As young Americans increasingly turn away from traditional media such as TV, radio and print in favor of getting their news through social media, concerns should be raised regarding how this may impact their perceptions and opinions.
48% of U.S. adults reported that they got news from social media “often” or “sometimes” in a 2021 Pew Research Center poll, which is down from 53% in the 2020 Pew poll, but a significant amount nonetheless.
Looking at political coverage specifically, 18% of U.S. adults use social media as their primary source of political news according to another 2020 Pew poll, a percentage only trumped by the amount of U.S. adults who use news websites/apps for political news (25%).
That same poll also shows what most would have already assumed: that most of the people who use social media as a primary source of political news are between the ages of 18 and 29 (48%). Not only that, but the 18-29-year-old demographic also makes up the smallest percentage of users of traditional media, such as print (7%), radio (12%) and network TV (5%).
This shift to social media for news comes as a result of the ever-rapid integration of technology into society (particularly by that younger generation), but likely also comes as a result of the overall distrust of the media, with only 37% of U.S. adults trusting the media to report the news “fairly” and “accurately” according 2021 Gallup poll.
The use of social media as a primary news source raises a number of concerns, including the creation of echo chambers and the absence of fact checking and gatekeeping, regardless of the reasons for this shift. It is easy to create an echo chamber—an environment in which one only encounters beliefs that concur with their preexisting ones, reinforcing prior beliefs and ignoring alternative beliefs—accidentally (or intentionally) in a setting where one decides what they are shown and from whom they wish to receive information. Echo chambers aren’t unique to social media, but the design of the platforms lends itself to their creation, giving users the ability to receive more of a certain perspective (following, liking) and filter out others entirely (blocking, muting or even simply not interacting).
Beyond a user’s direct influence over what they see on social media, the algorithms of social media platforms function to send users similar content to that which they already see/like, further solidifying their schemata.
It’s not hard to see how these echo chambers can develop over time as a result of seemingly insignificant decisions, even when done unintentionally. A few offhand likes and follows, combined with the odd block or two, and the feedback loop has already started. From there, all the offered perspectives become uniform under the guise of being a true consensus, leading the user to a false sense of reality.
Naturally, this requires users to carefully curate the content they consume in order to receive unbiased and balanced coverage. In addition, social media hosts a lot of false information, making it even more critical to be cautious about what one believes. According to the 2020 Pew survey, those who rely on social media as their primary source of political news were more likely than any other group to be exposed to conspiracy theories, with 26% of them being exposed “a lot” and 54% being exposed “a little.” On top of this, the social media group also showed some of the lowest amount of political knowledge, with 57% displaying “low political knowledge” and only 17% displaying “high political knowledge (only the “Local TV” group performed worse).
The first set of figures is more revealing because exposure to misinformation can alter one’s perception of what is true (especially under the false pretense of viewing coverage that is balanced and accurate). While the results of the second set of figures could reasonably be due to a general lack of interest in politics, as is frequently the case with the younger generation that makes up a lot of the social media group, the first set is more revealing. Traditionally, media outlets act as gatekeepers of information, regulating the flow of information and what viewers see, and while this is not a flawless system by any means, whatever protection that it does offer is diluted in an environment where people can post whatever they want.
