Facebook is the least trusted institution among young Americans, according to a poll released over the weekend by Harvard’s Institute of Politics.
Only 19% of adults under the age of 30 said they trusted Facebook to do the right thing all or most of the time, with Twitter receiving almost as low a level of trust at 21%. Only 22% of the respondents trust the media to do the right thing all or most of the time.
Other results from the survey included:
- Forty-nine percent of the respondents said they trusted the U.S. military to do the right thing all or most of the time, while 45% said the same about the police.
- Regarding the Supreme Court, 47% of young people said they trusted the high court to do the right thing all or most of the time.
- Wall Street was another institution, in addition to those associated with the meida, that received a low level of trust, with only 20% saying they trusted it to do the right thing all or most of the time.
The Washington Free Beacon pointed out that the results from the poll expressing relatively high trust in the army and the police is counter to the general perception given in the media, which is that young people are generally regarded as backing efforts to pack the Supreme Court or to severely reduce the role of the police.
The Harvard poll also demonstrated young people’s increasing feeling of unease regarding social media platforms. Even though the respondents acknowledged that social media had a positive impact on their ability to "express their political voice," they also said it had a negative impact on democracy in the United States, as well as their mental health.
The poll showed that young people strongly favor greater regulation of speech online, with 68% stating that social media platforms should remove misleading claims and 52% agreeing that Twitter’s ban on former President Donald Trump was a necessary move.
In addition, the survey touched on levels of depression among young people.
Fifty-one percent reported feeling "down, depressed, or hopeless" in the past few days, while 68% stated "feeling tired or having little energy" and 28% said they had thought about hurting themselves in some way several times during the last two weeks.
This poll was conducted between March 9 and March 22 among 1,000 people between the ages of 18 and 29. The margin of error was +/- 2.6% at the 95% level.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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