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Don’t know something? Don’t “Google” it — “TikTok” it.
The kids these days are abandoning the trusty search engine in favor social media and other unorthodox means of online research.
Pulling data from an April 2024 survey of 2,000 Americans conducted by Forbes Advisor and Talker Research, Bernstein reported that 45% of Gen Z users have a higher likelihood of using social media search functions instead of Google, whereas 35% of millennials, 20% of Gen X and less than 10% of Boomers did the same, per Fortune.
“Younger audiences are ‘searching’, not ‘Googling’,” Mark Shmulik, an analyst at Bernstein, wrote in a note on Friday, Fortune reports. “And they increasingly head to social media like TikTok for restaurant recommendations, directly to scaled aggregators like Amazon for retail, and generative AI search like ChatGPT to get their homework done.”
On platforms like TikTok, a search for a recipe, DIY project or restaurant recommendations yields hundreds if not thousands of videos. Young people, Google’s senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan said at a conference in 2022, look for “a place for lunch” on socials — “they don’t go to Google Maps or Search.”
The shift is, in part, because Zoomers feel as though creators are more authentic, unbiased and trustworthy. On TikTok, “you see how the person actually felt about where they ate,” said Nailah Roberts, 25, told The New York Times in 2022.
In 2016, only approximately 40% of Gen Z said they used social media as a primary method of searching, but in 2023, that number jumped to 53%, Fortune reported, citing data from GWI Core.
The young generation already relies on social apps like TikTok as a primary news source, relying on their favorite influencers to inform them about world events or major pop culture moments, signaling a shift in the way users consume media.
To keep up with the competition, Raghavan committed to a new “journey” into “visual image forms.”
According to Fortune, Google invested in technology, such as the company’s augmented reality glasses or the “Ask Photos” feature that allows users to inquire about details in images.
“Gen Zers have also grown up in a relatively mature Internet,” Shmulik said.
“It’s second nature for these users to go direct to the source…This world isn’t big and scary, it’s just home for Gen Z.”