Understanding Gen Z’s media diets and consumption habits is key to reaching the next generation of consumers, voters and entrepreneurs (these, of course, are not mutually exclusive). But this year in particular, the media landscape is undergoing visible transformation: the looming threat of a TikTok ban, platforms becoming “a lot less social,” commerce weaved into the fabric of every corner of our online existence and a recent Surgeon General’s report citing social media’s “profound risk of harm” to America’s youth. It’s arguably never been more important to understand Gen Z’s relationship with media, and not just where they’re spending their time online, but why, and who influences them.

To examine how, we went straight to the source, partnering with USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations to hear directly from the next generation in a special collaboration with Ask Gen Z, our platform for youth insights.

We wanted to think beyond data and statistics and take a more human approach, so we eschewed a traditional survey to take it a step further: We conducted a mobile ethnographic study by asking USC students to log daily video updates about the information they consumed, with the goal of hearing directly from the next generation about the state of their scrolls.