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Sixteen-year-old Andie Murphy isn鈥檛 on TikTok. She turned off tracking on YouTube and deleted Instagram months ago over its and concerns about posts being used to train AI. 

As much as possible, the high school junior has tried to set up guardrails on rapid-fire social feeds to limit scrolling and the allure of algorithms’ suggestions. 鈥淔or my own self control,鈥� she said.

Murphy may be an outlier among her peers, but increasingly many teens share her feelings of information overload and awareness that they can鈥檛 trust everything they read on social media. 鈥淭here鈥檚 just so much bad information out there that it sometimes gets jumbled up,鈥� Murphy said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just hard to discern what someone鈥檚 intent is with something.鈥� 

As members of Gen Z 鈥� born between 1997 and 2012 鈥� high school students like Murphy have grown up with smartphones and social media. It鈥檚 a digital world where algorithms fuel endless scrolling and conspiracy theories feel like the norm. 

That鈥檚 particularly true for Murphy and her classmates at Owasso High School in Owasso, Oklahoma, a quickly growing Tulsa suburb of 39,000. It鈥檚 a place that last year felt the intense glare of going viral and the chaotic flow of news, half-truths and hate following the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary student who an altercation in the girls鈥� bathroom. 

As a news literacy expert working to support educators, I recently spoke with 12 students at Owasso High School about their news habits and what it鈥檚 like trying to find credible information in an online environment that constantly tests their ability to know what鈥檚 true. 

Here are four takeaways from our conversations. 

1. Teens are drawn to conspiracy theories 鈥� and may not realize they can lead down dangerous rabbit holes. 

A by the News Literacy Project found that eight in 10 teens on social media say they encounter conspiracy theories, with 81% of those teens reporting that they are inclined to believe at least one of them. 

Senior Elijah Wagner, 18, told me he often turns to X, formerly Twitter, and sorts through 鈥渢he chaos鈥� of content on the platform to keep up with news. 

鈥淭here’s a lot of conspiracy theories on Twitter,鈥� Wagner said, adding that much of what he sees are 鈥減eople who just want to make a big deal about something.鈥� 

For some young people, part of the appeal is that these narratives feel fun and entertaining. Students I spoke with rattled off viral rumors they鈥檝e seen about celebrities like Beyonc茅. But as with the teens in our national survey, Owasso students also reported seeing conspiracies that went well beyond celebrity gossip, including disproven theories about the Earth being flat and falsehoods about 9/11. 

Though exposure is not the same as belief, seeing a claim repeated enough 鈥� even one that starts out as a joke 鈥� true. 鈥淚t gets to the point where it鈥檚 kind of hard not to believe some of them,鈥� said Kelsey Perry, 18. 

2. Peers can play an important role in fact-checking. 

In online spaces, fact-checking is something many students try to do. Among teens who engage with news-related social media posts, nearly eight in 10 report that they at least sometimes fact-check these posts before sharing or liking them, according to our study. Those who were taught media literacy were more likely to say they frequently check for accuracy before posting online.  

Research that we鈥檙e more likely to believe fact-checks from people we know. 

On the winter day of my visit, the Los Angeles wildfires dominated online conversation. News of the fires had reached students not only through the mighty curation of their TikTok For You pages, but also through family and friends. 

One student admitted she hadn鈥檛 kept up with the fires because they seem far removed from their Oklahoma community. She added that the fires, after all, were happening all the way 鈥渋n Atlanta.鈥� 

鈥淣o, it鈥檚 in L.A.,鈥� an 18-year-old classmate said, chiming in with a fact-check.  

The group laughed, agreed and moved on to describe videos they鈥檇 seen of the destruction. 

During their lunch hour in the library, these students continued cycling through a process of shared meaning-making: offering information, testing it against each other鈥檚 knowledge and interpreting it as a group. 

When conspiracy theories came up, a junior mentioned seeing posts suggesting the Holocaust didn鈥檛 happen. 鈥淏ut I鈥檓 pretty sure that did happen,鈥� she added, 鈥渂ecause isn鈥檛 there, like, museums for it and stuff?鈥� 

Another student confirmed, saying they just learned about the Holocaust in history class the day before. A win for real-time social correction 鈥� and a reminder of why it鈥檚 crucial for students to feel comfortable stepping into the role of fact-checker to share what they know with peers.  

3. Yes, teens turn to influencers, but standards-based news still has a place.聽

We know many young people see social media influencers as trusted sources, even over news outlets. In fact, our survey found that eight in 10 teens say that the information news organizations produce is either more biased than or about the same as other content creators online. 

In each of my conversations, it didn鈥檛 take long for talk of social media to broach the story that last year turned this high school into a national fixture of grief and viral debate. Reflecting on the death of their classmate and the crush of national attention that ensued, students recalled when misinformation became personal and painful.  

Hateful comments flooded school-associated social media accounts. Classmates stayed home following against the school. Students described seeing a protest unfold outside classroom windows while following along on a TikTok livestream. One student remembered eating lunch with a teacher rather than in the cafeteria because a friend felt scared.  

They also watched celebrities and influencers weigh in. 

For Murphy, who tries to limit her social media use, last year marked a turning point. She said an influencer she followed for political commentary on current events posted about the Owasso student鈥檚 death before many details had been confirmed. 鈥淪eeing them make that post really made me see that maybe they weren’t as credible as I originally thought they were,鈥� Murphy said. 

Now Murphy said she tries to check multiple credible sources for news to compare what she鈥檚 hearing. 

Other students told me something similar: Though many people their age follow influencers, news outlets still have a place, especially for stories that meet a certain threshold of importance. (鈥淚f it鈥檚 big enough,鈥� or 鈥渋f I鈥檓 scared about the news,鈥� one 16-year-old said.) 

4.    They want news literacy instruction. 

The News Literacy Project鈥檚 study shows that an overwhelming majority of teens (94%) want media literacy instruction, but most aren鈥檛 getting it. 

I heard much the same at Owasso High School. Some students said they鈥檇 heard terms like 鈥渓ateral reading鈥� in school: when you leave a source of information and do a quick search to learn more about the claim or source. But they also told me they wished media literacy could be woven throughout their classes, from statistics to science. 

Library media specialist Melinda Gallagher has been teaching news literacy lessons for about eight years in her role at Owasso. 鈥淚 feel like this is one way we can help our students 鈥� and help ourselves, to be frank 鈥� with figuring out what is real and what is not,鈥� Gallagher said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very important for our future as a country.鈥� 

Students didn鈥檛 ask for this online quagmire or create it. But it鈥檚 a world they鈥檙e expected to navigate. 鈥淪ocial media is so prevalent 鈥� it鈥檚 not going away,鈥� said Makenzy Holm, 17. 鈥淲e might as well learn to use it to our best ability.鈥�

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