A Pew Research Center survey released in October indicates that half of the 18- to 29-year-olds in the United States have “some” or even “a lot” of trust in information they get from social media sites.

Frightening, I know.

But here’s something that’s even more worrisome.

That number is just about 6 percent lower than the 56 percent of those surveyed who said they have the same level of trust in information obtained from national news organizations. We’re talking CNN, Wall Street Journal, NBC News reporting here.

The only consolation I take from the study is a slightly higher percentage — about 62 percent — said they have the same level of trust in information from local news organizations.

What are we coming to when our young people surf around Twitter or TikTok for “news” and then believe what they see almost as much as they do when they read local media sites like the one managed by this newspaper?

This alarming data was shared by Yale Press Clause Fellow Jacob Schriner-Briggs, who spoke last week as part of the Youngstown Press Club’s lecture series.

Schriner-Briggs is a 2017 graduate of Youngstown State University and a 2021 graduate of Yale Law School. He practiced law in the Media & Entertainment Group of Ballard Spahr LLP and helped represent journalists in their reporting.

As Press Clause Fellow at Yale Law, Schriner-Briggs now studies press freedom and First Amendment theory focusing on what he calls the often overlooked Press Clause of the First Amendment.

After hearing him speak at Tuesday’s luncheon, I unequivocally can attest that this very impressive young man most certainly does NOT get his news from TikTok.

Schriner-Briggs opened his lecture by getting straight to the heart of it.

“The American press is in crisis,” he said.

He spoke about things like continued decline in the number of newspapers nationwide, growing mistrust in reporting done by legacy media and increasing threats of violence toward media. He even commented on longterm effects of the global pandemic that some have called a potential “media extinction event.”

His Yale fellowship will focus on historical research of the Press Clause in the First Amendment. (You know — Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press … )

Apparently, little documentation exists on the thought process behind framing the Bill of Rights. Incredibly, the beginnings of the crowning jewel of our Constitution — the First Amendment — have led to much discourse because there simply exists little to no records on the back story of its creation.

Debate on that issue has focused on things like whether framers of our constitution intended for the term “press” to really mean formal media organizations or, rather, the spoken word by anyone. Today, that could mean any individual who creates an online blog, for instance, to share “news” which, apparently, then will be trusted by half of all young adults in America.

“We are awash with social media posts,” Schriner-Briggs said, pointing out that driving motivation for social media isn’t necessarily fair, balanced and reputable news reporting. Rather, it’s to keep eyeballs on the screen as long as possible.

Granted, some would argue that even reputable media organizations want readers to stay deeply engaged. That is very true, but I believe the best way to do that is simply to provide interesting information that also is accurate, fair and balanced. It is through our credibility that we maintain our strong and trusting readership.

Getting back to the Pew Research Center survey, it determined local news outlets are the most trusted among all age groups. Sadly, though, trust in these outlets among Americans overall is at its lowest point in recent years.

The survey, however, wasn’t all bad.

Adults in all other age groups surveyed do remain considerably less likely to trust information from social media sites than information from national and local news outlets.

Now, we just need to keep doing what we do — informing, engaging and reporting news in ways that we instill trust and faith by our readers.