It’s a Wednesday night, the Savannah sun is setting and you’re scrolling through social media. You pass a cat meme, an advertisement for nutritional greens and eventually come across a provocative news headline. What do you do?
In a 2023 survey the Pew Research Center found that half of all U.S. adults sometimes get their news from social media. However, while social media can be an invaluable tool in discovering news outlets and tracking stories, it can also be used to spread misleading and potentially manipulative information.
In order to safeguard against “fake news” and encourage social media safety, here are three steps to understand what social media literacy is, why it matters and how to practice it.
- Are you a victim of the algorithm? Is your feed boosting your biases?
Chances are the answer is yes. Each tech company tailors content based on our “likes,” online purchases and our media consumption patterns. But what is this illusive “algorithm” and how does it actually work?
According to the Institute for Internet and the Just Society, algorithms are a technical means of sorting content that analyzes users’ previous online activity and aims to present them with posts they are most likely to engage with. For example, if you like a post about Taylor Swift, it is likely that more content from or about the superstar will appear on your feed soon after.
There are different types of social media algorithms. Content-based technology seeks to match a user’s taste, while collaborative algorithms work to match users with similar interests. Both types work with the user’s personal data to cater the perfect feed. Among this curated content, you are unlikely to find posts that might displease you, bore you or challenge your biases. It is these algorithms that encourage the creation of echo chambers — a digital landscape of tailored media that favors a single viewpoint.
- What is the source of the meme, video or opinion?
Users should be particularly wary of non-established news sites, provocative headlines and out-of-context videos.
Remember to ask yourself a simple question: Who owns this site creating my content, or who works there?
Niche news sites might be the source of “fake news” — or at least biased news. One way to check how trustworthy such sources are is looking at the organization’s “About Us” pages. Does the journalist whose name is on the story have a track record of publishing articles on the topic that they are amplifying? Are they even real human beings — not so long ago whistleblowers revealed that the mainstream sports magazine Sports Illustrated was using content generated by AI bots, rather than actual people, raising questions about what could or should readers trust about those stories.
And remember, Clickbait headlines are typically sensational for a reason: the companies producing or publishing stories or listicles want to exploit the user’s emotional response and gain views. Because more views equals more money — for them.
- Do you respect diversity, or not?
Social media is full of positive information like finding the location of Pride events in your city or learning the best technique to shampoo a reluctant pup. But, social media can also be harmful.
Due to content-based algorithms, social media can be a strong facilitator of confirmation bias — the tendency to search for and accept information that aligns with one’s beliefs. In delivering personally tailored content and creating comfortable echo chambers of like-minded users, the algorithm ultimately discourages users from discovering alternate perspectives.
Understanding how the algorithm limits one’s exposure to different viewpoints is only one feature of social media literacy, but nevertheless a crucial aspect of smart news consumption. In order to evaluate the quality and accuracy of one’s media, users must break out of their comfort zones and challenge their biases.
Media is everywhere — on billboards, on magazine covers and now at our fingertips on all our screens. Don’t let social media algorithms trap you.
You can fight back by applying critical thinking to social media posts. Even a single new search can diversify your feed.
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