Do you remember that State Farm commercial with the family, and they kept saying "Well it's on the internet so it must be true."
We all laughed about it.
I don't know why though, because the commercial had a good point. People seriously believe everything they read on the internet. I see it on Facebook almost every day. Friends and family members carelessly share news articles containing false information. But, that's not even the worst part. Their friends and family then see it and share it on their social platforms. It spreads like wildfire. It's like the plague for crying out loud.
Some of these articles are so full of false information, but people are still sharing them because they aren't taking the time to fact check, or actually read the entire article. They just skim the headline/sub-headline and share away.
Check your sources for credibility, people!
When writing research papers in school we have to go through different obstacles to prove that our sources are credible. We have to research the authors, do a CRAAP test (current, relevant, authority, accuracy, purpose), and etc. I'm not saying that everyone should go to such great lengths, but the least you could do is fact check.
Now you are probably reading this and thinking: Oh, I never post false information. This doesn't pertain to me.
Wrong.
People do it all of the time.
Do any of these articles look familiar from the election?
Yeah, they were completely fake.
The question we should all be asking is, how do I tell when an article is fake?
Here are a few tips:
1. News sites with strange suffixes like ".co" or ".su," or that are hosted by third party platforms like WordPress should raise a red flag. Some fake sites, like National Report, have legitimate-sounding, if not overly general names that can easily trick people on social sites.
2. Websites with URLS that end in .com, .edu, .org, .gov are the most trustworthy.
3. Snopes usually is a good site to fact check on, as they debunk false stories often.
4. If it is a conspiracy theory, yes, you are sharing false information.
5. Does the article cite primary sources? Is the website credible or is a random website you have never heard of?
6. Is this website the only one sharing the story? That means it probably isn't true. News outlets jump at all signs of a story, so it's highly unlikely that only one website is writing about it.
7. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
You may think that sharing fake stories is funny, but it's not. It is becoming an epidemic that can only be resolved through just a little bit of self-educating.
Websites like Google are currently working to remove false stories from their search, but that won't completely resolve the problem. The amount of fake stories on the internet is not the problem, the problem is the amount of people sharing those fake stories.
(Side note: In addition to sharing false articles, people also have a habit of posting rants on their social media that are also untrue. If you intend to directly call out a religious group, ethnic group, or etc then you need to make certain you know what you are talking about.)
Our society is filled with people who will believe anything, specifically false truths that align with their own beliefs or bias.
While you may have disliked a particular political candidate, not every negative article about them, believe it or not, is true.
While that juicy gossip you read about your favorite celebrity might be interesting, it does not mean that it is true.
While the conspiracy theory, or newscast, may have sounded interesting, that does not mean that it is.
The moral of the story is this: fact check, stop sharing ignorant false stories, read the entire article, and stop posting information unless you know what you are talking about.
If the article is fake, some people will notice it, and you will look stupid.
Share cautiously readers.
