This is an important new study that shows many kids who spend a lot of time using social media lack the ability to distinguish fact from fiction.
Of course, it does not help if parents who choose to supervise their kids’ news reading are also unable to distinguish fact from fiction (or facts that are technically true but presented in an extremely misleading way).
Yeah, first thought was students? How about a good chunk of the populace.
Obviously, a fake “news” story. Those Stanford people are really clever.
^See you didn’t pay attention, @droppedit. It’s a Wall Street Journal story. It’s a study by Stanford. Details.
I recently put a TheONION link on my facebook page, something silly that I thought was funny - people thought it was real news!
ye gods droppedit. try reading the article.
and if you question the validity of something, then do research before making a snap judgement regarding whether it is true of false. that is what the study shows kids [ and apparently some adults] dont do enough 
8-|
Talk about “snap” judgments! My reply was a joke – a fake news story about fake news stories. I’ll be here all week…
Yeah, I remember when Dan Rather broadcast some fake news, He eventually got fired.
Yours is not a fake news story dropped it.
Nice try. Try putting one of these on next time you post something you know to be false 
I graduated from college many years ago, but I still have trouble telling when news is fake.
I mean, I saw this story about how some reality TV star and former beauty pageant owner got elected president of the United States. That’s fake, right?
Teach your children to use snopes.com.
All the news we take in today comes in the form of a sound bite and a headline. There is no in depth analysis unless you go looking for it.
People are making decisions based on these sound bites. The news is like Sesame Street for adults.
It is pathetic.
Many things that have happened this past year are a great indication that our education system is failing to teach the basic ability to gather and critique information.
Yelling over one another, repeating the same catch phrase, not listening have become standard not only in politics but in corporate America. No one is responsible for their actions anymore. By the time the consequences roll around they are off to another project with their sound bites and promises. Lies are common.
We need as a nation to get better at it. We need as a nation to stop multitasking and concentrate on one thing at a time. We need to stop shouting each other down. We need to start actively listening.
ugh…
hen journalists broadcast fake news, they’re fired. When fake-news writers broadcast fake news, they get as clicks and thus money.
When political candidates have 50% of their quotes rated “False” or “Pants on Fire” by Politifact, they get elected.
I think running the study on students gives a misleading impression that it’s only young people who believe fake news.
I’m centering my comp classes on media literacy next semester.
I will try to be less political I guess…
We are a country that does not demand that our leaders tell the truth and are perfectly fine to hear lies as long as they’re the lies we want to hear. Therefore, it’s not surprising that this is the outcome.
Also, in my very limited and anecdotal experience, “millenials” and younger who grew up with the internet are way better about sorting through the fake news sources than so-called digital migrants (ie those who grew up before the internet and pervasive PCs).
Agreed. IME, the worst offenders who pass on fake or misleading news stories tend to either be those of my generation or older and those with a serious political ideological axe to grind.
Find this headline a bit harsh in singling out millenials/students.
Especially considering IME, they tend to be much more critically discerning about news sources than older generations.
Only exceptions IME are older generations who were immigrants from authoritarian/totalitarian countries who grew up knowing how powerful mass media from such regimes and powerful private sources which supported them can be.
^ Considering that phishing emails and scams like the Nigerian ones are targeted at middle-aged and older people, I think that those trying to pass off false things agree.
Well guess who is more likely to be a victim of a scam?? NOT the older generation!! The millenials ARE the more frequent victims!!
