Man Explains Why Only One Generation Has A Genuine Ability To Differentiate What’s Real And Fake On The Internet
A skill that many of us still need to develop, especially in today's world.
fizkes | Shutterstock Social media can be a treasure trove of information. It showcases creativity and humor and creates a space for people to share information and ideas. Although platform preferences can sometimes vary between generations, nearly every age group in the population is represented on social media channels.
Like with everything, that can be both good and bad. For certain age groups, it can sometimes be hard to tell what's real and what's fake when scrolling through posts.
TikTok content creator Aaron Hulbert has a theory that one generation rises above the rest when it comes to sniffing out internet bologna, however. It all has to do with being raised before the internet was even around.
A man explained why he thinks millennials are the only generation able to differentiate between real and fake on the internet.
Hulbert said that millennials grew up without the internet but were eventually made to deal with it, especially in the case of writing research papers.
"Any research paper we did we had to have 10 different sources, and none of them were allowed to be Wikipedia or a website that ended with dot com," he said.
These rigid requirements led many millennials to be able to know what's real and what's fake on the internet since they had to verify sources extensively. They aren't as likely to believe anything that pops up on their feed; if they're suspicious, they'll look further into it or might even be able to tell right off the bat.
Many commenters agreed with his reasoning.
"We had to learn media literacy in real time!" one commenter said.
"Do you remember when we had to have printed sources AND digital ones?" another asked. "We would literally have to go to the library to research, then go online and do it again."
It's clear millennials had to become experts in research on and off the internet and, as a result, have become less likely to fall for misinformation that older generations and even younger generations often become victim to.
In the subreddit r/Millennials, one Redditor claimed millennials are "the peak of internet literacy" due to their unique experience of learning the internet as it was born.
"Beyond zillennials, many younger people are simply 'post-technology'," one Redditor explained. "They don't expect any interaction deeper than downloading apps from a store and consuming content curated by an algorithm."
Media literacy is a critical skill in today's world.
While many kids are familiar with using the latest technology, they aren't as familiar with how it can be used to spread disinformation. The same can be said for boomers, who often get stuck in an echo chamber of their own making.
In 2018, researchers out of MIT actually found that misinformation is spread most rapidly by people, not bots. In fact, the research showed that misleading or completely made-up information is 70% more likely to be shared than true stories.
“We found that falsehood diffuses significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth, in all categories of information, and in many cases by an order of magnitude,” said Sinan Aral, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-author of the study.
"In many ways, media literacy has never been more important given the ever-quickening rhythm of events and news cycles, and the dramatic rise in sites stoking hate, conspiracy theories, propaganda, and misinformation," technology industry analyst Susan Schreiner of C4 Trends told Forbes. "Discerning fact and truths from fiction and untruths is threatening our basic well-being on a personal basis as well as within the context of the greater society."
Everyone, from older adults who have pre-dated the rise of the internet to younger users who are just beginning to navigate it, needs to develop media literacy to protect themselves from disinformation and properly inform themselves of current events.
Sahlah Syeda is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.