Watching my son flip back and forth between three screens is a sight to behold. He has his phone, his laptop screen, and his PC monitor (on which he is playing a different game than to the one that is streaming via Youtube on his phone). His laptop screen displays his homework – a research project for Economics. However comfortable he may appear in a digital universe, research tells us that teenagers struggle to analyse websites for bias and misinformation (Wineburg et al., 2016, p. 4). Students are now using social media more and more for their source of news and information. Half of US teens recently surveyed by Common Sense Media (2019) preferred watching Youtube for their news (celebrities and influencers being popular) and 54% scrolled through Instagram, Facebook or Twitter for current affairs. It is clear that just because our teenagers seem masterful in the digital world, does not mean that they attain the knowledge and skills to keep them discerning and safe (Gardner & Mazzola, 2018, p. 6). It is no wonder that Wineburg et al. summed up the ability of teens to think critically about online material as “bleak” (2016, p. 4). This post is a short discussion about my own take on misinformation, social media, teenagers and teacher-librarians (TL).
Misinformation, “is when false information is shared, but no harm is meant” (Wardle & Derakshan, 2017, p. 5). Misinformation has been around for a very long time, but with the increased connectivity and speed that the internet brings, it now knows no bounds (Wardle & Derkshan, 2017, p. 11-12). It seems to shape-shift so quickly and one dimensional efforts to combat it do not seem to work. My own students in high school appear relatively unconcerned that there is so much misinformation (and disinformation) on the platforms they use. This does beg the question, maybe we should be less concerned about the misinformation and more concerned about its causes and consequences? (Sullivan, 2019, p. 92).
Libraries and other memory institutions play a very active role in developing information literacy skills in their patrons to meet Goal #16 of the SDGs (Msauki, 2021; UN, n.d.). Accessible and democratic institutions provide trustworthy information for today and keep it for the future (Herrero-diz & Lopéz-rufino, 2021, p. 3). School librarians are at the forefront of developing critical thinking skills in students to enable them to evaluate the materials online when they undertake research (Gardner & Mazzola, 2018, p. 6). Methods like the CRAAP test (QUT Library, 2015) and SIFT (Caulfield, 2019) are widely used as well as infographics such as IFLA’s “How to spot fake news” (IFLA, 2017). However, I think the pervasiveness of social media, and the use of it for news has taken misinformation to a whole new level of “information pollution” (Wardle & Derkshan, 2017, p. 4). We need to have a different approach when talking to teenagers about this. I do think the above mentioned methods are worthy, but we cannot rely on these alone, particularly if they are just taught in ‘stand-alone library lessons’ without the context of subject content. We also know that arguing against misinformation may only cement the belief further (Finley et al., 2017, p. 10).
As a newbie TL, I hope that I will have time with students to earn their trust. I think establishing an open relationship with students goes a long way to enable them to really listen to what we are trying to convey. Students need to be taught about how our brains work; the nuts and bolts of chemicals and neurotransmission. Misinformation spreads faster than factual news, and the more novel or emotional the information is, the faster it spreads (Vosoughi et al, 2018, p. 1146). At the end of the day, social media mimics human connections and appeals to emotions; the tiny bursts of dopamine when we are socially rewarded on platforms proving highly addictive (Haynes, 2018; Wardle & Derkshan, 2017). At times, we’ll be sharing false information without even knowing it, due to the sheer inundation of material we receive (Wardle & Derkshan, 2017, p. 13). We need to ask students to slow down and take a step back to think about what they are receiving and what they are reposting or retweeting. Being aware of how our brains work and the speed at which they work may help.
TLs need to acknowledge to students that it is not just a ‘teenage problem’; that we too get it wrong and can be susceptible to misinformation (Sullivan, 2019, p. 97). In the past, I know my students have appreciated me talking about my own mistakes and also discussing ‘the grey areas’ of things. Viewing the world in black or white, “good or bad, verified or biased” (Sullivan, 2019, p. 96) can lead to a very dichotomous process which may detract from our purposes. Others agree, stating that figuring out the difference between fact and fiction “requires a nuanced approach to the idea of objective truth” (Gardner and Mazzola, 2018, p. 6). We want students to think, not to judge and categorise in a quick second. What if we got back to basics first with teenagers? Who do they trust in their physical lives? Who do they trust online? Who do they follow? Why? Students generally love to talk about themselves and are usually open to these questions. It is important for me to note too, that working in an international school, I have a diverse range of cultures who use social media differently. For example, as opposed to the US teenagers in the aforementioned Commonsense Media research, Nygren et al. (2019, p. 87) discovered that most Swedish teenagers surveyed obtained their news from mainstream news domains, not social media platforms.
Many seem to agree that education is the way forward and that media literacy instruction in schools is imperative (Finley et al., 2017; Johnston, 2020). Modelling the creation of positive, truthful posts on the social media platforms the library uses could be helpful for students. Using social media in the library space for educational purposes may signal to students that we are not opposed to social media, but it needs to be handled with care. I have not found many “how to” sources for a TL seeking to move beyond “talking at” teenagers rather than exploring the issues of misinformation on social media with them. Finding this window of opportunity and trying out ideas will be a priority for me as I start my new TL job in August.
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References
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Caulfield, M. (2019, June 19). SIFT (The four moves). Hapgood. https://hapgood.us/2019/06/19/sift-the-four-moves/
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