YOUTH LED: The Age of Information or Misinformation?

The Age of Information or Misinformation?
When information is at our fingertips are people today actually more informed than their predecessors or are they actually more misguided than ever before? Our age has been described as the age of information, nevertheless, the mass of information we have access to has led to confusion, mistrust, and propaganda masquerading as truth. This has led to an increasingly divided society where chasms exist between groups depending on which source of information they choose to believe and which group they identify with, and therefore are inclined to trust. This has been exemplified historically through the conflicting opinions regarding the best solution for the Middle East crisis and more recently in the division between the people who trust the Covid-19 vaccine and those who view it as a risk to their health. In this workshop, we will discuss how information spreads especially in the age of social media, and what makes people believe the information they receive and view while mistrusting other sources. Finally we will discuss the best methods of evaluating what we believe and how to better contribute to the spread of reliable and trustworthy information.