Jan. 28: Teens fight social media addiction with flip phone experiment
This is a shortened version of Get Smart About News, a free weekly newsletter that explores trends and issues in misinformation, social media, artificial intelligence and journalism. Subscribe HERE.
Top story of the week
To improve his quality of life, a New Jersey teen swapped his smartphone for a flip phone, and it worked — reducing his screen time from five hours per day to about 30 minutes. His experience sparked an experiment for his eighth-grade peers to do the same for a week, including one friend who would routinely spend more than 10 hours a day on her phone watching TV shows and TikTok videos. The result: better sleep and improved productivity on schoolwork, but some frustrations over missing the convenience of certain apps.
They’re not the only teens thinking about excessive social media and smartphone usage. A 17-year-old self-professed “TikTok junkie” wrote in an op-ed published by The New York Times that she needs the TikTok ban to curb her addiction and save her generation from a distraction that “has pervaded every corner of our consciousness” and kept “roughly half of America … hooked” with its powerful algorithms. (The video-sharing app was temporarily offline on Jan. 19.)
Medical experts say increased screen time is linked to mental health conditions for teens.
Engage: Encourage the teens in your life to track how often they pick up their smartphones in a day. You could do the experiment with them too. Discuss the results and how it impacts day-to-day life, as well as where to get news with and without a smartphone.
Parents: Check out this article for parenting tips on how to raise kids to identify misinformation on social media. One of the tips: scroll feeds together and ask your kids questions that prompt critical thinking, like who is posting this and why?
Related:
“A closer look at Americans’ experiences with news on TikTok” (Pew Research Center).
“Tech companies want teens to use their apps. Pinterest says not in school.” (The Washington Post).
RumorGuard post of the week
❌ NO: The Los Angeles Fire Department does not have 45 electric fire trucks.
Recommended by LinkedIn
✅ YES: The department has a single fire truck with an electric engine in its entire fleet.
❌ NO: The LAFD’s electric fire engine does not take 10 hours to recharge.
✅ YES: This claim originated on a satirical page, then spread online with no disclaimer.
★ NewsLit takeaway
Online claims that appeal to preconceived biases often go unexamined since they feel accurate. In this case, people who believe the California wildfires were exacerbated by “woke” policies in the state, such as the use of electric vehicles, might accept this claim as genuine without any further investigation. Here are a few simple steps to resist the pull of confirmation bias:
Kickers of the week
➕ Have your social media algorithms got you feeling pigeonholed, powerless or misrepresented? Try resetting your algorithm on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube.
➕ If you read articles before sharing them online, you’re in the minority. Facebook users don’t read about 75% of news articles before they repost them, according to a new study. (News literacy tip: pause before you share!)
➕ More climate misinformation will likely spread further on Facebook and Instagram after Meta decided to end its fact-checking program in March, argues journalism professor Jill Hopke. She fears this could pose a big threat during climate-fueled disasters when people need to find accurate information quickly.
One last thing...
This is a short version of our Get Smart About News email. To get more top stories, more RumorGuard posts and more Kickers, subscribe to our Tuesday email HERE.
Are you an educator? See how you can integrate these examples into your teaching by subscribing to The Sift® HERE.
Thanks for reading!