Hey! Got A Minute? I want to know where you’re getting your news from? I know, it’s a bit of a loaded question these days, there are so many ways you could be getting your news! What I’m really asking is: Are you getting your news from social media? I know a lot of people who do and it kind of hurts sometimes to see what they are sharing on their social media pages. Not because they aren’t intelligent people, far from it! In fact, some of my friends that I have seen posting misinformation are really smart, but don’t give themselves enough time to actually read through what they are posting. Or, fact checking what they have read. This, of course, isn’t a new phenomenon. Even before social media, misinformation was being spread by people with absolutely no intention of doing harm. Paraphrasing, misunderstanding, and word of mouth tend to change and/or dilute messages pretty quickly.
The problem with it now, more so in the past, isn’t JUST how quickly it can spread. The right person posting a false, or unsubstantiated, report (link, picture, etc.) can send the (mis)information to literally thousands of sets of eyes in a second. More and more of us are relying on our smartphones for news, and fewer and fewer are taking the time to read beyond the caption. I’ve been guilty of this myself, even though I know better, so I understand how it happens. Sometimes you read something that really strikes a chord with you, so you want to share it before you even take a look to see if the site it came from is reputable or not. I’ve actually seen people sharing information directly from satire sites, thinking they are true. Heck, how many times have you seen someone share an article that is 5, 10, or even 15+ years old? It happens quite a bit. I remember a few times reading about celebrities that had died but thought, ‘Hey, didn’t they die years ago?’ only to find that my friend had mistakenly shared an old post.
Now, you’d think that it’s only young people (yep, sounding old here) that are sharing this misinformation. We older folks know better, right? Unh-uh. In fact, a study done recently showed that most of the misinformation regarding the current pandemic has been spread by people who are 40+. You know how we used to make fun of our parents/relatives who used to forward us all of their ‘interesting’ or ‘can you believe this?’ spam emails, not realizing they were, in fact, bogus spam? Well, social media is turning a lot of us into our parents. Not everyone, not all of us, but some of us are perpetuating the misinformation that is out there. And no, It’s not JUST the 40+ people, I am definitely aware of that.
What I am suggesting is that maybe (just maybe) instead of getting the majority of your information from social media, you dig a little deeper. If you see something posted on your feed, check into it before you retweet/repost it. If you’re seeing something posted by an ‘influencer’ that has no background in the field in question, then maybe check it out with a more reputable source. For example, if someone you follow because they post really great videos of eating noodles suddenly posts a warning about rabid squirrels running rampant and spreading polio in your home town…maybe check with your health unit first before posting it as a true story. Go a little deeper in your Google searches for facts, you’ll notice that a lot of times the first thing that comes up in a search now is actually a paid ad. Sometimes we’re going to get it wrong, we’re all human, and even the ‘reliable sources’ sometimes get it wrong. All we can really do is to do our due diligence before perpetuating misinformation. And if we get it wrong, admit it and ‘print a retraction’.
