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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Generation Z falls for online misinformation
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MIT Technology Review
@techreview
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 in the first place. This research has lessons for all of us.
Why Generation Z falls for online misinformation
We can all learn from how todays young people evaluate truth online.
technologyreview.com
8:45 PM · Sep 18, 2021
https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/30/1026338/gen-z-online-misinformation/
A teenage girl peers gravely at the camera, the frame wobbling as she angles her phone at her face. A caption superimposed on her hoodie shares an ominous warning: If Joe Biden is elected president of the United States, trumpies will commit mass murder of LGBT individuals and people of color. A second caption announces, this really is ww3. That video was posted to TikTok on November 2, 2020, and liked more than 20,000 times. Around that time, dozens of other young people shared similar warnings across social media, and their posts drew hundreds of thousands of views, likes, and comments.
Clearly, the claims were false. Why, then, did so many members of Generation Za label applied to people aged roughly 9 to 24, who are presumably more digitally savvy than their predecessorsfall for such flagrant misinformation?
Ive worked as a research assistant at the Stanford Internet Observatory since last summer, analyzing the spread of online misinformation. Ive studied foreign influence campaigns on social media and examined how misinformation about the 2020 election and covid-19 vaccines went viral. And Ive found that 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 in the first place.
Offline, when deciding whose claims should be trusted and whose should be ignored or doubted, teenagers are likely to draw on the context that their communities provide. Social connections and individual reputations developed through years of shared experiences inform which family members, friends, and classmates teenagers rely on to form their opinions and receive updates on events. In this setting, a communitys collective knowledge about whom to trust on which topics contributes more to credibility than the identity of the person making a claim, even if that identity is one the young person shares.
*snip*
Wingus Dingus
(8,049 posts)I've just spent weeks on YouTube watching tutorials on concrete repair, etc. in preparation to make repairs and sell my house. That's pretty much everyone's first go-to, I guess, unless you're 70 and up.
LakeArenal
(28,713 posts)Too lazy to research anything.
Too entitled to think they are wrong.
Sympthsical
(8,925 posts)Currently studying cancel culture in social psychology.
One of the aspects that keeps cropping up over and over again is how social media create fear in respondents of being singled out in some way.
In trying to figure it out, questions will be asked like, "Have you ever responded on social media to agree with something you may disagree with in whole or in part?" Another question will be, "Have you ever not responded on social media about something you disagree with, because you feared consequences?"
By absolute far, the most common response is the non-responding option. People will just shut up out of fear of being wrong or disagreeing with the consensus. Fear of ostracization is a powerful motivation - particularly with teenagers.
What social media are teaching people in this regard is not going to make for a well-adjusted adult.
AZProgressive
(29,322 posts)I have my real name on Twitter so I dont say anything on there besides retweeting because Im exposed to the world there so if I say something stupid Im more likely to be piled on.
The same can happen here but one thing I like about DU over Twitter is I dont have a character limit so it is easier to explain myself.
However, just chilling in the real world is good enough for me so not worried about having a major influence on social media. Those that should shut up are actually the loudest ones on there though.
Sympthsical
(8,925 posts)The only place I do is Facebook, but that's family and friends. It's protected so no one can see it, and I don't post about politics on there anyway. All my posts are life updates, random pictures, or stupid shit I'm doing at home.
Working in HR, I know mixing your identity in with social media is a bad idea. We've gotten anonymous e-mails and things all, "Did you see what your employee said on Twitter?!"
First off, I do not care. Does it affect the company in any way or have bearing on their job performance? No? Do not care.
But in a social media world where people think being some kind of Stasi informant is something to aspire to, no way. If I ever want to cultivate an online presence for professional reasons, politics will be as far away from that feed as one can possibly get.
AZProgressive
(29,322 posts)It was worth it in the end because I have follows and followers I could never get again like I have Amy Klobuchar as a follower but she follows over 100,000 people.
Im very careful what I say online but that is because of me. Not worried about Stasi informants, as long as the site administrator lets me post there or here Im not really worried about and my post is more likely to get deleted at DU rather than Twitter so Im careful what I say here as well.
Response to AZProgressive (Reply #10)
Post removed
Sympthsical
(8,925 posts)There's a lot of research on this topic, and I'm gearing my master's towards it because it's so fascinating and relevant.
Glancing through, my first thought is you see this hitting Gen Z more because more Gen Z'ers are deep into social media and the bubbles they create. They grew up with all of this. But any age group with similar social media behaviors would be prone to it.
How often are articles posted here, immediately taken as truth, and then way after the fact it turns out to be complete bullshit? But because it fit the identity of our party, narrative, or ideology, it was taken at face value with little investigation. Sometimes, people won't read past first paragraphs or even headlines.
Happens All. The. Time.
I'd love to get my hands on the raw data this article is based on to see if my suspicions are true.
Part of the reason I'm shifting career gears towards psychology/therapy is because I think we're about to see a serious mental health crisis in the next ten to twenty years because of social media. It's already arriving, when we look at rates of anxiety and depression. Social media are literally messing with how the human brain processes information, social behavior, and emotional response.
Being in these bubbles and forming identities around them are fucking people up. Our neurobiology was never designed for this.
cbabe
(3,438 posts)books.
Americanon: An Unexpected US History in Thirteen Bestsellers by Jess McHugh
The books that gave us an American identity. Sense of belonging. Common morals and values.
Ben Franklin, Webster, Emily Post. Betty Crocker. And more.
MineralMan
(146,189 posts)believing anything someone tells them. No fact checking. No thinking. No nothing.
This information did not require a lot of study, really. Simple observation would have come to the same conclusion, but it wouldn't be limited just to Gen Z people. It is true of everyone, pretty much. The incurious and unthinking will believe whatever is told to them by someone they thing knows what they're talking about.
Treefrog
(4,170 posts)Ive seen people swallow complete nonsense right here.
Aristus
(66,075 posts)Silent3
(15,018 posts)...I can't think of any reason to frame this issue in terms of age.
Perhaps the title should be, "Why Generation Z falls for online misinformation as much as everyone else".
I've certainly lost much faith in recent years that many people get much wiser as they get older.
Donkees
(31,075 posts)In the days after the adaptation, widespread outrage was expressed in the media. The program's news-bulletin format was described as deceptive by some newspapers and public figures, leading to an outcry against the broadcasters and calls for regulation by the Federal Communications Commission.[2] Nevertheless, the episode secured Welles's fame as a dramatist.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama)