I believe it is the responsibility of social media sites to ensure their sites have a healthy balance of information that makes it possible for their users to consume. Therefore, algorithms should learn how to not feed people misinformation. Regardless of someone's media literacy skills, if their home page becomes impossible to navigate and sort through viral content, that is not a responsible way for social media sites to maintain their digital space. There should be a level of accountability as to what they allow on their sites to have some sort of integrity.

This sentence is extremely important. Not only do we tend to associate popularity with quality, but also with credibility. I see time and time again Tik Toks and videos on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook will go viral of someone going on a rant about some issues and making very bold claims without siting anything. In return, as the video grows in popularity, people will quote and cite the video as a credible source. However, a person's opinion that has becoming well-liked does not equate truth or fact. I will also see quality information go unnoticed as it lacks audience engagement. I think of times where I come across a Tik Tok that I like but it has almost no likes or comments. I first I find this odd. However, then I realize that the algorithm is testing this video to see if people will like it and if it gets likes, then it will show it on more feeds and then more feeds. However I will easily like a video that already has hundreds of thousands of likes because I think "why not?", when I could be adding to the spread of misinformation. Bias is inevitable and something we may never be able to fully avoid. However, I think the awareness of your own bias and knowing that you are bias is already helpful enough. Unfortunately too many claim they have no bias and only base on fact, which we all know is not true.

I believe the over saturation of media is a very concerning issue for media literacy. Although there are positives to people having power to voice their opinions on a large platform, there are also drawbacks. The biggest one being that anyone with any intention can create content to generate views and clicks. People often want attention and fame more than to actually have their voice heard. As attention-spans have become shorter, people tend to look for exciting headlines that are shocking and controversial. I believe most people don't even read much of articles anymore, but rather skim the first paragraph and take that as fact. Regardless of the credibility of the media, it is extremely dangerous to consume something not with its full context and perceive only parts of a story as the whole story. I have personally seen this time and time again on social media growing up on the internet. With cancel culture, people tend to retweet and blast extreme accusations about people they are cancelling. Although allegations are true at times, sometimes upon further investigation you find out the claims are baseless. However, now everyone knows that person as whatever label was put on them because others wanted fame and attention. I do think this type of behavior with digital media is only going to become more and more dangerous.