From Axios article, September 15, 2020 about Gen Z cohort (born 1997-2012). The survey they had conducted tallied a vast majority of Gen Z as dependent on social media and other online news. No surprise here. But, they did not trust that same media. [OK, but why look at it then?]. And they felt they could detect fake news better than anyone older than them. This I know is true.
From my and other research about community college students, their confidence, mostly misplaced, in both their searching abilities and in their skills at know sources, is way out of line with reality. As, we in the library world taught them about information literacy, most were quite surprised and disarmed at what we showed them.
What the Axios study did find, though, is that they understand the dynamic of who posts, why they do, and the various media agendas out there. So, they may not retweet or pass along as much material as the older crowd. OK, that's good. How about turning to more reliable sources in the first place?
