Gen Z study from Google shows an alarming online info trend

Digital marketing firm Truelogic says the Philippines has 45 million members of Gen Z. Conversely, boomers make up 9 million, Gen X has 16 million, and the total population was 116.5 as of 2023. Unfortunately, a Gen Z study from Google subsidiary Jigsaw shows a disturbing trend.

Gen Z can discern between reputable news and AI-generated content, but they do not care. Also, they only read headlines and rush to the comments to know what everyone else says.

READ: Gen Z workers struggle with office tech

They can research subjects further, but they would rather check the opinions of their favorite influencers. In response, publications should learn more about this trend to see how to serve this new audience better. 

What does the Gen Z study say?

Marketing research firm Beresford Research says Gen Z covers people born from 1997 to 2012. Jigsaw talked to 35 of them from different backgrounds for its study.

The Google subsidiary’s Gen Z study doesn’t claim to be statistically significant. Instead, Business Insider said it mimicked anthropologists by focusing on qualitative depth rather than qualitative data. 

The researchers aimed to understand Gen Z’s “information literacy,” but they changed thief fundamental assumptions shortly after starting the study.

“Within a week of actual research, we just threw out the term information literacy,” says Jigsaw CEO Yasmin Green. 

Gen Z is “not on a linear journey to evaluate the veracity of anything.” Instead, they look for “information sensibility, a “socially informed” practice that relies on “folk heuristics of credibility.” 

In other words, Gen Zers can discern between credible news and AI-generated ones, but they don’t care. Older generations usually fact-check information, but this one doesn’t bother.

The Gen Z study reveals people aged 12 to 27 only read headlines and speed-scroll to the comments to see what everyone else says. 

They would skip an article if it’s too long. Moreover, they leave the fact-checking to like-minded, trusted influencers. 

They only keep up with the latest trends so that they can continue speaking with their social groups. “The old guard is like: ‘Yeah, but you have to care ultimately about the truth,'” Green says. 

“The Gen Z take is: ‘You can tell me your truth and what you think is important,'” she added. 

Young people don’t discriminate between going online for news and for social interaction. The Gen Z study says they acquire new information mostly via social feeds. 

Its findings suggest that news publications should determine what the Gen Z majority wants from the news. This Inquirer Tech article shares interesting insights.