In this series, I’ve talked about how my students taught me about their use of (social) media before. Last week, I was again reminded of how very different my students are from my peers. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, yet it still did. One of my students asked me if we would really spend an entire lesson about Google, as “nobody searches in Google anymore.” Although I explained here that many people in fact still use Google, when asking around in my classroom, I had to admit that my students don’t search the web the way I do.

Gen Z searches differently

My Gen Z students open YouTube, TikTok, and of course ChatGPT. They say it’s faster, easier, and it gives them a straight answer. Many still use Google, but mostly for navigational or commercial queries: when they already know the site they want or when they’re ready to buy.

And this isn’t just classroom chatter. Recent studies show the same pattern: teens and young adults are shifting time and attention to social video and chatbots. Pew finds that teens’ use of YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat stays high, while Facebook use among teens has dropped steeply over the last decade. The Reuters Institute reports a continuing move away from traditional news sites toward social and video platforms and notes that AI chatbots are now used as a (small but growing) news source—especially by younger audiences.  In the UK, Ofcom shows 16–24-year-olds rely most on online sources (especially social), while 12–15-year-olds name TikTok and YouTube among their most-used news sources. 

And yes, ChatGPT in school is real: the share of US teens who’ve used it for schoolwork doubled from 2023 to 2024, according to Pew. 

Where is Gen Z?

I often feel like a complete boomer in my class. When asking a room of first-years about Facebook, I’ll just get blank stares. They live on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. They watch hours of YouTube.

There’s growth in places we older users barely notice, too. WhatsApp Channels has quietly become huge in Europe, big enough to be designated a Very Large Online Platform under the EU’s DSA after averaging 46.8 million monthly active users in the EU in late 2024.  My almost-11-year-old isn’t on much of the social media yet (our rule), but he’s discovered WhatsApp Channels and is all-in. Gen Alpha’s habits might evolve here rather than on “classic” feeds.

Cohorts don’t fully converge

I’m a Facebook generation user; I still Google out of habit and added ChatGPT on top. My students started somewhere else, and they’ll carry those habits forward. Media research backs this up: long-standing habits and culture shape how people access information, and age groups diverge accordingly. Ofcom shows the split clearly: 82% of 16–24-year-olds use social media for news vs 28% of 55+. My parents still watch the evening news on television. My children only watch snippets of that same news via TikTok and YouTube. I do a little bit of both.

Will people switch platforms? Sometimes, especially if a platform breaks trust (e.g., privacy). But most of us stick with what we grew up with, and the next generation grows up somewhere else.

What does this mean for marketers?

Channels will keep changing, but people will keep searching. And when someone is searching, they’re motivated. People who search for information or products are much easier to convert than people who aren’t searching. Meet Gen Z on the channels they use, and help them find you. They don’t sift through ten blue links; they jump to YouTube, TikTok, and now ChatGPT for quick, clear answers. 

So give your ideas a video doorway and a text anchor. Lead with the answer (a short FAQ helps), and make sure your pages are easy for “answer engines” to read. Readable text and well-structured data go a long way. Keep your brand tidy and consistent: same name, logo, and profiles, so credit sticks to you wherever the answer appears.

In other words, the “where” will keep shifting, but the intent stays the same. Meet that intent with helpful, portable content, and you’ll be there when a student, a parent, or a customer asks their next question, whether it’s in a TikTok clip, a YouTube how-to, or a ChatGPT summary that leads them back to a page worth saving.