I Was Just Scrolling! Ambient Consumerism on TikTok Among Gen Z

The development of TikTok as a social commerce platform has increasingly blurred the boundaries between entertainment, scrolling, promotion, and digital consumption, particularly among Generation Z. This study examines how ambient consumerism emerges through everyday engagement with TikTok. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, the study combines a survey of 121 Generation Z respondents in Jakarta and Bandung with in-depth interviews involving 18 participants. The findings indicate that digital consumption does not necessarily begin with purchase intention but develops through routine platform engagement, including scrolling, entertainment content, algorithmic recommendations, affiliate content, live shopping, yellow-cart features, and integrated checkout mechanisms. These processes generate diverse consumption-related behaviors, from product exploration and price comparison to unplanned purchases or deliberate decisions not to purchase. The study conceptualizes ambient consumerism as a condition in which algorithmically embedded commercial exposure shapes consumption-related behaviors through everyday platform use.