By: Sophia Kibler and Valeria Gutierrez
   With the increasing prevalence of artificial intelligence and social media in everyday life, media literacy skills vary between people’s age and exposure to media. Oversaturation of information, fact-checking habits, and the ability to detect AI all contribute to an individual’s ability to properly analyse, interpret, and comprehend information. 

   In today’s world, it’s getting increasingly harder to detect AI. Images have been getting more realistic, and people have started coming up with prompts that allow generated text to have a more human-like feel. Those who didn’t grow up with it are especially susceptible to falling for AI content. 

   “I feel like I can detect AI really well, especially in my age group and college students, because we are involved with AI a lot. I think people who are younger or a lot older have less exposure to the internet and AI, so they have more trouble detecting AI,” junior Hania Kader explained. 

   An important pillar of media literacy in today’s society is the ability to detect AI because it’s so accessible for anybody to create a fake video or incorrect statement. Media literacy isn’t only about someone’s ability to detect AI, but also their capability to interpret and understand the media they consume. A big part of comprehending the media consumed is being able to fact-check and attempting to get information that is as unbiased as possible. Given that most news sources’ stories are written to align with their party’s values, it’s almost impossible to find a truly unbiased source. People often don’t want to either, and would rather read their news from a source that will feed into their ideals. 

   “The fact-checking skills of anyone today are much more refined than people years ago because it’s necessary in today’s day and age. We have so many tools at our fingertips to fact-check. [Though,] publications today are either far left or far right… so people tend to live in their own vacuums and don’t fact-check,” English teacher Mr. Sullivan shared.  

   With the ability to cross-reference multiple sources in seconds, fact-checking a catchy headline or a sensationalized TikTok has never been easier. There is a near-overwhelming amount of outlets and sources for people to confirm the information they see. But the algorithms that compile this content have been trained to be hyperspecific to people’s biases. Partisanship on social media can blindside people from objectivity, as it’s easy for algorithms to create echo chambers, creating a culture that believes posts at face value. This can lead to the spread of misinformation. Even though tools used for fact-checking are more available than ever before, many hold the sentiment that media literacy is still on the decline. 

   “Media literacy is definitely worse today. Especially with ChatGPT, people don’t have to come up with their own opinions or think as hard as they used to,” Kader shared. 

   A major concern among many is the decline of critical thinking skills among younger generations due to the influx of AI content and the use of chatbots. The spike in AI usage has led to many not thinking for themselves, consulting others, or even using a search engine before going straight to ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot. Furthermore, Meta-owned social media like Instagram or WhatsApp have incorporated a Meta AI feature where you can ask it anything without even leaving the chat. This further encourages the usage of AI to answer your questions, which people tend to take at face value instead of digging deeper, even though the AI response may be mistaken. 

   Media literacy is a skill. It’s like a muscle that can be strengthened. With the concerning rise of AI content and sensationalized facts, students can take a few extra seconds out of their day to check multiple sources and look into who is publishing information before sharing their findings.