Writers Blog #4

Social Media has become one of the largest ways to receive and post news in the last decade. Yes, this is a useful tool, however, there are downsides.

How many times have you opened up a social media app, saw an interesting news post, and as many would… think that news was true?

It is all fun and games until you tell your friends or family about this news and discover it is false. Instagram and Twitter (now X) from personal experience are the two largest platforms that create false news.

False news has not been a problem for just the last decade, it has been around for a while. With the extreme popularity within social networking apps, as of recent false news has become more apparent each day.

On Instagram, I was introduced to my first exhibit of false news. Many accounts have bought the verification badge to appear as a trustworthy source. Unfortunately, people who run these accounts are completely random, trying to spark a hot take or make up a completely random fact.

The 2024 Super Bowl is later this weekend… this same account posted a picture of Taylor Swift and made up a quote about Travis Kelce which contained the n-word.

The owner of this account saw this as “funny” and had no second thoughts of posting it to hundreds of thousands of people.

It is scary to realize that there are people out there who could go as low as promoting racism through one of the world's largest icons, Taylor Swift. Many people would see this and be tricked into thinking it was true.

On Twitter, I feel that it is more frequent to where we see fake news. I feel that Twitter is viewed as a more news-producing app and that it is harder to trick someone based on an Instagram post rather than a tweet.

A tweet appears more serious, no need for an image when tweeting, like Instagram requires some type of content. With recent updates to Twitter in the last year, like Instagram, Twitter users can purchase a verification badge to appear as trustworthy.

I think this is one of the worst updates across all of social media. Letting someone add a verification badge next to their name makes it harder to tell who is a legit trustworthy source. There are a few ways to check if a verified account is real such as looking at follower count or reading the replies in a post.

Next time you open social media, check who you are following. Get rid of all the fake users who you either can’t tell are 100% trustworthy. By doing this, it may make your social media feel more safe to you, and also does not benefit these random people promoting fake news.

If not, always keep an open mind on what you take away from your swipes on social media, double check a fact you see on social media if you are not 100% sure it is true.