Should You Learn How to Navigate the Internet at School?

Your favorite actor shares a way to make free money. An influencer bites into a tube of ice with the consistency of Jell-O. An AI penguin waddles over to an outstretched hand.

The content you encounter online can seem unbelievable—and sometimes it is. But should your teachers help you navigate what you are seeing in the same way they teach you history and science?

At least nine U.S. states require schools to teach media literacy—the ability to think critically about information in the media and engage with it responsibly. In some states, the lessons are part of other subjects. In others, media literacy is its own class.

Many teachers say media literacy is essential because students encounter so much information online and they need to know how to navigate it. But not everyone agrees there’s room for the subject in school. Many administrators point out that adding it would take time away from core classes like English.

Should you learn media literacy at school? Consider the arguments and then choose a side.

Can you tell what’s real on TikTok? Eight in 10 teens encounter outlandish claims on social media at least once a week. And 81 percent of them believe at least one of those claims, according to the News Literacy Project, a nonprofit that promotes digital education. That’s why many teachers and students say media literacy is so important.

Noel Paul, a seventh-grader, takes a media literacy class at his school in Connecticut. “It teaches us how to recognize fake things, not to talk to strangers online, and how to be safe with all of your information,” he explains.

Some lawmakers argue that teaching those skills benefits the entire country. Knowing how to tell fact from fiction will help students become well-informed voters, points out Dawn Euer, a Rhode Island state senator. And requiring media literacy in schools means that all students will learn about it, not just ones who discuss the topic with family or friends.

Plus, media literacy is useful in students’ daily lives, says Amber Chandler, a teacher in New York. She recently taught her students about online scams. “It was probably the most relevant thing I’ve said to them all year.”

Many teachers feel pressure to fit in everything students need to know in core areas such as math. Adding a media literacy class would only worsen that time crunch, many school administrators point out, because it would take time away from other subjects. That’s just not practical, argues Evelyn Mamman, a school official in New Jersey. “I can’t tell a social studies teacher, ‘you can’t teach this battle.’ ”

In addition, mandating media literacy education doesn’t guarantee all students will master those skills. For example, the subject is required in Illinois high schools, but some of those schools spend only one class period a year on it, according to researchers at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Besides, some students argue, media literacy skills like evaluating sources are often already taught in English and social studies classes. And technology is constantly evolving, making it hard for even teachers to keep up. With that in mind, is media literacy essential to add? Lily Browning, an eighth-grader from Illinois, doesn’t think so. “There are more important skills,” she says, “like how to do taxes and save money.”