Why Gen Z Wishes They Could Time Travel

A new poll finds that a plurality of Gen Z would hop in a time machine and leave their life behind as many young people grow disillusioned with modern technology and increasingly pessimistic about their economic futures.

If given the option, nearly half (47%) of 18-29-year-olds said they’d choose to live in the past, according to an NBC News Decision Desk Poll. One in three surveyed said they’d pick a time period less than 50 years ago, while another 14% would choose more than 50 years in the past. Only 38% of young people said they’d prefer to live in the present.

Members of this generation, born in 1997 or later, yearn for an era “right before social media and computers mediated life,” Clay Routledge, a nostalgia researcher and existential psychologist, said in an interview with NBC News.

Ben Isaacs, a 20-year-old Colorado student, said he’d choose to live in the 1990s, arguing smartphones are eroding young people’s ability to connect face-to-face and live beyond “the realm of the phone,” according to NBC.

The survey captures Gen Z’s deepening dissatisfaction with the country’s trajectory, social cohesion, and their financial futures.

A whopping 80% of Gen Z—more than any other generation—said the United States is headed in the wrong direction, according to the NBC poll, and 62% expect their lives will be worse than those of previous generations.

Plus, a majority rated the economy—especially inflation and the cost of living—as their top political concerns.

Artificial intelligence, which is transforming the higher education landscape and entry-level job market, is adding to the uncertainty and economic anxiety. One in six college students has changed their major because of AI, and 48% of Gen Z workers now say its negatives outweigh its benefits—an 11-point increase from 2025, according to a recent Gallup poll.

Unemployment among recent college graduates has risen since the pandemic, reaching 5.6% at the end of 2025 and extending well beyond the humanities, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Computer engineering now has one of the highest unemployment rates among college majors at 7.8%, a sharp reversal from 2021, when it ranked among the lowest at 3.2%.

Economic, cultural, and political turbulence is helping drive a cultural shift among some young people, especially men. Another Gallup poll released this month indicates that young men have become more religious in recent years.

The survey, released April 16, finds that 42% of men ages 18–29 now say religion is “very important” in their lives, up sharply from 28% in 2022–2023. Monthly religious attendance among young men also rose to 40% from 33%, the highest level in more than a decade, surpassing women for the first time.

“When there’s a lot of disruptions — political divisiveness, or, you know, worries about AI or other kinds of societal, technological or social, cultural changes — people tend to become more nostalgic for the past to help them with the things that they’re worried about,” Routledge told NBC.