Gen-Z Trusts Social Media for Financial Advice More Than Any Other Generation
May 21, 2025
Influencers and viral social media trends aren’t just shaping Gen-Z’s fashion choices. They’re also impacting the generation’s financial habits.
Nearly 70 percent of Gen-Zers admit to being influenced by a financial trend they discovered online, according to a recent survey of 2,200 American adults by H&R Block’s banking app Spruce. Only 51 percent of Millennials and 27 percent of Gen-X respondents said the same.
One-third of Gen-Zers take this even further, looking to social media for financial education, Spruce says. Another survey by Charles Schwab estimates an even higher number; 72 percent of Gen-Z respondents said they go to social media and the internet for financial advice, compared with 57 percent of Millennials and 38 percent of Gen-X.
“Social media can be a great starting point for inspiration and ideas, but it’s also important to complement that information with personal research or input from a financial expert,” John Thompson, vice president of Spruce, said to Inc. over email. “By doing so, individuals can make confident and well-informed decisions alongside the insights they pick up online.”
TikTok is the most popular social media platform for financial information, according to the Spruce survey, followed by Instagram, Facebook, and podcasts.
Although they turn to the platforms for advice, younger generations seem to be well aware that investment advice shared online needs to be fact-checked. In the Schwab study, Gen-Zers graded social media platforms as the least trustworthy sources of financial information.
Still, they trust these sources much more than older generations. About 32 percent of Gen-Z respondents graded TikTok as trustworthy, compared with 13 percent of Gen-X.
Source: inc