Digital Media and Youth: Unparalleled Opportunity and Unprecedented Responsibility

With the sudden explosion of digital media content and access devices in the last generation, there is now more information available to more people from more sources than at any time in human history. Pockets of limited availability by geography or status notwithstanding, people now have ready access to almost inconceivably vast information repositories that are increasingly portable, accessible, and interactive in both delivery and formation. Basic human activities have changed as a result, and new possibilities have emerged. For instance, the process by which people locate, organize, and coordinate groups of individuals with shared interests, the number and nature of information and news sources available, and the ability to solicit and share opinions and ideas across myriad topics have all undergone dramatic change as a result of interconnected digital media. One result of this contemporary media landscape is that there exist incredible opportunities for learning, social connection, and individual entertainment and enhancement in a wide variety of forms. Indeed, recent evidence indicates that 45 percent of users in the United States say that the Internet played a crucial or important role in at least one major decision in their lives in the last two years, such as attaining additional career training, helping themselves or someone else with a major illness or medical condition, or making a major investment or financial decision. 1 Enhanced connectivity and information availability have changed not only what people know, but how they know what they know. However, the wide-scale access and multiplicity of sources that ensure vast information availability also make assessing the credibility of information extremely complex. The origin of information, its quality, and its veracity are now in many cases less clear than ever before, resulting in an unparalleled burden on individuals to locate appropriate information and assess its meaning and relevance accurately. Doing so is highly consequential: assessing credibility inaccurately can have serious social, personal, educational, relational, health, and financial consequences. As a result, determining trust, believability, and information bias— key elements of credibility—become critical as individuals process the information in their lives gleaned from digital media. Understanding credibility in this environment is also important because it is a concern that cuts across personal, social, and political domains. For instance, digital media increasingly deliver information that results (or fails to result) in an informed citizenry that, in turn, drives the pursuit of particular social agendas, the degree and nature of engagement …