For the first time, social media overtakes TV as Americans’ top news source

I'm actually surprised that this is the first time that's happened.

America is not exactly known for having standard news programs as anyone in the rest of the world would consider them, it's just a matter of picking your preferred bias.

Bad to worse.

American TV was a news source?

Well, fuck us. there no way television news can be trusted and absolutely no way most social media sites can be trusted. How quickly the information age destroyed information.

Not that either are good but 🤢

Bad news except you can't trust TV either. Or reading the news, lately. At least regardless of the medium, general advice carries-- double check sources, learn which are credible, etc.

I just hope people are following links and not just reading headlines, right? ...Right?

Social media is not a news source.

How disgusting… hope laws are created to make sure it’s legit.

And that’s problematic as social media is harder to debunk due to how chronic bullshit flies.

At least with social media, you can choose what content to engage with or scroll past. A lot of TV news is fear mongering non-news entertainment. I don't care that someone got arrested after a high speed chase. I don't care about someone's dog charity. What your local Sinclair is peddling, let alone Fox, is just about getting you to come back over and over for the ads, and it's a continuous feed of trash someone else is deciding to put in your face and dub important.

Feeds also often let you mark content as "not interested" to better personalize for what you consider relevant and newsworthy. So, it's not necessarily a one-way street there either.

None are good and also guessing how shit these socials are at conveying news in one singular tab or none at all and are at mercy of the algorithms.

Indian newspapers have launched partially automated YouTube channels, some with AI avatar presenters. Nearly a fifth of Indian readers said they use chatbots like ChatGPT or Google’s Gemini (including AI Overviews) weekly to access news. In the U.K., that number was only 3%.

I knew YouTube channels were popular as a news source in my country (with their over the top hysterical style) but didn't knew that Gemini/GPT was also getting big here.

I still read a digital version of a proper newspaper. I find it slightly more informative and factual. In the good old days, I used to get a physical newspaper because nothing beats the touch of paper.

Okay, I'm gonna give you a tip if you're interested in geopolitics and recent events: follow EvanWritesOnX. I don't have any actual social media accounts but you can read his posts without having a Twitter one, and he certainly seems to have a very clear view of what's happening. Take care!