The article below has about the same credibility as POTUS's claim that the Coronavirus would disappear by Easter. It's an embarrassing piece of misinformation that flies in the face of piles of evidence. axios.com/gen-z-is-erodi… @Mantzarlis
The best evidence for GenZ's ability to make sense of misleading content is a recent national survey of 3,446 high school students who were tested using a live internet connection. 2/8
Teens were asked was whether a grainy Facebook video showing alleged ballot stuffing (the video was actually shot in Russia) provided "strong evidence" of US voter fraud. A simple search pulls up Snopes, the BBC, and dozens of other sources instantly debunking the claim. 3/8
Over half of these "savvy GenZer's" fell for the ruse. It gets worse . . . 4/8
Two thirds (!) couldn't tell the difference between an ad and a news story on Slate's landing page. The words "sponsored content" went over the heads of most. 5/8
Unfortunately it doesn't end there, folks.
96% failed to link a climate change denying site to its backers, (e.g., ExxonMobil) a fact easily discovered by entering the organization’s name in a browser and reading laterally. (see
cor.stanford.edu/videos/lateral…
see as well the awesome materials from @holden) ). .
Our research has been replicated by dozens and dozens of studies across an array of national contexts. There's too many to count, in fact. 7/8
@SHEG_Stanford has teamed up with MIT @mit_tsl to provide this FREE course. No charge to sign up--it starts today. edx.org/course/sorting…
No one has the answer for how we're going to get out of this digital swamp. Pretending our students already possess the wherewithal to see through anti-vaxxers, Holocaust deniers, & climate change cynics will only land them deeper into the swamp. psmag.com/ideas/how-we-c…
One more thing: this little video from the amazing librarians at the University of Louisville, drawing on @SHEG_Stanford's concept of lateral reading, will save your kids much grief. Three minutes of your time, that's it. @robdetmering
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