Riya Upadhyaya, a 2026 summer intern for the Pleasanton Weekly and a rising senior at Amador Valley High School, wrote in a guest opinion published Aug. 5 that teen news habits have shifted from newspapers toward social media.
The column says that 30 years ago, most U.S. households subscribed to newspapers and about one-third of teenagers read them each day. Upadhyaya wrote that today, most people get news through social platforms, while about 12% of teens keep up with news on a regular basis.
Upadhyaya argued that the change is not limited to moving from print to digital formats. She wrote that short videos on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok have become part of how even major news organizations try to reach younger audiences, while other accounts on the same platforms may spread misleading or incomplete information.
As an example from her own experience, Upadhyaya said she first heard about cyclospora through an Instagram reel that treated the issue as a joke, then later recognized it as a serious topic and looked into it further. She connected that experience to her work running her school newspaper and writing club, as well as writing for the Pleasanton Weekly since January.
Upadhyaya also wrote that many of her classmates at Amador decline copies of the school newspaper when it is distributed during lunch each month. Her column described this as part of what she called a passive way of receiving news, in which people wait for information to appear in their feeds instead of seeking it out.
