Through a time of constant change, news sources provide information, some of which hold varying perspectives, and at times, biases.
This past week, students of all high school grades and teachers were surveyed on where they get their news. The Abington Friends community, similarly to the United States population, holds a variety of different peoples and perspectives, meaning that the sources students and teachers receive their news from vary heavily.
Students and faculty were first asked how often they consume news. 34.5% of students and faculty stated that they consume news “sometimes.” That was closely followed by 27.3% of people who said they consume news “often,” 20.0% of people who read/watch the news “all the time,” and 12.7% of responders who consume the news “rarely.”
Responders were then surveyed on where they read/watch news. Results were as follows:
The survey data concluded that the New York Times (80%), Instagram (43.6%), TikTok (30.9%), NBC (29.1%) and CNN (27.3%) made up the top five most actively used sites.
Some responders added that other systems of news included Spotify podcasts, CBS, NPR, the Wall Street Journal, Heather Cox Richardson’s blog, and the Inquirer.
The variety of news sources, social media included, clearly reflects just how diverse systems of news look like in modern day.
One clear trend, both in the survey’s data and nationally analyzed, is the rise in Americans consuming their news through social media. Though the New York Times was by far the most used source of responders, at least 4/10 responders got news from Instagram and/or TikTok.
Pew Research Center similarly reported in a recent study that “About 4 in 10 young adults in the U.S. now regularly get news on TikTok.”
The study also found that “around half of TikTok users (52%) now say they regularly get news there.”
Last year, The New York Times wrote an article titled “Teenagers Tell Us About Their Relationship With News.”
The article quoted students of varying grade levels, and political views, but one trend between responses stood out, teenagers are consistently getting their news off of social media. The article also featured four students from AFS’s thoughts: two alumni, Neveah Brown ‘25 and Timmy Ma ‘25, and two current upper school students, Grace Moore ‘26 and Bella DiToro ’27.
In the article, DiToro said, “However, navigating true and false information on social media can be extremely difficult. Media literacy and lateral reading is becoming increasingly necessary for anyone navigating the online news space.”
DiToro brings up a crucial point, highlighting that a range in news media can be very crucial, and in this time, as The New York Times says, “the vast majority of teenagers said they get their news primarily from social media.”
This factor is not necessarily a bad thing, as it turns out that many large news sites, including the New York Times, run Instagram accounts, and provide digital media in a new form through sites like Instagram and TikTok.
A geography teacher was interviewed by The Guardian where they said, “We have accepted that reading newspapers comes with political and social angles, but social media exacerbates this further by denying broad coverage.”
Ollie Davies, the teacher interviewed, brings up a good point: are social media algorithms reliable? Do they provide accurate information?
One thing is clear: both students and teachers in and out of the AFS community are relying on social media to receive news.
Aisling • Oct 16, 2025 at 10:56 am
I do agree that it’s important to get news from a more reliable source than social media. However, I do thin that it would be something interesting to look into why this generation specifically goes to social media as their main source of news. Personally, I have found that many people don’t read actual news sources because they’re more likely to be censored, or with a hidden bias. On top of that, so called credible news sources are often expensive to read. Even just to read the New York Times, if the school didn’t pay for it, is $25 a month, money which many people don’t have. I do think that people should be a bit more careful to not consume as much biased news as they do today, but news sources have always been biased, even the original papers.
Anais • Oct 15, 2025 at 1:51 pm
I’m not surprised by how many people now a days get their news from social media. I know my friends rely mostly on Tiktok. I also find myself telling my parents about things I have heard on Tiktok and using the app for news. My mom has told me plenty of times not to trust social media and to rather read articles off of the New York Times or CNN or other news channels. Credibility and reliability have always been important factors to think about when reading any kind of news. I believe its harder to navigate whats true and whats false on social media because you have no idea if these people are well educated or not. There can be frequent misinformation on social media and you never know if its valid or not. I don’t have any ideas how to really fix this. There are some things each individual can do wether that be sourcing and paying attention to who is saying what (and if they are reliable or not) or just being aware that what people are saying on social media can be incorrect. It’s a difficult but important topic. As long as you are careful no real harm should be done.
Evah • Oct 15, 2025 at 1:51 pm
It is definitely important to get information from credible news sources, but I believe many teenagers are drained from reading the news because of constant negative information. I know, personally, I have to take breaks between consuming current events because much of it can be overwhelming. I hear my friends say often that the world, “only gets worse every day.” While it is essential adolescents learn how to correctly source and reasearch news growing into adulthood, we should understand why many kids recieve news from people or apps they use/talk to often rather than going out of their way to search for it.
Natalia • Oct 15, 2025 at 9:43 am
I think this article is really interesting! I feel like most people who aren’t from our generation (majorly older generations) think that because we consume most of our news from social media, that it’s not as credible as other biased news articles. Yes, places like Tiktok and Instagram aren’t exactly reliable all the time, however because social media is so public, it allows for a wide variety of opinions. I think it’s extremely evident that our generation doesn’t always trust easily, and a major value of ours is being able to have multiple opinions with varying biases compared to one strong overwhelming one. With the previous elections and world events, it’s becoming more and more obvious that certain news platforms lean strongly to one side of issues, rather than acting as a middle ground. Personally, I’ll always value a varying set of opinions over a looming one.
Aila • Oct 15, 2025 at 9:40 am
I noticed that I get my news either from word of mouth or from social media. Very rarely am I actively going onto news sites to figure out what is going on in the world. However, I do fact-check the information that I get and ensure that what I am seeing and what I will then talk about is in fact, true. I enjoy discussing current events and global news with my friends and family, so I must ensure that everything I see is accurate and reliable. There is a caveat to getting news from social media; however, the algorithm pushes the kind of content that it knows you like onto your feed. It will very rarely show videos and content that steers clear of its version of you. Similarly, all news is biased in some way because everyone is biased, even if only slightly, so it’s challenging to distinguish between whether something is a hard fact or an opinion disguised as fact. Overall, I have learned to be very cautious of what I see on the internet
Roger Chen • Oct 15, 2025 at 9:39 am
I was really surprised that the New York Times is the largest source of news for AFS students. I fully expected large news networks such as CBS or CNN, or a form of social media. This could be due to the free subscription AFS provides for the NYT, but I still find the disparity unusual. For me, news is a way to stay connected with the rest of the world, but over the years that I’ve been following, either on the radio, TV, or any other way, I feel more and more disconnected from the people discussed and the tragedies highlighted. News is a potent way of desensitization for me. Every day, it feels like there is a new disaster or tragedy. Despite this, I still keep listening because I feel that it is always important to know what many think/believe. This way, you can develop your own opinions.
Cora Giuliano • Oct 15, 2025 at 9:35 am
It makes sense that so many people get their news from social media, but I wouldn’t say that’s actually a good source. I suppose it depends on the account. It’s important to note though, that the algorithm knows you. It knows what you’re interested in and what you believe so it isn’t going to show you anything different. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but limits your view. Many Tiktok videos or Instagram reels make a claim emphatically and confidently. These videos are marketed as news but the points they make are often based in opinion which is limiting to the viewer. What do we lose when we only ever see what we want to see? Is it really a loss?
Tsukki • Oct 15, 2025 at 9:20 am
I often get my news from CNN in passing (i.e, if it happens to be playing in the kitchen while I’m making food), my own research, family members, and social media. I’m not surprised by the number of my peers who admitted to receiving most of their news from social media, and I actually think that it can be a very good thing as long as you’re aware of who is sharing the information. Considering that a lot of credible news outlets have TikTok and Instagram pages, I think that receiving your news from social media isn’t as bad as most people think, as long as you are monitoring which page is giving you this information and doing your own digging to see if what is being said is true. Receiving your news from social media is acceptable.
Maddie • Oct 14, 2025 at 8:28 pm
I mainly get my news from conversation at dinner or social media. I personally do not think that social media is the best way to get the news or learn about it. The whole point of social media is to feed you what you are interested or what you interact with. So, if a social media app sees that you interact more to specific views on the world it will obviously continue to feed those same views to you while it keeps expanding to other things. It is also very easy to spread misinformation on social media, half of the news that is shared is made up and there is no source for it. I know that I have heard something on social media and told my parents about it and it ended up being true or half of it was true, but it was missing important parts. It is incredibly hard to be able to tell from what correct information is and what is misinformation. On top of that basically all news and media is biased in some way, it could be possible for it to not be as obvious which side it may be biased for but it’s important to know who and where your sources are coming from, but also to not trust everything you see on the internet.
Rael • Oct 14, 2025 at 7:29 pm
Typically, I get my news from either social media or word of mouth. I don’t have much access to social media, so I’m usually hearing it from somebody else. I’m not very surprised with how others get their news, since social media and The New York Times have both been huge news outlets. Social media is likely not a good place to get news, since it’s very biased, but it’s hard to find unbiased sources everywhere. Social media could actually be an okay news source if, after double checking, the information is true. Not everything is set to deceive, but it’s still not good. It’s best to check through several news sources after hearing anything from any one source, in fact. There’s always more to the story.
Wyatt • Oct 14, 2025 at 5:50 pm
I read “Where do you get your news?” in this article. I wasn’t surprised that most news is consumed from social media. Personally, I don’t have too much of an interest in watching the news, but occasionally a news video will show up on my tiktok for you page. I think a good amount of time I tend to believe it. I normally go on with my day, maybe asking my friend if he saw the same thing too. I generally don’t believe that social media is the best place to get news from mostly because it is an unreliable source. But in a way, you can see stuff from multiple perspectives, not just what is portrayed on the news.
Fia Capone • Oct 13, 2025 at 4:58 pm
Usually I get my news from social media, but sometimes I hear it from my family and friends. I don’t tend to pay attention to a lot of it when I see it on social media just because it isn’t a very reliable source. I’m not very surprised that a lot of people get their news from the New York Times just because it’s a very trustable source and a lot of people use it. I think the New York Times will always overpower social media in being a better news source. Social media has all kinds of fake people and fake news on it so it’s hard to tell what you can really rely on. I generally navigate fake news by checking three reliable sources and seeing if they all say the same thing or have a the general idea of it.
Amelia Terry • Oct 13, 2025 at 1:57 pm
I get my news not from social media platforms, but mostly from my peers and family. I am not surprised by where most of my peers get their news, because most teenagers have social media and use it to get their news because of the accessibility. I don’t think that social media is the best way to get news because its so easy for content creators to lie or twist the information that you are receiving. I don’t have social media so if I’m receiving false information it was obtained from my peers or others who received it. I navigate it by looking it up on google/safari, checking with my parents or friends to see if it’s true.
Anthony • Oct 13, 2025 at 12:05 pm
Where I get my news from today is mostly from Instagram or Tiktok, Sometimes in the morning I turn on the news but not for very long because I have to go to school. When I learned where my peers got there news from i was not surprised when they said Tiktok, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. The only thing I don’t like about those social media platforms is that it is hard to believe if information is true or not. The only thing in my opinion is good to find resource and other news is google or safari.
May • Oct 13, 2025 at 11:54 am
I get my news from either tiktok, instagram, my parents, or the New York Times. I’m not really surprised on where everyone else gets their news from because it’s similar to mine. I was expecting more people to watch the news all the time though. I think social media is not the best way to get news even though I use it to get news but sometimes its a good help and doesnt tell false information. I wouldn’t recommend anyone to use social media to give information even though I still use it. I navigate whether or not its true information by checking with either my parents or friends that it has happened since they usually watch the news.
Harrison • Oct 12, 2025 at 5:14 pm
I get my news mostly from the people around me, I barely get it from social media and I never read about it. I was not surprised by where my peers get their news, as social media is at the forefront of most teenagers’ lives. I don’t think social media is a good way to get news because much of the information is skewed or completely wrong. However, without it I don’t think teenagers would be receiving as much news and would be uniformed about the world. I am not great with deciding what news is real or fake, but the most reliable thing I can think of is to google it and search for a reputable news source.
Jonas Couzin-Frankel • Oct 10, 2025 at 5:51 pm
Because so many people around the world get their news from social media, it raises the question of how many people are actually receiving up-to-date and accurate information. Social media as a platform for news is incredibly accessible, which is one of the main reasons why so many people go to social media as their default for news. However, because of social media’s accessibility, it is very easy to find information that is either old or completely fake. Despite the risks social media poses, I do get some of my information from there. I think that it is possible to determine what is real and what is not, especially if you can verify the validity of the account posting.
Makayla Littles • Oct 10, 2025 at 4:01 pm
When I was younger, I got a lot of my news from the actual news stations, but now that I am older, I get a lot of my news off of Tiktok. My algorithm is set up in a way that shows me a lot of people sharing current events from the news. To be honest, I do not think that social media is the best way to get news, but I do believe that it is a good way to help spread information, as long as it is not misinformation. I think that getting news off of Tiktok can often be problematic because there are actual people sharing this information. When they share information, they also share their biases. When I hear information on social media that is intriguing to me, I take the time to go look it up on the internet. Although I feel like a lot of content creators provide sources for the information that they are sharing.
Serafina • Oct 10, 2025 at 9:26 am
I think that there is a danger to getting news from social media. Especially with the rise of AI, it’s incredibly easy to fall victim to misinformation. Rumors spread easily on social media platforms, and without outside research, it’s hard to tell what is real and what is not. In addition, I think that social media news sources can be very biased. The algorithms like to show people information that they will tend to agree with, in order to keep them using the platform. This creates an echo chamber of one idea or perspective, and I think that is detrimental to getting factual, non-biased information and using critical thinking skill to draw conclusions individually.
Henry Sylva • Oct 10, 2025 at 1:02 am
The rise of social media as a dominant form of news distribution shows how quickly information and misinformation can travel today. It’s great that students can now receive information through platforms like Instagram and TikTok, but this also opens the door to new threats. Algorithms usually place user engagement over true information, so users may only see updates that reflect their prior beliefs. Students need to learn how to verify information, read carefully, and recognize bias issues with social media scrolling. Still, while we can lament social media, there are significant outlets such as The New York Times and NPR that are trying to reach a younger audience via social media. The challenge is to maintain access to news while ensuring that the truth and ethics of journalism are not sacrificed.
Faye Siatkowski • Oct 9, 2025 at 9:12 pm
I can understand why it’s more common to get news from social media than any other source. One reason being it’s very easy to access it and another reason may be that it’s much quicker getting news from an app then a newspaper or from the television. But one downside of getting it from social media is that we never know how legit of a source it is. We never know if what we are watching is actually real or fake and made up. Social media helps news be more easily accessible especially for young teens. So I am not surprised that it is a pretty common form of hearing the news.
Gabriel Anderson • Oct 9, 2025 at 3:13 pm
Personally, I mainly get my news from Instagram and MSNBC. Granted, most of the accounts I get news from are, new york times and other actual news organizations alike. It makes sense to me that the majority of people get their news from the NYT and IG because the NYT is such a powerhouse in the news industry, and we are a mainly liberal school, and it doesn’t surprise me that many people get their news from Instagram because I do too, and spend most of my screen time on IG. It’s tricky, getting your news from social media, because the range of accuracy and bias varies so greatly. Social media is also designed to entertain and engage, not push information. The fact that it is not based on the quality of information is dangerous because that can allow for misinformation. Which will be even more convincing because it’s designed to be something you will personally like. I personally figure out whether news from social media is accurate by critically thinking about it (whether it’s logical or not). I also cross-reference and check sources.
Maya Peskin • Oct 9, 2025 at 3:00 pm
I frequently get my news from The New York Times and my parents. I have heard many different opinions on TikTok and Instagram, but they are often so biased that I tend to disregard them. I was really surprised to find out that 2 out of the top 5 places people get their news. Thinking it over, it does make sense, because the algorithm filters so much news through the for you page. It was still surprising. Social media is not a good way to get your news because it is put on your feed through information it knows you agree or disagree with. In other words, because your for you page is crafted based on your interests, the algorithm is going to specifically put news that will engage you on your feed. For the most part, it is giving you news you want to hear. When you navigate biased news on your feed, look at the source and then decide whether to ignore it or not.
Gia • Oct 9, 2025 at 2:55 pm
I get my news from social media very often, sometimes my parents will tell me news if they want to talk to me more in depth about it. I wasn’t particularly surprised by what my classmates and teachers did to get their news because the New York Times and social media are very popular ways to get news now. Right now, I think social media can be a good source of news if you use the right resources and news articles because some news outlets can be biased or try to influence you.
Sage Solonynka • Oct 9, 2025 at 2:43 pm
I tend towards the safer, more comedic ways of getting my news. I will watch shows like Late Night or The Daily Show to help take the edge off. I am happy that people do follow the news and it is a higher percentage then I was expecting. Social media I find to be a huge issue in terms of accountability and misinformation. People can say whatever they want and state it as fact, they don’t need a journalism degree or anything. I am a very skeptical person and I often find myself being the one testing for AI use and following up on the background of an article. The “creditable” sources still mess up and dramatize stories. I really like your article.
Henry Goldstein • Oct 7, 2025 at 7:57 am
I usually get my news from social media through the accounts of news networks. I like the way I get news because I am still getting accurate information, but I only need to see the headlines of what is going on in the world. If I am more interested in a certain event or topic, I go to the New York Times and read more. Getting news from social media is fine, but you need to make sure your sources are reputable. You never know when some post will tell a flat-out lie. I can tell if a headline is fake or false, really depending on who it’s from. False headlines tend to come from political junkies, who usually take any normal story and take it wildly out of context. I think that it’s become pretty bad, and in our current political climate, it will probably get worse before it gets better.
Jenny • Oct 7, 2025 at 7:57 am
I get my news from for you page on TikTok only, because I don’t have the habit about checking news. Therefore, I would only know any news if they are appearing on my phone. I am not surprised at all about where my peers and teachers get their news: I believe that most people living this past-pasted busy life, would care less to what’s going on around us or would make less effort to care about those things. I think that the evaluation of social media being a means to news really depends on what you define as a news. If you just want to hear about rumors or teas, then social media is a great source since people on there is very good at eyeball catching. However, if you were to do a research and wanted to acquire the most accurate news possible, then you should probably go to a more authoritative source to avoid chances of misinformation. I personally don’t care if the news were real or not, if the news weren’t evolutionary or important to me, but if I saw a news that made me panic or something, I might search it up to see if it’s true.