While scrolling through the Internet, articles similar to the following are frequently encountered:

“Obama signs executive order declaring investigation into election results; revote planned for Dec. 19th” — abcnews.com.co

“Daycare busted running toddler fight club, parents outraged” — celebtricity.com

“Woman with too much makeup mistaken as clown; attacked by angry mob” — thenochill.com

“Los Angeles tap water contains 12% Xanax and 4% OxyCodone” — satiratribune.com

The previously presented headlines are completely fabricated by the media. Fake stories have increasingly emerged on social media and other online platforms, exaggerating real events or constructing deceitful reports out of nothing. Misleading “clickbait,” like the headlines above, is used to intrigue readers and lead them to click on a different website’s link. The accessibility of false digital information has proved to be vexing for teenagers and adults alike.

Joel Breakstone, director of the Stanford History Education Group, said fake news consists of “contradictory, misleading and downright fraudulent information” mostly found online and is meant to spur a reaction in readers to get them to share the article, resulting in more “hits.”

Breakstone was one of the main researchers of a study completed in 2016, which tested students from middle school to college on how well they were able to judge the credibility of online content. When asked to differentiate between real and fake news, less than 20 percent of students tested displayed responses deemed “mastery.”  More than 80 percent of students mistook sponsored content that resembled a publication’s reputable content for real news stories.

He said he believes the struggle to differentiate between real and fake news for young people is prevalent because making the distinction is not as “black-and-white” as it may seem, and students are rarely asked to question their given news sources to a deep enough level.

“[These] three questions: ‘Who is behind it? What do other sources say? What’s the evidence?’ are a step in the right direction to being able to differentiate credible and non-credible news,” Breakstone said.

Adam Hooper, a data journalist at the Huffington Post, said many people are lured into reading news articles when there is a never-before-seen topic of interest. Some writers purposefully appeal to this audience by creating fake news and clickbait.

“With fake news, there are no boring stories, it’s always exciting,” said Hooper. “ … The people who wrote the [fake] story were thinking exactly about what was going to trigger your impulses and make you interested in the news.”

Hooper was previously the lead programmer for a discontinued website called Emergent, which was “a real-time rumor tracker” that verified the legitimacy of articles found online. He often encountered stories with questionable claims.

“One of my [favorite fake news stories] was this story about a Russian person who was being attacked by a bear, and his cell phone started playing Justin Bieber, and the bear ran away,” Hooper said.

According to social studies teacher David Vincent, another reason why people create fake news is to make money through the use of multiple platforms such as social media, advertisements and clickbait.

“[Fake news writers] are motivated by financial gain,” said Vincent. “If you can get clicks and hits and likes, it’s going to steer traffic, and that traffic might have an ulterior motive, which ultimately is to bring you somewhere else that will lead you toward other advertising or [to giving away] your information.”

Librarian Ana Palmer said she once was misled by a Facebook post with a clickbait headline about Subway using ingredients in its bread that are also found in gym mats. Her initial reaction of disgust was quickly subdued when she read the actual article, which clarified that the ingredients mentioned are found in very common foods.

Senior Alana Levin, who is one of the co-captains of the debate team, said she frequently looks at articles online for evidence to support her debate arguments and, while doing so, has encountered fake news similar to the types students were exposed to in the study conducted by the Stanford History Education Group.

Levin said she sees clickbait articles frequently on social media, especially on Facebook, and opened them in the past but now tries to avoid reading them.

“Social media has a huge role in perpetuating fake news because that’s where so many people get their sources of information,” said Levin. “For example, the Harambe ballots during the election, I remember seeing tons of articles saying that 10,000 ballots swung the vote in Pennsylvania, which made no sense. Silly things like that.”

Palmer said despite the seemingly convincing appearances of many fake news websites or clickbait articles, she distinguishes between real and fake content by always double-checking the source.

“Being able to distinguish credible versus non-credible sources does require critical thinking, and it does take a lot of practice, I think, to really internalize it because at first you might want to assume ‘Oh, this is all true,’” said Palmer. “If it sounds too good to be true, or it sounds too bad to be true, look it up. Take those steps to really verify whether it’s true or not.”

In terms of being able to differentiate what is trustworthy from what is not trustworthy on the Internet, Hooper said he recommends consulting other well-known sources to verify information.

“The first thing I do after reading a headline that sounds too good to be true is [try to find out who is writing it],” said Hooper. “I’ll be reading the first sentence, and I will paraphrase that sentence, write it into Google and see what comes up and then try and find a source that I trust.”

Breakstone said although the problem affects all viewers of digital media, it is particularly important to educate young people because the amount of information that goes online is increasing. By remaining vulnerable to being misled, people are less equipped to make informed choices about important issues in their lives and concerning the nation.

“It can be really difficult to know what to trust and how to make sense of the content you find online, but an individual’s ability to discern information online is really important for our democracy as a whole,” Breakstone said.