Gen Z may be more immune to the lure of misinformation because younger people apply more context, nuance and skepticism to their online information consumption, experts and logic suggest.
As the first generation to grow up with social media, Gen Z has an innate comprehension of how to create and move online content, which makes them less receptive to misinformation.
How does it work? An innate understanding of social media influence, virality and algorithms among Gen Z could disarm the misinformation and disinformation racking the Philippines. Most older generations — even millennials— are not as cognizant about online influencer culture, the utility of hashtags or how to intentionally curate their feed.
Around 83% of Gen Z college students say they get the majority of their news from social media or online news sites. But despite it being their go-to source for news, young people are skeptical of social media. Just 7% said they found it to be the most trustworthy news platform. More than half said online newspapers or media sites were the most trustworthy, and 16% chose physical newspapers such as this.
Truth is younger people are confident in their ability to detect false information, but have less faith in older generations. They are internet locals because they swim through so much content like no other and they're wildly savvy at spotting bogus content.
So at the end of the day, misinformation and fake news might not go away instantly with the next generation, but it will be far better understood – which is a good bengining.