The conversation around free speech feels louder than ever, but students’ actual understanding of it has not kept up. When asked to name the five freedoms protected by the First Amendment (freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and the right to petition the government), only one out of four CHS students interviewed could list more than one, and the rest guessed or admitted they didn’t know.
Len Niehoff, a University of Michigan law professor who specializes in the First Amendment, said the confusion among students is not surprising.
“You are growing up in an information environment that is louder, faster and more deceptive than anything I grew up with,” Niehoff said. “The system rewards speed, not accuracy, and if you do not have the time or the tools to figure out what is true, the whole idea of free speech starts to feel chaotic.”
This lack of clarity does not mean students do not care; however, Niehoff maintains that it indicates young people have not prepared to navigate the world put forth for them. Senior Malcolm London finds this truth in action on Instagram when he comes across posts that he does not agree with.
“I feel like I need to post something back,” London said. “We’ve been getting caught in the loop, all we’re doing is going in circles.”
London contends that the battle that is being fought in Ann Arbor is a world apart from the fight that people believe they are a part of when they take an online stance.
“The real war isn’t here, it’s out there,” London said. “My Israeli friends don’t care if I do a ‘support Jews in Ann Arbor’ post. They’re scared for their lives, and what are we scared about? We’re scared that our friends might think we have bad ideas about the government?”
Still, CHS students are far from disengaged. Three out of the four students interviewed said they had exercised their right of free speech in the past, and all four students said they would like to have that opportunity in the future.
“I speak up a lot about trans issues because I’m trans,” freshman Ollie Levitsky said. “I care about my community and I want to protect people like me.”
Whether or not speaking out is really effective if you don’t understand what you’re taking a stance on is a question that rests on each decision senior Sophia Alcumbrak McDaniel makes on social media. When she feels she would be unable to respond to a person asking for clarification on a topic she is supporting, she feels it is better not to show that support at all.
However this fear is not the result of ignorance. Niehoff argues that the confusion students feel around speaking — whether it stems from a fear of being wrong, being overwhelmed, or not knowing enough — isn’t a personal flaw. It’s the result of trying to communicate in a world where information spreads fast and rarely cleanly.
Infographic of media bans in the U.S. since 1920:
“It’s up to each and every one of us individually to figure out what we can rely on and to do a little bit of work before we start spreading things that are corrosive or toxic and not true,” Niehoff said. “A lot of people aren’t bothering to put any effort into it at all. They share information that just sort of randomly pops up on their screen.”
Niehoff’s emphasis on truth cuts directly into those decisions. He says if truth is not prioritized, then it is difficult to justify why we have free speech in our country. For students who are navigating identity, politics, pressure and the fear of saying the wrong thing, that message is less abstract and more a survival strategy. Niehoff argues that even with the specified protections of the First Amendment, lying and uninformed ideas are rampant.
“We have become, as a society, uncomfortably comfortable with lying,” Niehoff said.
Free speech matters most when people feel uncertain about how to use it, and that uncertainty is especially real for high schoolers who are still learning to sort clarity from noise. The conversation around free speech may grow in volume, and knowing the substructure of that freedom can help students hear their own thoughts amidst the noise. In a world moving too fast for certainty, learning how to speak thoughtfully is the most powerful freedom we have.
