A new survey by Harvard University finds more than two-thirds of young Americans disapprove of President Trump’s use of Twitter. The implication is that Millennials prefer news from the White House to be filtered through other source, not a president’s social media platform.

    Most Americans rely on social media to check daily headlines. Yet as distrust has risen toward all media, people may be starting to beef up their media literacy skills. Such a trend is badly needed. During the 2016 presidential campaign, nearly a quarter of web content shared by Twitter users in the politically critical state of Michigan was fake news, according to the University of Oxford. And a survey conducted for BuzzFeed News found 44 percent of Facebook users rarely or never trust news from the media giant.

    Young people who are digital natives are indeed becoming more skillful at separating fact from fiction in cyberspace. A Knight Foundation focus-group survey of young people between ages 14 and 24 found they use “distributed trust” to verify stories. They cross-check sources and prefer news from different perspectives—especially those that are open about any bias. “Many young people assume a great deal of personal responsibility for educating themselves and actively seeking out opposing viewpoints,” the survey concluded.

    Such active research can have another effect. A 2014 survey conducted in Australia, Britain, and the United States by the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that young people’s reliance on social media led to greater political engagement.

    Social media allows users to experience news events more intimately and immediately while also permitting them to re-share news as a projection of their values and interests. This forces users to be more conscious of their role in passing along information. A survey by Barna research group found the top reason given by Americans for the fake news phenomenon is “reader error,” more so than made-up stories or factual mistakes in reporting. About a third say the problem of fake news lies in “misinterpretation or exaggeration of actual news” via social media. In other words, the choice to share news on social media may be the heart of the issue. “This indicates there is a real personal responsibility in counteracting this problem,” says Roxanne Stone, editor in chief at Barna Group.

    So when young people are critical of an over-tweeting president, they reveal a mental discipline in thinking skills—and in their choices on when to share on social media.

答案精析：文章第一段中提到，很多美国年轻人反对特朗普使用推特，并在第二段中作出了解释：人们不信任社交媒体（distrust has risen toward all media），网络上的很多新闻是虚假的（a quarter of web content…was fake news），即使是媒体巨头发布的新闻，很多用户也不予相信。由此可见，很多美国年轻人并不认为社交媒体是新闻的可靠来源，故选D。

错项排除：第一段第二句中提到，千禧一代的年轻人更喜欢通过其他渠道过滤的新闻，但并没有怀疑其合理性，A错。第二段开头提到，大多数美国人依靠社交媒体查看每日头条新闻。然而有44%的Facebook用户很少或从不相信新闻媒体报道的消息，由此可见美国人对社交媒体的偏好不能一概而论，B错。第一段说到千禧一代不喜欢从总统的社交媒体平台获取白宫新闻，但这不能跟政府处理的信息等同，C错。