Generation Z and disinformation. Social media change reality
The video begins with the flashy red letters: « Democrats’ election fraud in the primaries in 2016 caught on tape ». Then there is a series of blurred cameras recordings, showing gross cases of falsification of voices. The only problem: In fact, the fabricated clips present election fraud in Russia. Would you be fooled?
Fast search on Google would easily reveal the dubious source of the film, along with press articles overthrowing his claims. However, when researchers from the Stanford University examining the media skills of young people – the ability to accurately assess information in the wilderness of mass media – They showed the film 3446 to high school students, only three managed to identify the Russian connection. Experts point out that « Echo chambers » are particularly important in creating a curved image of reality. What exactly is it?
« There is a digital native myth that because some people grew up with digital devices, they are well prepared to understand the information that these devices provide, » says Joel Breakstone, who managed the study of 2021, « The results were sobering. » This is an alarming truth about the generation with, confirmed by numerous studies and what we can all observe with our own eyes: The generation most using the internet worst distinguishes facts from fiction in it.
This becomes a problem when the Internet – and more specifically social media – have become the main source of news for the younger generation. About three out of five representatives of the generation from 13 to 26 years old say that they draw news from social media at least once a week. Tiktok is a particularly popular platform: 45 percent People aged 18 to 29 stated that they regularly read messages in this application.
While social media can make messages more available, there is also a small quality control of information on platforms. And although people of all ages are detecting disinformation – which is becoming more and more difficult in the face of the development of artificial intelligence – members of the Z generation are particularly susceptible to fraud. Why?
There is a dangerous feedback loop. Many young people become deeply skeptical towards institutions and more prone to conspiracy theories, which means that they avoid the main information services and immerse themselves in narrow internet communities – which then feeds them with their frying based on powerful algorithms and even more deepens their distrust. This is a kind of media consumption, which is drastically different from the consumption of older generations, which spend much more time with the main media, and the consequences can be gloomy.
I saw it in my social circles, where friends at the age of 20 begin to repeat what they see on Tiktoku, as if it was a fact. My colleagues and I often ask now whether the « source » from which someone took information is a movie on a thicket and at least whether he checked it later on Google. The answer usually is: no.
The disinformation that people see on tiktoku and other social media, hesitates from wicked to absurd. An example is in which some young people in the application seriously questioned the life story of Helen Keller, who was successful, even though she was deaf and blind (« Did she get any money for lies throughout her life? » – asks one of the users).
Just last year, when Hurricans Helene and Milton hit North Carolina and Florida, the government’s claims about « geoengineering » of weather gained popularity in social media, because people suggested that democrats were behind the harsh of areas with a large republican population. Beef tallow as skin care is the latest trend. If some teenagers next to you smell fat with fries, they could fall victim to films that claim that beef fat is good for your face, despite dermatologists’ warnings.
The common denominator of all these viral conspiracy theories on Tiktoku is that they are driven distrust to institutions – from schools to the national weather service and medical facilities. And this attitude is transferred to the media: only 16 percent. Representatives of the Z generation have strong confidence in the news. It is no wonder that so many young people avoid traditional publications and are looking for information on social media, often from unverified accounts, which do not check much.
The consequences for American politics are potentially huge. Without any course correction, the increasing part of the electorate will become a victim of false messages and marginal conspiracy theories on the Internet – probably leading to hyperpolarization of our policy to new peaks.
When it comes to checking the facts, the Z generation usually has its own separate method: it opens the comments section. « They tend to feel comfortable, relying on the collective trust, so they rely on Yelp reviews or Amazon reviews, » says Daniel Cox, a interviewer who examines young people. – It sounds like a similar thing, right? They see what other people say about the article or product and make decisions on this basis – he adds.
In the era of the Almighty algorithm, comments are often « echo chambers ». There are not many opposing concepts, because the algorithm transmits video similar to thinking people who share the same perspective on this subject, regardless of its accuracy.
– (algorithm) helps to segregate people in a way that disturbs me deeply – adds Cox. – We do not share the same online experience – we have very separate, different experiences due to gender, sexual orientation or political views. … everything you experience can find on the Internet as a kind of confirmation – adds the expert.
This is a two -party trend: both supporters and opponents of President Donald Trump are just as susceptible to false information that is in line with their worldview.
A great example of this dynamics is the false Viral « quote » from Trump, which allegedly considers whether the Colombia district should be renamed the district of America. The sound was overthrown as generated by artificial intelligence, but you would not know it when looking at the Film Comments section reacting in disbelief. In one film, which gained over 250,000 Likes, comments do not question the source of the audio clip, but rather experience the same horror.
– Why do we have the stupidest president in America’s history? One of the comments says. You have to scroll far down the commentary to see the explanation from the creator of the film, which the day later commented on:
I think it’s artificial intelligence
These « echoes » chambers help explain the growing passion of the generation from conspiracy theories. We crossed the stereotype of the loner in the basement in a hat made of aluminum foil; Today, a man enclosed in a political cocoon is particularly susceptible to disinformation. You can’t only blame young people for the lack of digital skills.
Reading comprehension guilty of the popularity of conspiracy theories?
At school, students learn to read with understanding and – what, as disinformation researchers say, unintentionally strengthened the idea that students should bite into one film and assess its accuracy with their eyes, instead of lowering the site and opening Google. Disinformation technology is developing quickly and more and more difficult to distinguish the truth from falsehood based on observation itself. In the case of older generations that went to the internet later in life, there is still a certain natural skepticism to what they see on the web. Young people must be taught this.
– Representatives of the Z generation are extremely susceptible to disinformation compared to older age groups, not only because of their habits related to social media – says Rakoen Maertens, a behaviorist from the University of Oxford. – This is also because they have less life experiences and knowledge that allow them to distinguish between reality – he adds.
Maertens, who helped create a test measuring that a person can be deceived with false headers, claims that although currently representatives of the Z generation are the most susceptible to false news, there is hope that over time they will become better in detecting falsehood, just like generations before them.
There is also another, much more depressing alternative, which can be equally likely – that the rest of the population will divide the fate of the generation of Z.
In the end, as the Internet is increasingly entering human life, and more and more platforms are adopting algorithms that limit content to specific content, even older generations that have preserved skepticism, can take over the habits of media consumption typical of young people – and become equally susceptible to conspiracy theories and disinformation powered by artificial intelligence.
« It’s a system problem, » says Breakstone. – Evidence clearly indicates that people of all ages have difficulty understanding the overwhelming amount of information they come across on the Internet, and we must find ways to support people, find better ways to understand the content of streamly sent on their devices – he explains.
The article was based on the translation of the text from Politico. Its author is Catherine Kim
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