adjust their approach and serve as a guide where they coach Generation Z through their self-directed learning, mistakes, and successes. ( Read this for three steps for coaching Generation Z effectively.)

While Generation Z will seek employers with a favorable reputation, a positive impact on the environment, and are socially responsible; how the company treats its people is of the utmost importance. Generation Z will flock to employers and leaders who treat every employee equally and fairly. ( Read this for six steps to become an inclusive leader.)

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Companies That Do These 8 Things Will Attract Generation Z

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While this isn't a comprehensive list, it's a strong start to attracting and retaining Generation Z and positively positioning your organization in the increasingly competitive talent market. The 8-Point Checklist to Attract and Retain Generation Z 1. Digitalize Talent Attraction 3. Provide Cross-Organization Exposure 4.

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T-Shirts: Gen Z Cashes In On Billion-Dollar Limited Edition Retail Market

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T-Shirts: Gen Z Cashes In On Billion-Dollar Limited Edition Retail Market

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When cousins Jordan Stevens and Gus Hohlbein opened their upscale Green Lake thrift shop in 2015, “hype beasts”. Hype products are produced in limited quantities and then resold for significantly more than the original retail price. Those who buy and collect these limited edition products are referred to as “hype beasts.” Some hype brands are Supreme, Bathing Ape or Bape, Air Jordans and limited edition Adidas.

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The ‘Hype Beasts’ And $1K T-Shirts: Gen Z Cashes In On Billion-Dollar Limited Edition Retail Market

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Gen Z is cashing in on the limited edition trend by scoring shoes, shirts and boxers at retail prices and reselling them for sometimes hundreds of dollars more.

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Gen Z's favorite social networks: Youtube, Instagram, and Snapchat

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Gen Z's favorite social networks: Youtube, Instagram, and Snapchat

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Gen Z is the first generation to grow up with the internet as a regular part of their everyday routine. Since the youngest Gen Z's are in their teens, many have grown up in a world where social media has always been part of their lives like Snapchat, Instagram, and Youtube. We use social media to post things about ourselves or us with our friends, watch memes and videos, read posts, find people and make friends, view Caleb life and gossip, and many more.

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Gen Z is the first generation to grow up with the internet as a regular part of their everyday routine. Since the youngest Gen Zers are in their teens, many have grown up in a world where social media has always been part of their lives, too.

But what social networks does Gen Z really want to use? And what draws them to those sites? Let's take a look at some Generation Z statistics:

Gen Z and Social Media: It's Their Natural Habitat

As the post-millennial demographic, Gen Z (currently somewhere between 13-24 years old depending on who you ask) has never known a world that didn't involve follows, likes, and views of their own original content. Connecting with others, be it friends, family, influencers, or brands, is as easy as a tweet, double tap, or status update. At nearly one-quarter of the U.S. population, their impact on everything from retail trends to political causes is huge.

So just why is social media such a big deal to them, and why are certain platforms emerging as the winners of their valuable attention?

It starts by understanding just how much time Gen Z spends online - and what they're doing there.

1. Nearly half of Gen Z is almost always online... watching content.

According to a recent survey conducted by Pew Research Center, 45% of teens now say they are online " almost constantly." That's almost twice the percentage of teens who answered the question when Pew conducted the same survey three years ago. Between 2014 and 2015, less than a quarter (24%) of teens said they were online all day.

Additionally, the 2018 Pew study found that 44% of teens say they go online " several times a day". Combined with the 45% of those online "almost constantly ", this means that that 9 out of 10 teens are online multiple times a day.

Criteo's recently released Gen Z Report shows Gen Z spends more time on mobile devices (an average of 11 hours per week) and streams more content (an average of 23 hours of video content a week) than any other generation. That's almost one full day spent watching (rather than say, reading) content.

2. Gen Z has unparalleled access to smartphones... and awesome apps.

It's a digital version of the chicken-and-egg scenario. Rapid growth of online usage mirrors the ubiquity of smartphones themselves: 95% of teens report they have a smartphone or access to one. That's a 22-percentage-point increase from the 73% of teens who said this in 2014-15.

The rise of mobile usage all over the world is helping fuel Gen Z's habitual online activities, like checking social media apps whenever there's time to kill.

Today's social media apps are optimized for easy scrolling, sharing, favoriting, bookmarking, searching, and buying. Criteo's Gen Z report showed that 62% of Gen Z likes ads that provide value. Since relevance is key to feeling organic, all the better if ads can feel like native content in actual social media feeds. Think sustainable shoes when scrolling through healthy food Instagram accounts.

3. Gen Z loves Youtube, Instagram, and Snapchat... because visuals.

Wondering which social networks are Gen Z's favorites?

It's easy - they're always the platforms driven by visual content like photos and videos. Gen Zers tend to create, consume, and engage with much more with visuals than words-only status updates. Read: An awesome concert / amazing look / outstanding vacation is best communicated through well-lit photos, videos, or snaps.

Statistics from the 2014-2015 Pew study showed that over two-thirds of teens (71%) said they used Facebook, while only half used Instagram (52%), and even less used Snapchat (41%). The latest Pew study showed a shift, with only about half (51%) of US teens ages 13-17 saying they use Facebook. This is notably lower than the usage numbers for the big winners: YouTube (85%), Instagram (72%), and Snapchat (69%).

Interestingly, Criteo research shows that older Gen Zers, ages 16-24, are more evenly split across Facebook (55%), Snapchat (52%), and Instagram (52%).

Older platforms like Facebook are still relevant, but the newer social networks like Instagram and Snapchat appeal more to the younger set.

For Gen Z, visual content trumps written content

Like it or hate it, one thing is clear: The most popular social networks among Gen Z are also the most visual.

Brands and retailers who want to win should take a lesson from visually-driven platforms and optimize their online product photos and media like how-to videos, as well as (of course) their actual social media presence. Gen Z also expects two-way communicatio n with brands on social media, and those that can make it easy and seamless will win more of Gen Z.

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Gen Z's Favorite Social Networks: YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat

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Gen Z is the first generation to grow up with the Internet as a regular part of their everyday routine. Since the youngest Gen Zers are in their teens, many have grown up in a world where social media was always a part of their lives, too.

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Teens have many favorite brands. The first most popular thing that was most popular was "Youtube". They interviewed 8,494 generation z humans.

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Generation Zs were born after 1997.

They prefer brands that are healthy, socially conscious, and connected with influencers on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat.

But many of their favorite brands are shared by older generations too.

Millennials, move aside. There's a new generation advertisers are vying to reach: Generation Z.

Gen Zs are people born after 1997, and their short lives have been already been marked by the advent of mobile technology, social upheaval, and the Great Recession.

Ypulse, a New York youth-marketing firm, interviewed 8,494 Gen Z consumers on 332 brands this year for its Ybrands survey. Then the firm ranked those brands based on the consumers' awareness, past purchase, and loyalty, as well as their perceived personality and influence.

Bobby Calise, vice president of Ybrands, said these brands won over Gen Z because of their ability to convince young adults of their coolness and momentum.

More unique to Gen Z, Calise said, is their preference to buy from brands with expressed stances on social causes.

"In the past, brands might have considered playing it safe for fear of alienating some of its customer base," Calise told Business Insider. "But in today's social and political climate, it's arguably riskier not to take a risk - even if it's a calculated one - when it comes to brands taking stands."

Ypulse shared the final ranking with Business Insider. Here are the top 100 brands that Gen Z adore:

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Generation Zs reveal their 100 favorite brands

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Generation Zs were born after 1997. They prefer brands that are healthy, socially conscious, and connected with influencers on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat. But many of their favorite brands are shared by older generations too. Millennials, move aside. There's a new generation advertisers are vying to reach: Generation Z.