In this day and age, advancement in technology has catered to all kinds of necessities. From manufacturing, communication, e-commerce, transportation, and access to information. Such a purpose resulted in humanity’s alarming dependence on it. Despite threats to mental health and rationality, it became part of everyday routines.
Due to this progression, mankind was able to explore and expand on their current knowledge. By applying mathematics, science, and technology into a commodity with an interactive interface, life beyond the physical is discovered. Digital media became a way to connect, learn, store and retrieve records, be involved in a global setting, and produce information. But what happens if it is manipulated with the intent to mislead its audience? Such instances are observable within social media platforms.
Youth, being one of the social media’s frequent users, are vulnerable to disinformation. They were misled into thinking the other way or believing in an idea grounded with selective reasoning. Repeated exposure to such media activity can affect the youth’s involvement in social issues. It frames an ideology favoring only the institutes and people that benefit from disinformation.
A study conducted by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed that Filipino youth are among the most vulnerable to fake news and disinformation. PISA revealed that while understanding the consequences of sharing public information is the most common digital skill, detecting wrong information, phishing, and spam emails are not usually learned in schools. In 2019, the Philippines performed the lowest among 79 countries in reading and literacy assessment. This indicates that reading comprehension is an issue in education and in a virtual setting like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others.
Without proper knowledge on filtering posts like identifying the real from a spliced video, Filipinos are susceptible to abuse and negligence. Social media became a tool for propaganda, an efficient way to create noise. Online content is manipulated to cover lies, malpractices, and conflicts. If there is still a lack of fact-checking and proper research for reliable sources, disinformation will prevail for generations. Trapping the youth to feed off the crumbs of those in power.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect the view of POLITICO.PH
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Kristine Mae D. Cruz is a senior student of Communication at Far Eastern University-Manila and is currently an intern at Brown Bag Communications Inc. under PageOne Media. As a student, she has developed skills in research and writing articles for websites and magazines. Writing has been a passion of hers as well as the occasional binge-watching of historical documentaries. With media as her line of industry, she intends to seek the truth and create unbiased content as a representative of the Fourth Estate.
