Staring down at their bright screens and disregarding what is going on around them,most teens spend over 75% of their time on their phones. Many liking posts, stalking people they think that are cute, looking at videos/memes or reading what they call “news.” Regardless of where you are looking – Facebook, Twitter,or Instagram – any “news” that is from these apps cannot be trusted or perceived to be true. Many news articles that are put onto social media are put there by bots or other unreliable sources. Bots are programed machines that makeup articles in attempt to stir up trouble. They purposely put out fake articles because they know people are reposting and believing them.
If you want to know real news try clicking on the NEWS app located on the home screen of your IPhone. There you will get access to articles from the top news companies such as: CNN, HuffPost, Instyle, Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, New York Times, TIME, Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post as well as many other reputable companies. These articles come directly from the source, because all of these companies have hundreds if not thousands of journalists out in the field reporting on issues and gaining first hand knowledge of what happened. Although these companies are mainly based off facts some may contain bias. You can check articles for bias here.
I can imagine some of you might say, ‘well why is it important to read news?’ Or, ‘social media is more entertaining than news, and applies more to me and my friends.’ Sure, social media creates this little bubble in which people can interact with each other in a unique way, however, news applies to everyone. It affects all areas of life- yours included. If you are oblivious to what is happening around you, you may appear uneducated.
You need the capability of understanding news for school purposes as well. Not knowing what is currently going on in the world can affect you in school. Many times, I have been in the classroom and had to write an essay over something relevant in the news. It’s very important to know news, understand news, and research news. You need it in order to form an accurate opinion on certain topics, even to be able to have a good educated discussion with another individual, which is sadly rare to find nowadays.
Social media can often take over our lives and create this belief that everything is true when it’s not. Social media cannot be your source of news- it’s not news. I mean how many times have we seen a rumor on social media that wasn’t true. Many times….that leads to the revolving cycle that social media has created. Which I call “The Inauthentic Network.” Everyone acts a certain way to get more likes. Nobody is truly being themselves and if they are, they will have a small fan base. News is very different and doesn’t need a fan base because everyone needs it.They need the information in order to know what’s going on around them.
The news has never gone out of business because of this reason: it is based off facts. The news is here to present information, not to please everyone. Social media strives to please everyone, and persuade them like or repost. Social media will twist the truth in order to gain popularity. The news doesn’t care who they upset, they just want the people to know the truth on topics.
