Gen Z is known for many monumental movements over the past couple of years. They are especially known for their accepting nature and capability for growth in such short periods of time, but this generation has also fallen victim to the same trends it mocks the former for. When it comes to social media, most people allow themselves to believe what is laid in front of them with little to no question of its truth. Gen Z for years has poked fun specifically at the older generations’ tendency to soak up Facebook news and posts with no critical thinking used to break down the glaring issues with the information provided. But with the rise of social media, this generation has begun to do the same. Now, instead of just one platform to try and find their way through, they are always rotating through an average of three-to-four a day with thousands of posts and opinions in their face.
This is an issue on its own, though it is partnered with the lack of media literacy training users get (despite a pop-up or two when a highly criticized post is on your feed.) Media literacy is the ability to consume media and be able to decipher which parts of what you are viewing are fake, or exaggerated, and which parts are real. This is a problem that especially arises around election cycles, where targeted ads and posts are shared that can influence viewers who do not recognize the key signs that the information is not completely true and is written specifically to sway your opinion.
Programs have been forming that originally targeted media literacy for seniors, but they have expanded to educate teenagers and young adults as well as they have begun falling prey to this issue. At the end of the day, it is much harder to target each case of misinformation on every social media platform than it is to teach the whole how to be media literate enough to safely navigate media.
With that background, here are a few easy tricks anyone can use to ensure that they are, with the least amount of effort possible, safely navigating through social media.
- Avoid instantly reacting to a post. Many accounts are built around the shock value and share factor of their posts. Though under a lot of the information provided, there may be truth, often it is through a lot of exaggerations and incomplete facts that you can find the truth.
- Ask questions about the content you are seeing. Who wrote the article? Why was the article written? Who are the sources? Why is this post on my feed? Is there bias in the information provided? By asking yourself a few simple questions, you begin to work through the potential gaps in information very quickly without having to put in much extra work.
- Following the previous step, try to find at least one other post or article that mirrors the information provided. Though this does not mean the information is entirely true, the odds are better in this case and may lead you to a more thorough explanation of the situation. This is an extra step that does not always need to be taken, especially if you already found the answers you were looking for in the questions you asked earlier.
- Avoid sharing the post! It seems simple, but these posts are geared towards clickbait and shock value, which will lead to the viewers reposting it on their stories or sending it to their friends, so the intended message is shared, but this only ensures that potential misinformation is shared. Luckily, platforms like Instagram and Twitter are working to identify widely shared posts that contain misinformation, but the system is not perfect and the best shot at preventing the spread is just avoiding sharing posts altogether.
- Consider the timing of the post. Was it posted amid a very publicized political issue? Or during a large world event? Or especially around an election? These things create conversation, and conversation can easily be swayed with the right amount of information distribution. Be aware of what the creators may be getting out of you believing what they are sharing and try to have an extra level of awareness.
These steps may seem daunting, superstitious, or even just too much work at first. However, after trying them a few times, they begin to become second nature, which completely changes the way social media is approached by all generations. They are tricks that are easily teachable and may even one day become a part of the curriculum as social media’s presence in younger generations grows.