PapersOwl Survey Finds 77% of US Gen Z Identify With Soft Hermitting, Citing Cost Over Mental Health

New PapersOwl survey of 3,000 Americans aged 18 to 28 finds JOMO beats FOMO by two to one, while the most widely covered by media trend of the year, the dumb phone, is used regularly by just 9%.

PapersOwl surveyed 3,000 Americans aged 18 to 28 to test whether the vocabulary of doing less — JOMO, soft hermitting, the analog bag, the dumb phone — describes real behaviour or just describes itself. It describes real behaviour. It also gets the reason wrong.

77% of respondents said soft hermitting — deliberately turning down plans to stay home — sounds like them, and only 9% rejected the description outright. What may appear as a micro-trend is the majority position. But when respondents explained why they opt out, the leading answers were not about wellness. Among those who actively enjoy missing out, 61% said it saves money, and 60% said it buys back time and energy. Only 29% described it as a mental health decision.

“Money is the loudest reason in the entire study. People are not withdrawing from social life, they are budgeting it,” said Jamie Thompson, Director of Cultural & Behavioral Insights at PapersOwl. “The mental health framing gets the coverage, but only 29% of our respondents described it that way. The economics are doing most of the work.”

PapersOwl surveyed 3,000 Americans aged 18 to 28 residing in the United States in August 2026. Respondents were recruited through Random Device. The study did not target specific ethnicities or social backgrounds. Percentages are rounded to the nearest whole number, and questions permitting multiple answers total more than 100%.

● JOMO (Joy of missing out) has overtaken FOMO (Fear of missing out) by roughly two to one. 50% of respondents feel fine or good about missing out, compared with 27% who feel anxious or disappointed.

● Depletion leads the reasons for staying home. 55% say socializing drains them and 50% say they genuinely like being home, ahead of the 42% who say going out costs too much and the 32% burned out from work or school.

● Money leads among those who actively enjoy missing out. 61% in that group say it saves money and 60% say it buys back time and energy, against 29% who call it a mental health decision.

● The activity-based hangout has replaced the open-ended one. 51% actively choose low-pressure hangouts built around an activity, another third likes them situationally, and only 5% say they would rather have the conversation-first version.

● 51% carry an “analog bag”. Half of respondents regularly or sometimes carry a screen-free activity to reach for instead of a phone. 41% say the goal is rebuilding their attention span. Only 9% admit the aesthetic is part of it.

● The dumb phone trend is almost entirely rhetorical. Just 9% use a basic handset regularly and 44% have never considered one. A further 22% have considered it and never acted, putting intention well ahead of behaviour.

● When Gen Z burn out, they blame the bill. Asked about hitting an emotional breaking point over the summer just past, 54% said they had and 27% said more than once. Money was the leading cause at 58%, ahead of heat and poor sleep at 46% and comparison pressure at 43%.

● Men cite cost, women cite depletion. Among people who soft-hermit, 50% of men say going out costs too much versus 35% of women, while 61% of women say socializing drains them versus 50% of men.

Money is the most frequently named reason across four separate questions in the study. It leads the reasons missing out feels good. It is the leading cause of burnout. It is the third-ranked reason for staying home overall. And it drives the gender gap in every question where the two sexes diverge. What looks like a wellness story is, in the respondents’ own words, an affordability story.

“When we asked what tipped people over the edge, the bill beat the weather,” said Thompson. “6 out of 10 respondents named money, against 46% for heat and bad sleep and 43% for comparing themselves to other people. Every version of this story gets told as burnout. Our respondents told it as an affordability problem, over and over, in four different questions.”

Across every trend measured, men and women opt out at broadly similar rates. What differs is the language they use. Men frame the decision financially and functionally: they are 15 points more likely to say going out costs too much, 13 points more likely to choose activity-based hangouts because they are cheaper, and more likely to describe screen-free time as attention-span repair (51% versus 31%). Women frame the same choices as capacity management: they are more likely to say socializing drains them, to say offline time helps them feel calmer and more present, and to say soft hermitting sounds a lot like them.

The pattern has one clear exception. Asked why missing out feels good, it was men who were far more likely to give the mental health answer, 38% against 18% of women.

“The stereotype is that women medicalise their social lives and men shrug,” said Thompson. “Our data runs the other way on that specific question. Men gave the mental health answer twice as often. The framing split is real, but anyone treating it as a clean rule will get it wrong.”

The numbers do not describe a generation retreating indoors. 82% of respondents are open to activity-based hangouts and only 5% prefer the conversation-first alternative. Three constraints recur across the PapersOwl data: money, energy, and attention. Social life has become something respondents budget rather than something they simply do, and 41% of them are carrying a paperback around specifically because they no longer trust themselves with a phone in an idle moment.

Deliberately turning down social plans in favour of staying home. 77% of PapersOwl’s 3,000 respondents recognised themselves in it and 9% rejected the description outright.

Yes, by roughly two to one. 50% feel fine or good about missing out, 27% feel anxious or disappointed. Women lean slightly more anxious than men, 31% versus 24%.

Both, in a specific order. Depletion leads the general question at 55%. Money leads among those who actively enjoy missing out at 61%. Mental health is named by 29% of that group, well behind the top two.

9% use one regularly and 22% at least occasionally. 44% have never considered it, making it the least adopted behaviour measured in the study.

Carrying at least one screen-free object — a book, a journal, crosswords, a sketchbook — to reach for instead of a phone. 51% do this regularly or sometimes.

Real, and expensive. Asked about the summer just past, 54% of respondents said they had hit an emotional breaking point and 27% said more than once. The leading cause was money, named by 58%, ahead of heat and poor sleep at 46%.

Yes. Additional cuts and full question wording are available on request from the press contact below.

Jamie Thompson is Director of Cultural & Behavioral Insights at PapersOwl and the author of this study. She holds a degree in Psychology from the University of Michigan and studies Gen Z behaviour with a focus on the motivation underneath a trend rather than the trend itself. She is available for interviews and expert commentary on youth culture, behavioural psychology and digital behaviour.

PapersOwl is an academic support platform used by students in the United States and internationally. Its Insights programme publishes original survey research on student behaviour, work, and digital culture.

Chloe Bennett
PR manager
chloe@wmb-digital.com