Gen Z’s take on authenticity

Research made by Wunderman Thompson show that seven in ten Gen Z’ers state that social media shows an authentic representation of who they are. What is even more interesting is that authenticity according to Gen Z’ers has many faces. Your authentic self on TikTok, is very different to your authentic self on Telegram which is very different to your authentic self on Twitch. But they are all authentic, meaning authenticity holds a kind of pluralistic quality.

This can be seen in contrast to the Gen Z want for authenticity in brands, but here authenticity means something else. According to research made by IBM Gen Z’ers is looking for brands to be transparent, qualitative and authentic. They’re not easily swayed by marketing, and they have the digital savviness to navigate between real and fake claims. They want to have evidence from friends, family and celebrities and transparency from brands to make up their own minds whether something is real or not and of good quality. For a brand to be authentic means it should be able to demonstrate: continuity, credibility, integrity and symbolism.

At least to me it sounds like brands are being measured by another definition of authenticity than that the Gen Z’ers are using on themselves. Maybe this is connected to Gen Z’ers ability to not think in binary terms? Millennials like myself tend to think in more binary terms; public or private; publish or conceal; hot or not. Maybe authenticity is just the latest concept to be rer-interpreted by the fluid Gen Z’ers?