Gen Zs are Searching on TikTok over Google, but Is This True for Africans?

Sep 28

TikTok is overtaking Google as the search engine of choice for Gen Z, but with 1 in 5 videos on TikTok reported to contain misinformation, Western media is concerned. 11 Afro Gen Zs shared their thoughts.

After dominating the search engine market for almost two decades, Google is finding its optimized text results working against it in the battle for Gen Z’s attention. Culturally relevant results presented in authentic audiovisual format is making social media like TikTok Gen Z’s new go-to search engine. “We visual learners prefer videos of what we’re looking for,” says Diana, a 22-year-old TikTok user and content creator I spoke to in order to understand the appeal of TikTok.

The New York Times reported that “TikTok is the new search engine,” and “Google has noticed.” This headline, perhaps intentionally, calls to light the fact that Google, whose dominance has become a matter of fact, will almost certainly not stand by. But Google’s format of its make up is part of its brand, its nature; it can provide video search results, and it now has a function that skips you directly to the part of a YouTube video that contains the content you’re most likely looking for. A balanced information-gathering and -display process is what many have come to expect from the search engine. Therefore, a major departure from this will be a betrayal to Google’s customers that will only hurt the company. At the same time, to maintain the Google brand of innovation, it can’t just copy TikTok’s format verbatim. So, what can they do? Well, they can prove they’re better.

Google announced Search On 22 earlier this month for today, the 28th of September. In this search insights event, they plan to announce and highlight major changes to their algorithm, perhaps the biggest updates we’ve seen in recent times. They’re tagging it a transformation. That’s how much is going on to improve Google Search and make it the best at providing information. To be honest, I’m here for it. A Google Search that’s somehow better than it already is can only be a big plus. So, in the sense that the quality of information available on the internet may somehow be negatively impacted by TikTok’s rise, there’s probably nothing to worry about. We’ll have to wait and see what the event announces, but the rise of TikTok is probably not going to hurt Google in any significant way. Which leaves how it may hurt us.

Intellectuals are quick to debate the impact of what goes viral on TikTok on political and social opinions. People going to TikTok more for information presents a bigger problem when the information provided is biased or inaccurate. According to a new study, 1 in 5 videos on TikTok contains misinformation. For example, the most popular videos concerning the US election were full of hyper-partisan rhetoric, and the app provided biased search terms in suggestions, such as “covid vaccine hiv” when attempting to search “covid vaccine.”

A crisis of information is definitely building, but one can’t help but notice how centered around the United States a lot of this is. Even the data is based on a survey of US residents.

So, I asked questions.

Are African Gen-Z Searching TikTok Over Google?

This information isn’t available on the internet at the time of writing this, so I spoke to Gen-Zers living on the continent about their use of information resources, and the answers were divided pretty cleanly across the board.

There were some who used Google Search almost exclusively.

Like 23-year-old Ashraf. “I use Google o, all the time. I don’t even use TikTok like that. I think it’s the least used app on my phone even. I seldom go there. And when I do, it is either to use the video editing tools or to prepare something that will go on Instagram.”

Some used Google Search and YouTube for information.

Like 24-year-old Oshioma. “Depending on the information, it would be a split between Google and YouTube. But when it comes right down to it, probably Google more. YouTube for a more in-depth explanation. Google for a sharp-sharp, on the spot thing.”

21-year-old Oghosa responded similarly. “Mainly Google. YouTube more for things I want to learn rather than simply sourcing for information.”

22-year-old Gin and 24-year-old Daniel had almost identical responses. They said, “I use Google most. Then YouTube for stuff meant for videos.”

21-year-old Roland said, “I use Google more. Then YouTube. For stuff I don’t know, research. Then, I use Pinterest for outfit and pose ideas.”

21-year-old Ize said, “Google first, then YouTube. Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, I will use maybe for organization or brand-specific information that’s updated regularly.”

Some used Google and TikTok for varying degrees of information.

Like 22-year-old Diana. “Google or TikTok depending on what I need.”

When I asked if there were any types of information that she didn’t trust TikTok to have, she said, “Not really. I’m sure someone out there has made a video similar to what I need.”

21-year-old Tawa, relied heavily on TikTok, much in the way that western media represents most Gen Z. “Google for when I don’t really need an in-depth understanding of the subject matter. But TikTok is my go-to when I need details and explanations. I just type in whatever I’m looking for and start with the most watched videos. And I do this often. It’s so helpful because the creators take their time, pull out receipts in form of pictures, videos, published articles, all that. And often, they make two to four videos on the topic so it’s elaborate. There’s almost nothing I’ve searched for on TikTok that I didn’t find. Almost nothing. I use YouTube for school sha.”

20-year-old Osato clearly delineated the kinds of information she used both platforms for. “When it comes to things like beauty trends, and trends in general, entertainment and things I’m just curious about like magic and manifestations, I prefer TikTok because it’s real people and they have the tea. For example, this morning when I found out Adam Levine cheated on his wife, TikTok had all the tea. I went to Google and they were telling me rubbish. Same thing about beauty, skin, hair… Google doesn’t do much about all those feminine things. Yeah, basically for feminine things, TikTok works best, and only when TikTok disappoints do I go to Google. But for science things, medicine things, and just things more serious, for ‘masculine’ things, I go to Google. I think that’s how I can put it. TikTok is like YouTube Pro Max. It'll give you the same information you’ll get on YouTube in under 45 seconds. TikTok and Google are both my number one, depending on what I’m looking for.”

Others used more esoteric tools for the job.

21-year-old Brian said, “I use Duck Duck Go when I’m actually researching, Google for random stuff, and review apps for specific businesses, companies, eateries, museums, etc.

21-year-old Kachi said, “Reddit. I used to use Google more, but now I know a subreddit for everything I’m interested in, the resource depth there is just richer. I use Google services, and Instagram more recently, to supplement.

After my research, I found the golden answer: IT DEPENDS

All of the Gen Z Africans I spoke to had answers that fell within the above four ranges, with the majority either using the Google/YouTube combo or the Google/TikTok combo. TikTok wasn’t monopolizing anyone’s information pool. And more people did not use it for information they considered serious than did.

The last thing I wanted to find out was how well the Gen Zs I interviewed verified the information they received from these sources. The answers here were quite alarming.

Some did no verification, whatsoever. Some used multiple sources. Others claimed the information they usually searched for was practical and self-verifying, such as information on programming, history, medicine, and exercise. Others said the channels they used had proven themselves to be valid sources of information, and they usually scoured the comments and reviews left by others. For many, verification of information was done on Google.

Should Africa be worried? Maybe not so much about TikTok specifically as about information culture in general and developing a healthy skepticism. Sure, many Gen Zs are using TikTok for information, but that issue is much more pronounced outside Africa than it is on the continent. Here, ironically, there is more separation between information-gathering and entertainment. Also, Facebook posts, WhatsApp broadcasts, and regular news do enough misinformation in Africa that TikTok is not so much a ‘new threat’, but rather joining an existing bandwagon of misinformation-ridden social media apps.

MUSTAPHA ENESI

Mustapha is a Best of the Net nominated short story writer. He has won the 2021 K & L Prize for African Literature and the Awele Creative Trust Award. He was a finalist for the 2021 Alpine Fellowship Writing prize, the Arthur Flowers Prize for Falsh Fiction and one of his flash fiction piece will appear in the 2022 Best Small Fictions anthology. He is Ebira and a staff writer at Kenga.