Helping Students Find the Truth in Social Media

High school students are one with their smartphones, their nimble thumbs tapping their thoughts and desires for posting on social media accounts. As they access platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook, students read, view, and listen to up-to-the-minute content, responding quickly with words, images, or videos while sharing to their own accounts. With the rapid-fire pace of social media proliferation, many account keepers respond or share without confirming a post’s source or accuracy. Stony Brook University School of Journalism recognizes that “the conflict between speed and accuracy [of information] has escalated.”

Students need to learn the skills of news and media literacy, and specifically social media literacy, so they can figure out what’s real, what’s exaggerated, and what’s just made up. Then these information consumers can reflect on what they experience in digital social media realms and decide whether to comment on, share, or ignore inaccurate or extreme information.

The ultimate goal is for students to develop an active role with social media and that they “interrogate information instead of simply consuming it.” Remember, Abraham Lincoln warned that we should not believe everything we learn through social media. (And, by the way, that statement is a fake). For more information click on the link below.

Helping Middle and High School Students Find the Truth in Social Media | Edutopia

Mrs Annie Williams, College Counsellor