Gone are the days of research and cross-referencing. My Facebook news feed runs rampant with conspiracy theories, breaking fake news stories (I'm not talking about ironic, satirical news either), and supposed scam or crime prevention tactics. And I don't think I have that many crazy friends. People just don't care whether or not anything is true anymore. Because if they did, they would have looked it up on Snopes first.
If I believed everything I read on the web, I would be suffering from pancreatitis (a side ache), heart attacks (gas pains), and Lyme disease (an ingrown hair).
Let's just say my Internet weakness is self-diagnosis. WebMD is now blocked at my house.
"It's not that people necessarily believe if stuff is true or false," I said to my husband, Dan. "They just don't care if it's true or false. And social media is the cause. It's easy to click share or retweet and not take responsibility for the content you're clicking on."
"Are you sure it's not Fox News that started the 'I don't care about facts' thing?" Dan replied.
"Ha ha! Burn! Good one, Dan! Or . . . actually, there's a lot of truth to that . . . Sad."
Besides social media, we have this twenty-four-hour news cycle that is expected to generate breaking news all day, everyday. The danger is that it leaves little room for things like . . . well . . . fact-checking. Case in point: CNN's disastrous reporting during the Boston bombings.
Twitter and other microblogging sites make it simple for Joe Schmoe without any expertise or credibility to comment on everything. People can be tried and sentenced in the court of the blog-o-sphere before they are even arrested. (Yes, I know I am a contributor to the blog-o-sphere. I'd like to think that I am one of the smart ones. That's probably what Joe Schmoe down the street is telling himself too.)
Anyone can say anything they want and someone will believe them. Dinosaurs and humans walked together on this earth a few thousand years ago. Global warming is a hoax. Obama is going to come to your house and steal your guns. We have turned into a misinformed, paranoid society.
Not that there weren't paranoid, anti-government crazies out there before. We have a magical land called Northern Idaho in our state. But social media gives these used-to-be fringe characters a mainstream outlet.
After getting fed up with the number of alarmist forwarded e-mails and Facebook posts I had seen in the past few months, I mentioned in passing one day, "I don't believe anything I read on the Internet."
Slight exaggeration. I still believe some things on the Internet. Like the fact that I have pancreatitis.
The person with whom I was conversing gave me an incredulous look, "How do you get your information then?"
Oh dear. This world is doomed to devolve into a mass of stupidity.
I get my information the way I always did pre-Internet. I read. I think. I look up multiple perspectives on topics. I listen to experts. I keep my mouth shut about stuff I'm not sure about. And I don't blindly pass false information along.
Just because it's on the Interwebs doesn't make it true.
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