14/06/2021
CROWDSOURCING | Generation Zās fact-checking practice to combat fake news
by Margarett Lynn Silagan
In this time when technology plays a vital role in our lives, it will be difficult to spend a day without consuming one. In almost every aspect of our daily routine, we use the help of advanced engineering to ease our life. With the progress and usage of the world wide web, surfing the internet became a piece of cake. As everyone adapts to it, negative effects are slowly entering the scene.
Since news and other worldly information can be posted online in just a click, we became more subjected to fake information. Generation Zs who are into social media should be the ones who always need to verify the information before sharing it with other people. With their birth year ranging from 1997 to 2012, it is the age of netizens who consume the world wide web on a day-to-day basis. Now the real question is, do Gen Zs fact-check?
According to the survey conducted, 73 percent of the participants do fact-checking. This number is relatively low comparing to the fact that all of them consume media and share posts most of the time. As internet users, we should be well aware of the frauds that might cause confusion or harm to other people who see it. 82.4 percent can define fact-checking properly. However, 73.5 percent share posts without verifying the source, and 50 percent of the participants read an article even though the page itself is relatively suspicious. With this number, we can comprehend that Gen Zs know how to do fact-checking but just refuse to do so.
Since it is quick to share fake information on the internet, people often share alleged words or social media posts of celebrities, politicians, and other public personalities. This is alarming knowing that many people believe them and share their thoughts on social media. 70.6 percent of the participants verify if the alleged line of a public personality is real and 67.6 percent fact-check if the trending post of a public personality is legitimate. With these results, it is understandable how Gen Zs are vulnerable to fake information nowadays.
Another important thing is to let others know that what they shared was fake information or it came from a non-reliable source. Although it might be difficult to say this, we should still be responsible to not further share the fraudulent information. Despite knowing the best thing to do, only 61.8 percent of the participants inform others who share fake information.
Not everything we see on the internet right now is based on the truth. And as media users, we have to be mindful of the things we believe. Fact-checking is what we should always do every time we consume media. As GenZs, we can make this world a better place by influencing others to be responsible social media users. The internet is made to be an informative and safe place for us, not an instrument for chaos and confusion. If anyone practices fact-checking, no one would be vulnerable to frauds anymore.
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