The news: A recent YouGov study highlighted shifting media consumption habits—and Gen Z is leading the way. Half of Gen Zers make purchases based on social media ads compared with 41% of overall consumers. Gen Z is one of the leaders in time spent with social media, with 28% spending at least 5 hours on social platforms on the average weekday. Our take: As Gen Z proves itself as one of the most valuable demographics for advertisers, brands must tailor strategies to channels and formats that are most likely to connect with these growth drivers.

In January, our EMARKETER Daily newsletter team made some advertising and marketing predictions for 2024 on everything from AI to attention metrics.

For marketers, ‘OK, boomer’ isn’t such a bad phrase after all. Baby boomers (ages 60 to 78) make up 20% of the US population yet control $76 trillion—52% of the country’s net wealth, per the Federal Reserve as reported by The Economist. Despite marketers fixating on Gen Z, boomers wield substantial spending power and have distinct behaviors worth noting.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the digital habits across generations: what baby boomers' top digital activity is, Gen X's approach to all things digital, and how much more time Gen Zers actually spend on social media over other generations. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Paola Flores-Marquez and vice president of research Jennifer Pearson.

Here are Gen Z’s top anxieties

As the pandemic caused widespread shutdowns, consumers who traditionally preferred brick-and-mortar retail shifted at least some of their spending to digital channels.