Tapping into social media

The current prevalence of social media enables more autonomy to curate content and become self-proclaimed journalists. Although it pushes for movement and change, it also magnifies the odds of misinformation and can replace traditional journalism. The reliance on social media rather than traditional journalism is also enabling those in power to use “post-truth amounts to form ideological supremacy” and serving their interests, as Lee McIntyre notes in “Post-Truth.” 

“I am a big proponent of free speech, but this is not what social media offers,” O’Donnell said. “You know, there’s free speech. However, an average citizen can’t go into a theater and yell out the word ‘fire,’ if it means people get harmed. There is a civil Supreme Court case that says you cannot. That’s the line when you’re inciting harm.”

As social media can be a form of journalism, O’Donnell and Smith agree that social media provides a “wild west” connotation, in which an average consumer might have trouble understanding the difference between a verified and unverified source.

“[Social media posts] are bite-sized. They’re quick. They’re digestible. They say what you want to say better than you might be able to put it into words,” Smith said. “And it confirms what you already believe, and it’s so easy to just retweet it, and so we do that without even thinking about it, really.”

Spanning from high school to college, politically and civically active students such as Events and Communications Director for Citizens of Metea Nethra Yuvaraj find their initial exposure of information through social media.

“I get a lot of my information today about politics just from social media,” Yuvaraj said. “But I also think that I also get misguided a lot from social media, because sometimes I’ll see like a headline or tweet or something that somebody reposts in their story. And then when I go to repost it somebody will text me like, ‘hey that’s false information.’ So I definitely do think social media is a form of journalism, I just don’t know how credible it is.”

In addition to Yuvaraj, Metea 2018 alumna Alexa Jordan struggles to sift through the news media and realizes her attitude as a media consumer has changed throughout her life. 

“When I grew up, CNN was, like, my favorite thing to do after school,” Jordan said. “I would quickly run to my computer to watch ‘CNN Student News.’ I would spend hours every day reading through news stories, and, of course, I still read new stories now, but I always need to take things that I read from basically any new source, now with a grain of salt.”

Part of navigating through the media terrain also involves the way social media algorithms work, therefore making it easier to seek confirmation bias. 

“One problem is, by doing that, we just create this massive echo chamber,” Smith said. “You’re never getting a diversity of opinion, but the other problem is, a lot of times, it’s just not right, like, it’s just not true. It’s just something that somebody whipped up on Microsoft Paint or whatever. And that’s why companies like PolitiFact, a news fact-checker website, are starting to become such an important piece.”

However, Naperville Central’s Carlson believes that it is important to destigmatize social media as a negative tool. Instead, Carlson works with his classes and deciphers media messages through strategies such as the 80/20 rule and the five questions he asks his students. 

“While I appreciate a protective parent who is keeping their child from having a stupid mistake on the internet, I also see a child who will become an adult and have no concept of how to use social media properly,” Carlson said. “Let’s train students how to use it properly, instead of making it into the devil and convincing everyone how bad it is because you know that type doesn’t help us learn anything about it.