Is Generation Z really different from the rest of us? The alchemy of being born between 1997 and 2012 has resulted in a generation of young people who are not exactly non-conformist, but apparently disconnected. I mean, they must be disconnected because they see everything differently. Or is it clearer?
Jigsaw, part of Google and tasked with researching “threats to open societies,” studied the increasingly influential Generation Z to understand how they consume information, what they trust and what they don't, and how they guess at facts and opinions. true, according to a detailed report in Business Insider.
The results were surprising to Google and Jigsaw, but I could have saved them time and trouble by detailing my ongoing research into my relationship with Gen Z. My nonbinary son is 26 and has been teaching me for years what people his age do and don’t do. I understand how they connect or don’t with their peers, gather information, reach consensus, and generally don’t take actions they would perceive as pointless anyway.
My schooling began a few years ago when I discovered that they (and many other Gen Zers) don’t consume entertainment like I do. I noticed that they watched TV with subtitles. My son is not hard of hearing and the show they were watching wasn’t in a foreign language or featured people with heavy accents.
The reason was simple: the show held only part of their attention. While they were “watching,” they were also on their phone engaging on social media and viewing other content on YouTube or Tumblr. Subtitles helped them follow the action on TV.
It's much more common now for people (including me and my wife) to watch shows with subtitles, but I'm convinced that Generation Z started the trend.
My facts versus your facts
The education continued as we discussed key sociopolitical topics, and I noticed that although they never watched CNN or opened a news website, they were well versed in most of the topics of the day. If I challenged them on a point, they took note of the details about said topic that they were collecting from the grassroots level of social media, including Generation Z), and which included stories from people close to the action and other Generation Z cohorts who commented on it.
Researchers seemed surprised that Gen Zers don't read posts (especially long ones like this one) and instead scroll to the comments where the real action is (sorry, no comments on this site). From the study:
“Participants assessed their credibility by crowdsourcing by observing how others reacted to the same information…
“…Note that their practice is to go to the comments first and then to Google to confirm what you find there, using a search engine as a complement to multiple social checks.”
The researchers noted the deep distrust of the establishment that I have witnessed for years. Gen Z doesn't just believe that governments and institutions have let them down; they have the same distrust of the established media that covered them.
The study notes that Generation Z relies heavily on influencers for information and fact-finding:
“Participants used public figures and influencers as surrogate thinkers to help them filter and interpret information.”
Again, this is not a surprising development, considering this is the first generation raised on YouTube.
The age of influence
I remember when I found out that my Gen Z son, then a teenager, was following Jenna Marbles on the platform. Marbles, for a time one of the most popular influencers on YouTube, was bold, raw and unadorned, but above all fun. What she told Generation Z about the world mattered. Marbles ran into controversy and abruptly left the platform almost four years ago. Interestingly, the possibility of being canceled may have influenced that decision. Years earlier, she had posted some questionable videos, and when they resurfaced, she took them offline.
The study notes that Gen Z not only relies on influencers to help shape their worldview, but also uses comments on content to determine what kinds of reactions could get them canceled. It's a kind of real-time awareness that previous generations often lacked and struggled to develop. From the study:
“To address their fear of social error, they checked the social orientation of comments and looked for responses validated by their peers. They often remained anonymous online to avoid being “canceled.”
In some ways, the growth of social media and mobile content consumption and the rise of Generation Z as an active force in cultural, political and social conversations is a kind of symbiotic relationship. Modern media and social networks are increasingly designed to reach Generation Z where they are most comfortable:
- Short content
- Paid Influencer Driven Content
- Reddit-style comment forums return to more conventional content sources
- Content that doesn't make them feel uncomfortable.
The researchers, who did not conduct a large study but rather one that focused on anecdotes from just 35 Gen Z adults from diverse backgrounds, were also surprised to find that members of Gen Z avoid content that might upset them and do not are concerned about the proliferation of fake AI-generated content.
Much of this is a reminder to people like me that my worldview is not determined solely by my generation, but by my calling. I assume that everyone else is interested in facts, and that when they are shown, we will all agree on what is true.
Conversations with my son have disabused me of these notions. They have a concrete belief in their point of view based on information gleaned from their networks. Historical perspectives and broader context mean little to them. They have the information they need and are comfortable with their assumptions or facts.
This anecdote from the study was particularly revealing:
“[One participant] They told us that when investigating the rumor that Katy Perry killed a nun (screen-sharing a query of their choosing with us), they were disappointed to find no stories from major news sources that definitively answered this question. They went to TikTok and concluded that if Katy Perry fans hadn't intervened, the story must not be true. They trusted that Katy Perry's fans, who interacted and reported on her daily activities, would know the truth. The lack of information on current affairs in search engines led several participants to turn to social sources of information.”
change is one thing
One thing I think researchers haven't fully covered or understood is that Gen Z is an easy label to use to define people of a certain age, but it's not a fixed description of every Gen Z person.
If you think of the Boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, or Generation X, born between 1964 and 1980, these are people who are now in middle age or beyond. As groups, they are varied. Some might have been hippies in the 1970s, Reggaetonians in the 1980s, and corporate greed-mongers in the 1990s. Who knows which ones they are now?
The Gen Z population is already aging and facing new realities. They may soon start consulting the news sources their parents preferred or questioning the reliability of the hive mind's comments section.
I do not deny that Generation Z is living in an extraordinary time. No other generation grew up with ubiquitous screens or instant access to the opinions of millions of like-minded people. Their brains may be wired differently. I'm sure my person is, but I can also see glimmers of change. They, too, may soon question their sources and look for a new way to gather information and form opinions. And they will be all the better for your journey through an unexplored information space.
Like I said, I wrote this reaction about the Jigsaw study and about my own Gen Z adult because I know they don't visit sites like mine and are more likely to find out about the study through X (formerly Twitter) or perhaps TikTok or YouTube . and they will form their opinions about it based on the reactions to the study. Your reactions to this piece It will probably remain a mystery to me forever.
