Teen Empowerment and Engagement is Key
I feel that it is a great set of questions: thinking about how libraries help disseminate credible information and what role do we play in helping the community find common ground.
As we all know, libraries should be neutral and share history, facts, literature, knowledge and in contemporary times, tools so that the public can have all the information they need to make informed decisions. In this day and age, the reason that people often believe in misinformation and disinformation is due to a lack of researching the facts on their own. Even though some think that everyone has access to the World Wide Web, computers and Wi-Fi, there are some populations that do not have this access for many reasons.
Our libraries can bridge this gap, providing access to remote locations with innovative, mobile programs as well as finding ways to communicate with these audiences and provide access to information resources.
As far as teenagers, I feel that it is incredibly important to provide as many forums as possible to let them talk, vent and then, listen to them so that we can learn about the information they need and steer them in the right direction to find out the truth about their questions. This will allow us to build young adults who have better information-seeking behaviors, who will most likely be less prone to believing in misinformation.
Now, more than ever, libraries play an important role in our society.
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Comments (5)
Hi Marlon:
Thanks for joining our conversation. I'm curious about how to interest people in doing that research. It seems like people who do have access to the internet use it to find the disinformation. Do you have ideas for ways to get people who already have been sucked into the disinformation void to look beyond their beliefs?
Thank you for noting that we need to allow opportunities for teens to have conversations. This is so important. I'm a big advocate of the importance of teens taking charge of their own learning to as great an extent as possible. When they're personally invested, they learn and achieve so much more. Too often, we tell students what to research instead of helping them to explore what interests them.
Hi Maggie:
I see you're savvy to the importance of informing teens. It's definitely one of my passions as well. Of course, the same thing applies to adults. I think that this is one of the reasons that we are having so many issues and conflicts amongst Americans. If we have more open dialogue and actually listen to each other, misinformation will have less opportunity to spread.
Marlon, I agree wholeheartedly. Teens are key -- the next influential generation. And yes, barriers to connectivity are serious, perpetuate disenfranchisement, and have been one factor in systemic inequities. The National Digital Inclusion Alliance provides a boatload of information and education resources. https://www.digitalinclusion.org/
Thanks Jim. Yes, unfortunately, folks who are ill-informed are easy to misinform. Thank you for the information on the Digital Inclusion Alliance!