The Generational War against Fake News

 By: Marc Anthony Brown 

mb802117@ohio.edu 

With the internet becoming more advanced with each passing day, internet users' are faced with more conflicts of fake news. Algorithms facilitate user-generated content to the forefront of user's news feed without a proper vetting system to combat misinformation. 

The battle of this misinformation nightmare falls into the hands of human judgment. While websites try their best to combat fake news, the battle can be long and tedious with little progress in the current state. 

Despite this downer approach, a growing number of users are noticing and recognizing Fake News on their news feed. Ironically it is the generation that grew up with the internet, Generation Z. 

With Gen Z, the internet has always played a role in their lives whether or not it was accessible to them at the time. With traditional media shifting to the internet, it has forced Gen Z to live in a more internet dominated world. 

Streaming services replacing cable, news and information being more accessible on the internet rather than newspapers, and globalized communication in an instant from around the world. Despite this rapid acceleration of the internet in Gen Z's lives, their processing of that information has fascinated researchers. 

Axios conducted a study among Gen Z college students learning that 83% receives the majority of their news from social media or online news sites. And while the majority received their information online, 69% of the students surveyed stated it was easy to recognize real news and misinformation. 

Gen Z has been subconsciously trained in recognizing misinformation on their timeline through their constant usage of the internet. Recognizing certain internet trends, personalities and tactics all used to gain more eyes and views among users. Meanwhile, older generations that did not grow with the internet are left as easy prey for manipulative-users online. 

Source: statista.com - Pew Research Center

The numbers on the graph provided above was generated by statista.com. The graph showcases the percentage of adults in the United States up to March 2019 that shared fake news online - whether intentionally or unintentionally. According to statista.com, 49% of adults shared fake news online that they later discovered was fake. A shocking 10% admitted to sharing misinformation intentionally while 52% claimed both. 

The struggle with older generations and misinformation is growing more every day. With older generations not understanding algorithms or recognizing the signs of a misinformation posts it causes the fake news to spread like wildfire. 

Pew Research Center in their article analyzing misinformation among Americans discovered that 49% believed news and misinformation is an enormous problem to keeping the public informed. The significance of these studies and findings may seem daunting or irrelevant to internet users who are not within the space of news and information. 

The internet allows for niche groups to form among a variety of topics and ideas. However, this is what has led to the problem formulating to begin with. 

It is not long until enemies of the United States start to use the strategies of misinformation to cause irreparable harm to society. There are arguments being made that it has already begun. However, with Gen Z becoming more adept at combating the misinformation crisis every day, there is hope on the horizon to properly educate and reform the internet landscape.