Teens and misinformation
Year 7 to 10 parents and students
Young people are more likely to believe and pass on misinformation if they feel a sense of common identity with the person who shared it with them. This sense of shared experience makes it easier to believe, even in the absence of solid evidence to back up whatever is being claimed.
When offline, teenagers weigh up whose claims to trust and whose to ignore or doubt, by relying on trusted peers and respected individuals in their community. This collective knowledge about whom to trust and on which topics contributes more to credibility than the identity of the person making a claim.
In contrast, online credibility is more based on identity rather than community. And when trust is based on identity, authority is given over to influencers. They become the trusted informers on topics in which often they have little or no expertise. A Common Sense Media survey conducted in 2019 found that more than half of teenagers get news at least a few times a week from social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter and YouTube. Of those, about 60% are more likely to get it from celebrities, influencers, and personalities rather than from news media.
Making matters worse is that misinformation peddlers use sophisticated psychological techniques to trigger impulse sharing, such as being the first to share, use of fascinating graphics and/or other powerful incentives. The antidote for this is systematic education of media literacy to teach young people how to evaluate information critically.
Question: What are some of the tell-tale signs of misinformation?
