In the popular article “Facebook Dead” (2016), Kevin Maney claims that fake news is hurting the United State and could kill the largest social media platforms. Maney supports the claim by including quotes by experts, using strong words and phrases that grabbed the reader's attention, and naming ways people are trying to distinguish fake news from real. Maney has written this article in order to inform people about the dangers of fake news on social media. Maney establishes an informative relationship readers who engage in social media. In today’s society, it has become very hard to establish whether something a person hears is true or not because there is so much moral division, especially in the United States of America. It has become very common to judge other’s opinions and argue with them, telling them how ignorant they are for believing the way they do rather than providing facts to back why their point of view is the correct one. All of this pointless arguing stems from the depths of social media where people once gathered to find old friends.
In my opinion, truth is defined as none other than something that can be proven as fact or reality. I would think that many people would agree with my definition of truth. However, what people do not realize is that they forget to consider the facts that the other person has when they are in the heat of an argument because they are so quick to become enraged due to the fact that they think that everyone should believe the same way as they do. According to Kevin Maney, “I just looked back at my 2014 Facebook Timeline. Almost zero politics! And that’s how people liked it. Many users back then even beseeched friends to avoid political posts, or muted violators if they persisted. (Maney)” This shows that society has changed drastically since 2014. Today, it is impossible to get away from politics, it’s everywhere and has spread like a plague. When a person opens their Facebook’s news feed, it is crawling with political news, rants, and arguments. It has gotten to the point where people are dividing and cannot remain civil with the people they once could not live without because of different political views. Violence has even escalated because as a community, we have refused to hear each other out.
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My parents are the most hardest working and influential people I know. Therefore, they’re the biggest contributors to my opinion of the truth. When I was little, I was always disciplined accordingly when I was caught in a lie which caused me to want to speak nothing but the truth. Although, I may not agree with a lot of the things people say, I have grown to become very open minded and like to consider other people’s point of views compared to mine. Since I am young, it took me a long time to process that way of thinking and like other people, I was easily hurt by certain opinions. The biggest thing my parents taught me was to never take people’s opinion’s too extreme and to always keep mine close and personal. The deal I made with my parents when coming to college was to avoid political and religious talk because all it does is open a pandora’s box. Fortunately, the deal I made with them is causing things at Colorado State University-Pueblo to run rather smoothly because i’ve joined a sorority and gradually befriended my new roommate. Which means that certain things are better left unsaid.
Due to the circumstances in today’s society, I have become very cautious around people because they are prone to turning on you without any warning. The biggest thing is that people will do anything in order to prove that the way they think is the right way to go. People will do anything such as sabotaging others, speaking slanderously, and even harming others for displaying a different system of beliefs. Fake news is a prominent example of people’s will to do anything in order for their point of view to become favorable. Fake news is infesting the internet and it is possible that it could eventually drive real news away which is causing me to worry about the future. When i’m older, I picture myself desperately yearning for truth amongst pathological liars. I believe this way because the people my age are spoon fed by fake news and eat it up like it’s the most delicious thing they’ve ever tasted. They want to find the easiest way out and if they’re fed lies for the rest of their lives, it will make their way of living a cake walk.
In conclusion, the article, “Facebook Dead” by Kevin Maney claims that fake news is hurting the United States and could possibly kill the most popular social media platforms. Maney supported his claim by providing evidence from important people from the media industry, the use of strong words and phrases, and talking about ways people have tried to distinguish real from fake news. He wrote this article in order to inform social media users about the dangers of fake news published on these large sites. Fake news has divided people in today’s society and it is up to us to stop it from completely dominating the little truth that is spoken.
