Gen Z teens tell us why they stopped trusting experts in favor of influencers on TikTok

Credibility today isn’t about expertise but about who tells the most compelling story.

One reason Gen Z trusts influencers so much is that they feel like they actually know them. “Influencers feel like friends,” says Millie, a 16-year-old student from Leeds. “The more you see them, the more you trust them, even though they are technically strangers.” Their frequent posting schedule, sometimes 10-plus times a day, makes teenagers feel... See more

It had thousands of likes. It had to be true.

The problem is that when the internet keeps showing you the same viewpoint over and over until, at some point, it stops feeling like an opinion and starts feeling like fact.

Gen-Z isn’t just trusting influencers over experts, they’re redefining what “expert” even means. Doctors, journalists, and scientists are dismissed, not because they are wrong, but because they are inconvenient, a straw poll of teens told Fortune . Influencers, on the other hand, are fast, familiar, and on the medium we turn to most: our phones.

“We haven’t seen a massive drop in student knowledge, but we have seen a drop in student discussion,” said Bowry. “And without discussion, there’s no deep understanding.”