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The story
A joint nationwide public opinion survey conducted by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Waseda University found that only 24% of respondents said they “trust” social media information about political and social events, while 74% said they “don’t trust” it. By age group, the 18-39 bracket had the highest rate at 38%, a stark contrast to just 14% among those 60 and older. On the thread, some took the result as reassuring — “good that it’s still a minority” — while others pushed back hard, insisting “old media can’t be trusted anymore either.” Opinion was split over which source actually deserves more trust.
In a joint nationwide public opinion survey (conducted by mail) by the Yomiuri Shimbun and Waseda University’s Institute for Advanced Social Sciences, respondents were asked how much they trust information on social media platforms such as YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) regarding political and social affairs.
Those who said they “trust” it — including “to some extent” — came to 24% in total, while those who “don’t trust” it — including “not very much” — reached 74%.
Broken down by age, the share who said they “trust” it was 38% among 18-39 year-olds, 28% among 40-59 year-olds, and 14% among those 60 and older — trust was higher the younger the age group.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
Guess that means people like this are still the minority.
People are still saying this stuff, huh.
Nah, it's actually become less trustworthy than old media.
Early days of the internet:
A quality medium where university researchers and top engineers exchanged ideas.
Now:
A rotten medium where people of "borderline intelligence" (a slang jab meaning below-average IQ) spread misinformation.
They did — it's in the same survey.
◆ When you normally get information about political developments, which media do you use? Choose up to five, ranked 1st to 5th by frequency of use.
*Figures shown are the percentage who ranked it 1st
– Commercial TV: 25
– NHK TV: 22
– News sites/apps like Yahoo News: 16
– Newspapers: 15
– Video sites/apps like YouTube: 8
– Social media like X (formerly Twitter): 7
– News organization websites/apps: 3
– Radio: 1
– Magazines: 0
– Other: 0 / No answer: 3
July-August 2026 Yomiuri/Waseda joint public opinion survey — questions and answers
https://www.yomiuri.co.jp/election/yoron-chosa/20260909-GYT1T00329/
First reports on earthquakes fly in here at lightning speed, lol. No idea where people even get it from though.
Even so, whatever rumors circulate online are still just rumors. But once old media reports it, everyone's like "KITAAAA!!! (a 2ch/5ch exclamation meaning 'here it comes!')" — so when it comes to basic fact confirmation, people still trust old media after all, don't they?
YouTubers are a hundred times worse for spreading misinformation. Even your distrust of the media was stirred up by online influencers in the first place.
Then just don't believe it.
You have any idea how much misinformation floods social media?
Crazy, right?
And only realizing it now. Would've made sense 20 years ago, but…
Apparently I'm a Russian spy.
Video comment sections lately are wild. There's definitely some organized group posting in there. You get comments so excessively deferential and low it's creepy, like followers begging their guru for teachings, plus a wave of bandwagon "me too!" agreement comments. And the anti comments look coordinated too — a group all piling on with similarly-worded complaints at once.
There are people who post just to stir up fights, sure, but that's about how many actually believe it. They're idiots, but they think they're smart.
No, first go check the facts… You get fooled precisely because you're going on about "believing" and "reasons and evidence" and "thinking with your own head."
There's no way to actually verify "facts." Depending on how something is framed, even the facts can look different.
Even if something's a fact from one angle, that doesn't mean it's the whole picture.
IF YOU CAN'T VERIFY IT, IT'S NOT A FACT, AAAAAAAAAH!
YOU'RE JUST MAKING UP HALF-ASSED REASONING IN YOUR OWN HEAD FOR THINGS YOU CAN'T VERIFY AND BELIEVING IT, AAAAAAAH!
You seriously don't get anything.
"Think for yourself" is a classic excuse dummies use when they just want to ignore inconvenient sources. Sure, verifying something as fact with 100% accuracy is impossible — but there's a world of difference between someone who's actually trying to verify things, aiming to get as close to 100% accuracy as they can, and someone who's given up on verifying anything, pushes their own delusions, and calls it "thinking for myself" for self-satisfaction.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The Yomiuri Shimbun and Waseda University run this joint nationwide mail-in survey every year, and this round asked not only about trust in social media but also how people actually get their political information. In a separate question from the same survey, cited in post #30, the top sources for political information were commercial TV at 25% and NHK at 22%, with video sites and social media combined accounting for only around 15%. In other words, there’s a gap between the 24% “trust” figure and how much people actually rely on social media to gather information — a nuance easy to miss without reading the original article. The thread split over which is less trustworthy, social media or old media, with arguments about how reach scales with the sheer number of posters running alongside pushback along the lines of “the media is just as guilty.” Note that the thread never really digs into how strong the correlation is between trusting social media and “higher approval of extreme claims” — for that detail, you’d need to check the analysis in the original article.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (Newsspeed+) thread “24% Say They “Trust” Social Media Information, With a Trend Toward Higher “Approval” of Extreme Claims — Yomiuri/Waseda Joint Public Opinion Survey.”
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