09 Sep Has Social Media Changed The Way We Consume News?
You may have heard the news: smartphones are in, newspapers are out! According to the latest statistics, social media has become more than just reading your aunt’s latest Facebook posts and liking your influencer’s favourite Ibiza pics. It’s now become the main source for the internet’s breaking news.
With more than 5 billion people scrolling social media every day, more than 2.4 billion of those users receive their breaking news from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok and Instagram instead of traditional news sources.
We no longer have to go and get our news because it comes to us. It shouldn’t be a surprise then that countless internet users receive their breaking headlines on their newsfeeds before actually heading to the news site. In fact, studies actually confirm this, indicating a 57% increase in traffic to news sites from various social media platforms.
As the digital landscape evolves and teenagers become adults in a largely digitalised world, their perceptions and attitudes about consuming information have changed.
We’re a society of sceptics. Young people, especially, prefer to get their news from social media because they feel it provides them with more authentic and trustworthy information. They can filter where they receive their information too and are more likely to only see news from people they follow and trust, rather than traditional media outlets, which are largely criticised for being biased.
There is a downside to this thanks to algorithms. Content which is liked, shared and reflects our personal interests and preferences is likely to show up on our feed. This can create a unique echo chamber that reinforces our existing beliefs and doesn’t expose us to other points of view.
While the landscape is still shifting and changing, there’s no doubt that social media has redefined how we consume news. This paradigm shift has made us all potential news editors and fact-checkers in a world where information is constantly evolving and can be instantly shared. With the power to curate our own news feeds and engage directly with sources, we are both empowered and challenged to navigate a complex information ecosystem.
If you’re looking to navigate the social media world with confidence, speak to SOMS Digital Agency.