GSAN: Teens’ smartphone detox | Musk hand gesture

Top picks

Reader, this section highlights the latest news literacy topics and ways for you to engage with the kids in your life.

1. Teens fight social media addiction with flip phone experiment

To improve his quality of life, a New Jersey teen swapped his smartphone for a flip phone, and it worked — reducing his screen time from five hours per day to about 30 minutes. His experience sparked an experiment for his eighth-grade peers to do the same for a week, including one friend who would routinely spend more than 10 hours a day on her phone watching TV shows and TikTok videos. The result: better sleep and improved productivity on schoolwork, but some frustrations over missing the convenience of certain apps.

They’re not the only teens thinking about excessive social media and smartphone usage. A 17-year-old self-professed “TikTok junkie” wrote in an op-ed published by The New York Times that she needs the TikTok ban to curb her addiction and save her generation from a distraction that “has pervaded every corner of our consciousness” and kept “roughly half of America … hooked” with its powerful algorithms. (The video-sharing app was temporarily offline on Jan. 19.)

Medical experts say increased screen time is linked to mental health conditions for teens.

Engage:

Encourage the teens in your life to track how often they pick up their smartphones in a day. You could do the experiment with them too. Discuss the results and how it impacts day-to-day life, as well as where to get news with and without a smartphone.

Parents:

Check out this article for parenting tips on how to raise kids to identify misinformation on social media. One of the tips: scroll feeds together and ask your kids questions that prompt critical thinking, like who is posting this and why?

★ Tools for the talk:

Related:

• “A closer look at Americans’ experiences with news on TikTok” (Pew Research Center).
• “Tech companies want teens to use their apps. Pinterest says not in school.” (The Washington Post).

2. News coverage of Musk draws criticism

When X owner Elon Musk, an advisor to President Donald Trump, gave an Inauguration Day speech and made what looked to some like a Nazi “Sieg Heil” salute — twice — the gesture became the story. It also became a flashpoint for criticism of the way the speech was covered by the news media.

Some critics on the political right characterized the story as a hoax by the media, while critics on the left saw it as a reluctance from mainstream media to clearly state what they considered obvious. One media critic speculated that some early headlines were tempered by a fear of defamation suits. The story continued to evolve, however, with follow-up news coverage that was more pointed, including reporting about the enthusiastic reaction the gesture elicited among right-wing extremists.

While the intent behind the gesture remains ambiguous, one thing is clear: it’s receiving plenty of attention from the press, even as Musk continues to deny it was anything other than a heartfelt wave.

Discuss:

Carefully discuss this controversy with the teens in your life. What challenges do journalists face when covering breaking news and interpreting controversial events? Why might the initial news coverage about an event be different from later coverage? If you were a journalist and had to write a fair and accurate headline, or an entire report, about Musk’s speech, what would you have written?

★ Tools for the talk:

Related:

• “Symbol of unity? Inauguration news coverage illustrates differences that pull country apart” (The Associated Press).

3. How ethical are food influencers?

Whether it’s a juicy burger or scrumptious-looking cheesecake, food influencers and food journalists share their favorite — or least favorite — restaurant orders. But there’s a few differences in how they do this. Austin Chronicle restaurant critic Taylor Tobin explains in this piece how he follows certain guidelines to be fair and thorough, like not accepting free food, ordering a variety of menu items and waiting at least 60 days after a restaurant opens to review it. Food influencers generally don’t follow the same ethical standards, but they build trust with their audience by creating engaging, personal photos and video posts. Journalists and creators that Tobin interviewed suggest that food journalists and influencers collaborate and bring together the best of both worlds — following ethical standards and including in-depth analysis while connecting with audiences through vibrant visuals on social media.

Engage:

Scroll through food posts on social media with the teens in your life, and discuss the ethics of influencer posts.

Parents:

Next time your family is looking for restaurant recommendations, discuss with your teen how to evaluate social media posts for credibility. Ask them if they follow food influencers. What standards do their favorite influencers follow? How can they tell whether a post is accurate or not?

★ Tool for the talk:

Related:

• “7 Ways Influencers Are Changing the Media Landscape” (Pen America).

No, Meta isn’t making users follow Trump and Vance

❌ NO:  Meta is not forcing people to follow President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on social media.

✅ YES: The @potus and @vp official social media accounts belong to the sitting president and vice president of the United States.

✅ YES: When Trump and Vance took office, the official social media accounts for their positions transferred to them.

★ NewsLit takeaway

The simplest explanation is often the correct one. This principle, known as Occam’s Razor, can be very useful when examining questionable claims on social media. While viral claims suggest that Meta is forcing people to follow President Donald Trump on Facebook and Instagram, fact-checkers found users were just following the official account of the president (@potus), which is automatically transferred between administrations. Here’s how to fact-check this claim:

Look for official statements from authoritative sources: Meta’s communications director posted a message explaining that the accounts for president, vice president and first lady all belong to the sitting occupants of the White House.

Check archival pages: Use web archivers, such as the Wayback Machine, to check for evidence that the @potus handle belonged to former President Joe Biden during his term in office, Trump during his first term in office, and former President Barack Obama during his term.

No, California isn’t using fleet of electric fire trucks to fight fires

❌ NO: The Los Angeles Fire Department does not have 45 electric fire trucks.

✅ YES: The department has a single fire truck with an electric engine in its entire fleet.

❌ NO: The LAFD’s electric fire engine does not take 10 hours to recharge.

✅ YES: This claim originated on a satirical page, then spread online with no disclaimer.

★ NewsLit takeaway

Online claims that appeal to preconceived biases often go unexamined since they feel accurate. In this case, people who believe the California wildfires were exacerbated by “woke” policies in the state, such as the use of electric vehicles, might accept this claim as genuine without any further investigation. Here are a few simple steps to resist the pull of confirmation bias:

1. Check for evidence. A statement on social media unaccompanied by links or any other supporting evidence should be viewed with skepticism.
2. Consider the source. If a claim comes from a source that is unfamiliar, take time to look at that profile and examine its post history.
3. Look for context. A simple web search can provide additional information. Looking for “Los Angeles,” “wildfires” and “electric fire trucks” results in multiple fact checks for this claim, as well as news articles about LAFD’s purchase of a single electric fire engine.

Thanks for reading!

Your weekly issue of Get Smart About News is created by Susan Minichiello (@susanmini.bsky.social), Dan Evon (@danieljevon), Peter Adams (@peteradams.bsky.social), Hannah Covington (@hannahcov.bsky.social) and Pamela Brunskill (@PamelaBrunskill). It is edited by Mary Kane (@mk6325.bsky.social) and Lourdes Venard (@lourdesvenard.bsky.social).

For more tips on talking with kids about news literacy, take a look back at previous Get Smart About News issues in the archives.