What is Real?
Young people exploring misinformation in the modern world.
The project
Our inaugural Telstra Foundation Youth Advisory Council explored a project called A Day in Our Digital Life. This year, we invited our 2026 Council to revisit that same question.
As they reflected on their digital experiences, the conversation quickly expanded beyond technology itself. Together, they began exploring a bigger question: how do young people make sense of the world around them?
Through discussions, online workshops and collaborative sessions, Council members shared their experiences of navigating AI, misinformation, algorithm-driven feeds and the constant flow of online content. Along the way, conversations surfaced themes of uncertainty, bias, trust and information overload.
One insight emerged again and again: the challenge isn’t simply that misleading content exists online. It’s that determining what’s real, trustworthy and authentic can feel increasingly difficult.
So, in the spirit of centring youth voice, we handed the conversation back to the Council. We invited them to respond creatively to what they’d uncovered, in whatever format felt right to them.
What came back was thoughtful, personal and deeply human. Through poems, artwork, music, collages and reflections, young people explored questions about truth, creativity, identity, control and connection in a rapidly changing digital world.
One participant, Sienna, captured a feeling that echoed across many of the contributions:
“All I want is something real. Make it messy, make it bad. Just give me something that you made.”
Together, these creative works offer a window into how young people are experiencing the digital world today, and what they believe adults, institutions and technology leaders need to better understand.
This is what they created.
I can't tell what's real anymore.
The themes
What came through the work
“I can’t tell what’s real anymore”
The strongest theme across the conversations and creative responses was a growing sense of uncertainty. For many young people, the challenge is not simply identifying misinformation, but navigating an environment where trust feels harder to establish.
As Sienna S writes:
“The hardest part isn’t that everything is fake. It’s that sometimes I can’t tell what’s real anymore.”
This reflects the mental load of constantly evaluating information and questioning what can be relied upon.
Truth feels harder to hold onto
Several contributions explored concerns about trust, credibility and the role of institutions in shaping information.
Daniel S’s eulogy for “Verity” reflects a sense of loss, while also encouraging critical thinking and personal responsibility. His work points to broader questions about whom we trust, where information comes from, and how young people navigate an increasingly complex information landscape.
There is an emotional toll
These concerns aren’t just intellectual. Young people described feelings of loneliness, anxiety, isolation, frustration and fatigue associated with constantly questioning what they see online.
Across the responses, it’s clear that this is not only a media literacy challenge. It’s also a wellbeing issue that affects how young people experience their everyday lives.
A desire for the human and imperfect
Against a backdrop of increasingly polished and synthetic content, they expressed a desire for things that feel authentic, personal and made by real people.
Sienna M’s collage captures this sentiment:
“All I want is something real. Make it messy, make it bad … just give me something that you made.”
Here, “real” isn’t necessarily about perfection or accuracy. It’s about effort, creativity and human connection.
Concerns about creativity, skills and control
Many contributions reflected concerns about what increasing automation could mean for creativity, learning and personal agency.
Young people questioned what happens when technology begins taking over activities that have traditionally helped people learn, create and express themselves.
Nicola W’s song repeatedly asks:
“Who’s in control?”
Her response is simple and powerful:
“We are.”
Looking beyond misinformation
The Council’s concerns extended beyond deepfakes and misleading content.
They raised issues including AI-enabled scams, the environmental impacts of emerging technologies, and the future of journalism and factual reporting. Jasmine G’s artwork powerfully reflects these concerns, depicting robots looming over a shrinking Daily News.
Young people are already looking for solutions
Importantly, these works were not only about identifying problems.
Many participants shared practical ways of navigating the digital world, from questioning who created a piece of content and why, to using tools that help reduce unwanted advertising and online manipulation.
Their responses demonstrate critical thinking, curiosity and a willingness to engage with complex challenges.
Choosing human creativity to respond
Perhaps one of the most striking insights emerged through the creative process itself.
When given complete freedom to respond, these young people chose distinctly human forms of expression: poems, paintings, collages and songs.
In doing so, they demonstrated that creativity remains a powerful way to make sense of uncertainty, express lived experience, and connect with others.
The responses
In their own words.
Aryamaan
(14 · VIC)
“[This piece of work] talks about how fake ads can be avoided with a simple free web extension browser.”
Brock
(14 · SA)
“This is my personal experience and I’ve also talked to my friend and kinda collaborated idea-wise on the mis/disinformation part.”
Daniel
(16 · QLD)
“With all the ways truth is dying in our lives, I feel like it is important to recognise that we cannot trust blindly in people anymore, and that we must think for ourselves. Writing is a passion of mine, and while I wish it could’ve been longer, I don’t want to stretch it too much.”
Jasmine
(16 · ACT)
“I drew a picture about AI and generated media in journalism and how AI is taking away from actual journalism and facts.”
Lilly
(15 · QLD)
“In the past I have struggled with AI use and noticed how myself and some of my friends started losing the essential skills to write assignments, so I found people who both use and don’t use AI for various things and put together their responses in an interview.”
Nicola
(16 · NSW)
“I am a music student and love music, and the lyrics are about AI and how bad it is.”
Olivia
(16 · VIC)
“It represents my stance on both AI and misinformation, and is presented through hobbies I enjoy.”
Paige
(15 · SA)
“I really enjoy writing and poetry comes easy to me. I think that it relates to our conversations because it delves into how misinformation can escalate.”
Paige
(15 · SA)
“I wanted to upload something a little more interactive and to target a different range of people. It’s quite a different format to my poem!”
Patrick
(12 · TAS)
“This video is about a true story based off something that happened to me. It is a reenactment of what happened. It shows my experience with misinformation online, through a video of me on my phone on Instagram.”
Seán
(18 · WA)
“Misinformation and confusion surrounding AI and internet sensations to teenagers.”
Seán
(18 · WA)
“What are we Eating Online”, explores our innocence towards online algorithms, who decide almost everything users are shown online. The symbolic film, invites audience members to question their own grasp on online reality and free will on the internet, by a disturbing and graphic montage, related in style to anti-smoking campaigns. Supported with discomforting close ups and audio tracks, our character consumes whatever is given to him without rational thought, reflecting our own thoughtless consumption of information on platforms like social media. That his habits ultimately lead to his death could then act as a metaphor for us signing away our own destiny when we choose to live in the digital world. I had a great time filming this short film, experimenting both with uncanny shadows and symbolic colours, like the warning connotations of the colour red. Most fun of all I spent an entire evening creating the most uncomfortable sound library I could. My favourite was squeezing a wet sponge to replicate, squishing tomato, so ASMR warning in advance.
Sienna
(13 · NT)
“It’s a collage and poem I made about AI and what putting effort into something means to me.”
Sienna
(17 · SA)
“I decided to do a poem as I love writing, particularly when I have so many competing or complex thoughts. I think the use of AI and misinformation breeds a sense of loneliness and isolation, and many young people feel alone in those feelings, which I tried to represent.”
Yasir
(17 · VIC)
“Improved and adapted speech written by AI and inspired by my own work, an addition to my video about AI misinformation.”