With their eyes fixated on their screen, finger swiping through TikTok finding millions of videos of different topics and ideas that has initiated an endless cycle of scrolling. One video is taking a glimpse into beauty influencers current skin care routine. However with one more swipe, there is breaking news about the latest topic. Sharing news that was once exclusively on newspapers and stations with professional journalists is now also on social media platforms.
Current teenagers, part of the first digital generation, were born in a time with easy access to social media. Many were practically raised on it as a result. Therefore, in comparison to older generations, teens are much more dependent on social media, whether that be for receiving advice, venting or getting news.
“I mainly use TikTok and Instagram to get a lot of my news,” said Senior Felipe Dominguez. “However, I feel like I get a lot of misinformation because it all fits my perspective and my beliefs. Like I get information on human rights and climate change, but a lot of information seems to be misconstrued.”
However, with such a dependence upon social media for news concerns many students at Spring Valley when it comes to the spread of misinformation. Many expressed that it was a prevalent problem on social media platforms, but the fact still remains that all still use social media as a news source.
“There are always different perspectives about whatever I see on social media,” said Senior Halaya Rencher. “I feel like I can’t even make my own opinion because of all the different perspectives that are set on social media.”
Furthermore, many teens point to content creators or influencers as being at fault for spreading misinformation. They feel that influencers may unintentionally allow their perception of an event to seep into their reporting of it.
“Whatever the influencer may say, people tend to follow or agree to it,” said Senior Jafet Pichardo. “Influencers hear news from somewhere else and then spread it on social media based on their own opinion.”
After all, influencers do possess what their name implies, influence, one of several reasons why the spreading of misinformation is as prevalent a problem as it is. Another one of the responsibilities of news sources is to report without bias so that viewers can develop their own opinion on the matter in the absence of external influence.
Yet, if an influencer imparts a personal bias on the news they are sharing, they have the ability to impact their views’ perceptions in a negative manner, one in which views adopt the creator’s opinions instead of forming their own.
“They [influencers] talk a lot about social issues, but a lot of the time it’s based on their own opinions,” said Senior Esther Kim. “Because of it, teenagers’ perception could be misconstrued, because the influencers opinion matters that much to their audience.”
Despite this general distrust of influencers among teens, many find that their trust levels still vary depending on how much they like the creator. When one likes the content creator, they are more likely to trust the news that he or she shared.
“When I see influencers say something, I am most likely to believe whatever they say,” said Senior Cedric Tayag. “I trust the information mainly because it’s from a source that I enjoy and the information that they [the influencer] are sharing seems more believable than if someone I had never heard of or someone I disliked shared it.”
The agreement over the fact that getting news from social media can negatively impact teens, however, is something that some believe. Social media could be a place that allows them to view a wide range of perspectives that grant them a greater understanding of the news and in turn, a greater understanding of what one can feel about news.
“Sometimes on my friends’ instagram stories I see multiple different perspectives on many issues,” Rencher said. “It makes me have a wider range of ideas but it makes it hard to find my own opinion about the topic.”
However, there is always going to be a negative side to social media and how that could affect someone. For some, news is just an example to push something so that others can believe the same thing in order to gain something out of it.
“The news I get off of social media just isn’t reliable because it shows only one perspective,” Dominguez said. “Nothing that I have seen would’ve shown the opposite perspective. Also a lot of the time the information may not be very good to use because it can be very hurtful and just sometimes plainly not true yet seems favorable.”
So, in spite of the potential downfalls that come with using social media as a news outlet, many teens find ways to work around the negatives. Additionally, there are ways to combat the spread of misinformation on social media platforms, opposed to eliminating or discrediting them as a news source altogether. Regardless, it is evident that social media has played a valuable role in keeping the younger generation informed and at least for the foreseeable future, it will only continue to do so.
