Weekly Insights
What church leaders need to know about young people's information-gathering online.
Stat of the Day:
Nearly 80% of young people (ages 13-39) look online when searching for information or learning something new.
Why it matters:
As digital natives, young people look online first for information about things they need to know and for skills they want to learn. According to a recent YPulse study, Gen Z often prefers social media for such information while Millennials are more likely to start with Google and Wikipedia. This reliance on internet sources means that young people can quickly learn a lot about niche topics—a Google search can easily take you to an academic article describing Edwin Freidman’s Family Systems Theory or a free digital library containing most of the historic theological and spiritual writings of the Church. Where previous generations had to make a trip to the library for such information, young people find it from the comfort of their own living space.
The availability and widespread use of these resources can be both a blessing and a curse in ways that are often intuitive to those who use them. If Wikipedia is open-source, what’s to stop interested parties from editing the “history books” in ways that favor their narrative? Or, what happens when Google tweaks its algorithms to funnel information-seekers to Google-approved outlets (as critics on both the left and right have alleged). The internet is a battle field for information, and those who control it (or exert significant influence over) can shape public perceptions and discourse in ways previously unimaginable.
What can we do?
Church leaders can encourage media literacy among young people and their congregations more broadly by engaging a broad swath of media outlets themselves and sharing reputable outlets with congregants. Independent media and reader-supported outlets (whether left, right, or center) can offer a corporate-free space for news, analysis, and media criticism that can help readers to develop a more critical approach to more mainstream, corporate media sources. Discussing trusted online sources with young people about trusted online sources can be a positive intergenerational exercise, while also providing insight into what outlets are becoming popular or considered reliable among younger generations.
Try It:
Consider having discussions with your youth group about media literacy, or do it on the parish-wide level as an adult education forum. Check out Fair.org’s Media Literacy Guide or visit the National Association for Media Literacy Education website. FAIR, the Institute for Public Accuracy, and similar organizations do work analyzing and critiquing the work of mainstream media reports. Having a strong foundation for this work in connection to all media sources will help young and not-so-young people wade through the many online outlets they trust for reliable information.