This is good. A certain step in the right direction and something that I wish this class had focused on a bit more. What have we done to combat misinformation in the past few decades? The answer is a lot, but we tend to focus on the bad instead of the good. That's the world today, though, so no surprise. I know it's still a very pertinent issue, but it's important that we also celebrate the massive strides we made to dispel misinformation.

Wow. Is this not the perfect encapsulation of our media world today in one sentence? Algorithms and the consequential recommended content dominate our lives. They determine what we see, read and view. It's important to remember that although we are largely at the mercy of the algorithm, it doesn't determine what we believe. It's critical that people think critically (no word play intended) when browsing online, because the algorithms can influence a lot.

To think about the fact that this is where people used to get all of their information: libraries. Reading books. People went to the library with the exact topic of study in mind and read books on that and that alone. Now, we can surf through information on an endless variety of topics, most of which don't even pertain to us, and then form opinions on them and tell it to the masses. Information is being misconstrued because there is so much more of it available and, as the article says, a lot of it isn't true.

This is a perfect microcosm of our culture today. We, as a society, have succumbed to short attention spans and the need for a constant flow of content. This statistic is just proof that the internet rarely stays on one topic for very long. Never has the news cycle been shorter than it is now. There have even been times where I've seen a trending topic be taken over by something else within the same day.

I used to be ho-hum about YouTube because growing up, I knew it as a platform where people posted silly videos to get a laugh (Fred with a backwards 'R' comes to mind, I hope I'm not the only one who remembers him). Recently, though, I've grown into a strong affinity for YouTube. There are so many fascinating topics that are covered by various creators that never see the light of day in mainstream media. Also, it feels like watching the news is surface level (who, what, where, when, why), whereas YouTube creators tend to dig deeper and do more research on the subject they're covering. I agree with this man's quote.

With a potential ban on TikTok constantly looming and trials for said ban well underway in Washington already, I'm curious to know that if TikTok does in fact get banned in the United States, where yuoung people will go for their news. TikTok has already been subject to a lot of scrutiny for deep fakes, false information, etc., so it's a bit concerning that 15% of the 18-24 demographic is getting their news from the platform. I know there are a lot of really good, informed creators on the app, but the algorithm doesn't always push them to the forefront. Honestly, it might be better for our society if TikTok does go away for good.