Market forecasting suggests that by 2023, $517 billion will be spent globally exclusively on social media advertisements. (Maguire, 2020). Generation Z's purchasing power is estimated to be 140 billion dollars in 2019 and is expected to grow. As such, this study's primary purpose is to examine Generation Z purchase behavior, specifically, if there is a relationship between age, income, or race and the number of purchases made as a result of exposure to social media advertisements. Additionally, the study examines if there is a relationship between age, income, and race on purchase type, including clothing and apparel, electronics, and personal care. A 19-question survey was distributed to participants between the ages of 18-24. The survey collected data on the participant demographics, thoughts on social media advertising, and purchasing habits. Statistical analysis is used to interpret the data. The Independent variables for the study are race, age, and household income. The dependent variable is the number of purchases. Descriptive preliminary findings suggest that social media advertising is influential on Generation Z consumers, and this segment most purchases the clothing category.

Currently, many U.S. state governments have state-labeled logo programs, such as CA Grown or Ohio Proud, which allow local businesses to affix origin information to the products they market within and outside their states. With numerous social and food justice movements becoming more widespread, the public is becoming increasingly aware of the origins and of their food. Consumers have responded positively to state-labeled logo programs, boosting local food sales significantly and drawing attention from industry leaders and academics alike. Thus, comprehensive research is necessary to understand consumer attitudes and motivations for buying local products. To this end, we first systematically search for articles on the topic from agricultural economics and marketing literature, synthesized and integrated past research, and developed a framework that will facilitate future research. Further, we investigate consumers’ attitudes and purchase intentions of the products made in their own state and assess factors that could influence consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions, such as state ethnocentrism, vertical collectivism, and need for cognition. Data was collected from 528 students from two different state universities located within the United States. Results indicate that consumers have more favorable attitudes towards and greater purchase intentions for the products made in their own state and that such State-of-Origin effects were further moderated by the level of state ethnocentrism held by residents of the state. This research provides insights into government agencies and marketing literature by extending Country-of-Origin research and investigating State-of-Origin effects in a novel way.

The COVID-19 pandemic had an unprecedented impact on college students. Since society largely shut down due to the pandemic, students had to adjust to no longer seeing their friends and romantic partners in person. Research has found that college students' friendships are an important factor in their academic success and psychological well-being. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to assess college students’ social media use to maintain friendships and romantic relationships during the pandemic. This will be measured using an adapted version of Pfeifer’s (2020) online survey, Adolescent Social Connection and Coping During COVID-19 Questionnaire. The survey will be administered via the snowball technique through social media outlets. It is expected that participants will report increased social media contacts with friends and romantic partners compared to pre-pandemic. Also, their reported level of social connectedness will be lower than it was pre-pandemic due to fewer in-person interactions and limited social activities. The findings are expected to have implications for future research related to in-person interactions in friendships and romantic relationships of college students. Also, future researchers should look at mental health as related to the pandemic’s effects on friendships and romantic relationships.