Twenty years from now, people will have crooked thumbs, arthritis in their hands, and hunched backs from looking down at and typing on their cellphones. Generations have shifted from reading the newspaper to reading off of phone screens and from watching local news to looking at laptop screens.
According to a study conducted by the American Press Institute, 88 percent of the millennials surveyed get their news from Facebook, 83 percent from YouTube, and 50 percent from Instagram.
Millennials are increasingly making an impact on today’s media. Almost everything is digitalized now. As media digitalization has made its way towards social media platforms, it has brought forth its economic benefits—and its consequences.
By using free and public applications, rather than credible news sources, there is a flood of posts by many people voicing their own opinions on serious subjects. When scrolling through timelines of posts, millennials can easily stumble upon a person of high social standing whose account has a large number of followers and believe that the source is credible.
This is where many millennials go wrong.
The psychology behind influence can be broken down into separate parts. Primarily seen in this situation is identification: when people are influenced by someone highly liked or respected, in this case, an account with millions of followers.
Then, there is the sad case of compliance. Under this category are the ones who publicly agree, but privately hold a differing opinion, therefore, agreeing with the majority.
These days, accounts who publicize celebrities have a larger following than news sources. For example, Buzzfeed Food has over 23,000,000 likes on Facebook, the social site where millennials are most prominent. Meanwhile, CNN has just over 25,000,000 likes on Facebook, almost the same amount as an entertainment page.
Most of the time, news posts are flooded by other entertainment photos and videos posted by accounts with large followings.
By burying the news under entertainment and miscellaneous media, millennials lose their own opinions on serious news topics. Their thoughts are lost behind a phone screen, and soon enough will be taking what is fed to us rather than feeding the masses.
