Thirty-eight percent of Americans went fully “no contact” with a friend or family member in the past year, cutting off someone close to them entirely rather than trying to repair the relationship, according to a new Talkspace-commissioned survey conducted by Talker Research and published in April 2026.
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The behavior was heavily concentrated by age. Sixty percent of Gen Z respondents said they had gone no contact with someone in the past year, compared with 50% of Millennials, 38% of Gen X, and just 20% of Baby Boomers, per the same survey of 2,000 U.S. adults.
Disrespect, Not Distance, Drives the Break
Respondents pointed to interpersonal harm rather than logistics or distance as the main trigger. Thirty-six percent cited a lack of respect as their top reason for cutting someone off, 29% said the relationship was hurting their mental health, and 27% described the other person as simply too negative to remain around.
The cutoffs also appear to be lasting rather than a cooling-off period. Fifty-nine percent of people who went no contact in the last year said they still are not back in touch with that person, the survey found.
The survey, published under Talkspace’s broader look at connection and loneliness in America, frames the trend as part of a generational shift in how people set boundaries. Younger respondents were also the most likely to describe walking away from a strained relationship as a form of self-protection rather than an act of cruelty, according to Talkspace’s own writeup of the findings.
- 38% of Americans went fully no contact with someone close in the past year
- 60% of Gen Z respondents did the same, the highest of any generation
- 36% said disrespect was their top reason; 59% of cutoffs remain unresolved
The full break was often paired with smaller digital acts of distance. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they had blocked a loved one on social media in the same period, and 30% said they had removed someone from a group chat, according to the survey.
Going no contact has long carried a stigma as an extreme, relationship-ending step reserved for abusive or deeply toxic situations. This data suggests a third of American adults, and a majority of the youngest ones, now treat it as a more ordinary response to being disrespected or drained by someone they were once close to.
The generational gap is stark enough that it points to a real change in norms rather than a one-year blip. Gen Z going no contact at three times the rate of Baby Boomers suggests younger adults are drawing firmer lines around who gets access to them, even within families, at an age when older generations were taught to keep working on strained relationships rather than end them outright.
