From For You to the family table

Adolescent consumer learning and reverse socialization on TikTok

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19224344
AutoresBo Dhondt (0000-0003-3293-4599, Ghent University Hospital, autor correspondente), Dieneke Van de Sompel (0000-0002-4975-5530, Ghent University Hospital), Liselot Hudders (0000-0002-9585-7175, Ghent University Hospital)
Ano2026
Data de publicação2026-04-29
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoNew Media & Society (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1461-4448 • E-ISSN: 1461-7315
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/14614448261443533
OpenAlexW7159656582
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas39

This study examines how TikTok functions as an agent of consumer socialization and facilitates intergenerational knowledge exchange within families. Drawing on 20 in-depth interviews with adolescents aged 11–16, the study investigates how they acquire, interpret, and transmit consumer knowledge via TikTok’s platform design, focusing on what they learn, how they learn, from whom, why they engage, and how they pass this knowledge on to their parents. The findings reveal three key insights. First, TikTok serves as a dynamic site of consumer learning, where adolescents develop transactional knowledge, advertising literacy, and consumption motives through peer-generated content. Second, TikTok’s algorithmic and interactive features allow adolescents to verify and negotiate the credibility of information through peer feedback and participatory practices. Third, adolescents function as informal educators within their families, transferring platform-based expertise through spontaneous and deliberate exchanges. These insights advance consumer socialization theory by reframing adolescents as situated experts whose digital literacies shape intergenerational learning in the platform age

Consumer behaviour · Context (archaeology) · Perception · Qualitative research · Social learning · Socialization · Child Development and Digital Technology · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Impact of Technology on Adolescents