The Problem Of Reading Your News On Social Media

Being in everyday contact with teenagers and young adults over the past decade, something which has changed dramatically in that time is the use of Social Media, something which was relatively unheard of ten years ago. 
Social media has massively complicated things and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon and while leaving to one side the deplorable damage of online harassment and cyberbullying which is a huge problem in itself, the second most frequent thing i hear is the youth of today getting their news direct from social media rather than more traditional sources.
I was always of the opinion that people in general could tell 'fake news' from 'real news' but it seems they can't and they take at face value something they read on Face book or Twitter and are all to ready to believe it rather than find out for themselves, double sourcing as we call it in journalism, before believing it.
While it's probably due to wanting to believe something if it is negative or positive against a person you like or dislike, the effects are shaping how people see the world and some less than reliable media outlets are only making things worse.
The like of Fox News and the Murdoch press are reknown for being less than truthful but viewers and readers will take at face value what they spew out because they are 'the media' and they can be trusted.
In the UK the broadcast media is regulated by OFCOM who make sure that what UK viewers see is fair and balanced and it was they who removed FOX News from TV Platforms because they failed to reach the standards of honesty required.
The problem is that if individuals spend their lives exposed only to unreliable news sources, it doesn't augur well for society and debate and our politicians don't help because as we saw with The Iraq War and the Bush and Blair duo, they lie to reach their own ends.
Now we have Donald Trump who doesn't even try to hide his lies, he just repeats them enough times to drum them home and have them believed which means that the sources of reliable and honest news which you can trust is shrinking.
You can go online to blogs, face book or twitter feeds and find authors defending the lies which they have sometimes wittingly, sometimes unwittingly, repeated and that really isn't good for any of us.
Most dishearteningly is that the likes of FOX News and the UK tabloid press continuing to pollute the pool of journalism means that even those who diligently check their information are treated with suspicion and that suits anyone who for nefarious reasons, doesn't want the real truth out there.