Social Media and Misinformation
Social Media is like the new daily newspaper. As soon as we log onto Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even Snapchat, we are hit with the latest news. By news, I am not talking strictly about things such as the bombings in Syria, but also news such as Beyonce’s pregnancy and what new health trends are showing results! But how can we know what information is true and what isn’t? Better yet, how can we tell what sources on social media are reliable?
I have witnessed first-hand, countless situations in which a person reads an article on social media and automatically believes what they are reading to be true, even if it’s not. There are numerous news sources available in the internet, even fake ones. These same news sources are available on the internet are open to be edited by the public. One specific fake news site is 365news. This is a site I have seen multiple times on my Facebook news feed that was made by someone in my hometown or a surrounding town about someone else, and people would believe the posts. Another fake news site, and one that was popular during the time of the recent presidential election is AmericanNews. Not many people know how to tell the difference between a fake news site and a real news site, and this leads to the spread of misinformation.
Some people make fake news articles just to for fun, and others are made because that person was misinformed of certain information and don’t research what they’ve read to make sure they’ve gotten the real truth.
