Misinformation, disinformation, unbacked rumors and propaganda. We've all seen these things. Sometimes they sneak past us. Sometimes they are so glaring it's almost offensive to see someone believe them. Sometimes they are a simple misunderstanding.
Lately, I have seen even my most scrupulous friends sharing things on social media that have made my eyebrows do all kinds of acrobatics. I get it, sometimes a piece of information seems like the nail in the coffin of somebody I politically or personally just can't agree with. Sometimes a meme or an "EXCLUSIVE" reportage was the cherry on top of my rock-solid case--and I was so eager to prove myself right that I failed to notice the source is host of moon landing conspiracy videos, or pages with "EXPOSED" in the title that cite only a mysterious "expert" without credentials. I've had to publicly apologize for Facebook posts that made even my closest comrades drop me a "Girl, what?" in my private messages.
After a few disasters, I've sworn off sharing before at least a quick web search. Now, if something seems too good, juicy or scandalous to be true, I keep scrolling, or if my instincts tell me it's too dangerous to ignore, I check and make a quick comment on what I find to be factual. I exploit my access to JSTOR and EBSCO when Snopes and FactCheck.org come up dry. If the statement in question is related to an individual or organization, I examine their own websites and social media.
I try to be gentle, but sometimes I fail, and in my crusade for truer memes and a world in which satire is understood to be satire, I reinforce persecution complexes or just make people kind of afraid or tired of me, and push people from looking to me as the Patron Saint of Credibility I strive to be. And really, why should they? I am as fallible as everyone I've fact-checked.
What I wish is for people to question themselves. I am tired of being the scary fact-checking vigilante out to ruin everyone's fun on the net. I want it to be obvious when sources are as fact-based as Clickhole. I want it to be instinctive to at least Google absolute claims without sources. I want it to be easy to find out where a news source or institution gets its funding, in case someone more powerful than readers on the Internet (gullible or not) has purchased a biased platform. I want more value to be on factuality than trendiness and knee-jerk reactivity.
But I know what it feels like to be desperately reluctant to be wrong or to change my mind. I know what confirmation bias feels like. I have been on the wrong side of fact-checkers like me. I don't want to go back, but for now, it feels to me like my desire for the truth makes me responsible for finding and sharing it on my own.
