Band 6+: The increasing reliance on social media for news consumption has led to a decline in critical thinking skills among young adults. What are the reasons for this trend, and what solutions can be implemented to promote media literacy and responsible online engagement?

In this era, populance tend to depend on social media to gain information and keep track with recent news. Despite the easieness of this phenomenon, it is assosciated with some demerits. This essay is going to highlight the primary causes of this trend, and propose some solutions to overcome the drawbacks of it.

First of all, seeking news in social media is more entertaining and comforting than official channels. In other words, news that are published in social media are mostly shared as jocks and aligned with funny memes, unlike news channels, which share news in an extremely serious and formal way. For example, when it had been thought that the third world war was about to start, TV channels were so terrified in delievering news which resulted in a horrible atmosphere; by contrast, influencers in Tik Tok were making fun of it and it bacame a trend during that period. Moreover, posters in the social media are short and quick, so it is easier to seek for updates via influencers instead of journals.

Even though it is less time-consuming to depend on social media for updates, this method has led to a decrease in critical thinking among the youth; thus, some restrictions should be introduced to ensure responsible use of these applications. For instance, the ministry of education should assign new subjects in schools and universities regarding the reasonable ussage of social media; doing so will raise awareness among children and adults at the same time. Additionally, publishing governments’ updates and news by public should be forbaded, which will assure that influencers will not manipulate the focus of people, and citizens will be required to seek for such information in the offical websites, which will reinforce their ability of critically think.

In conclusion, there are many merits and demerits of relying on social media, so reasonable ussage is the solution to enjoy comfort while being well updated. Furthermore, since this method is more entertaining and comfortable, raising awarenss and intoducing restrictions regarding the ussage of social media is the recommended way to overcome this obstecle.