Feature Article — Dissecting Social Media: What You Should Know
Published on in Parents PACK
Published on in Parents PACK
Have you checked your Facebook News Feed recently? Watched a YouTube video? Posted on Instagram? Sent a Tweet? If so, you are among the 3.5 billion people worldwide who actively use social media.
Social media users generate a massive amount of information, from personal posts, photos and videos, to blogs, DIY articles and much more. While some content aims to entertain or inform, other information is intentionally meant to mislead or deceive. Those who intend to mislead rely on people sharing their messages to spread misinformation. As a result, it’s important to critically evaluate any information you see before sharing it further.
So, how can you tell which information is valid and which is not?
Read on to find some simple tips for checking posts. With a quick review, not only can you learn more about the reliability of what you are seeing, you can also help decrease the amount of bad information received by those in your network.
Example:
“The CDC has adjusted their COVID19 deaths from 64,000 to 37,000. What do you think about that? Still scared? Angry yet?”
This headline appeared in a Facebook post to support a conspiracy theory that the pandemic is a hoax. FactCheck.org explained that the adjustments were the result of two lists maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and why they were not in sync.
Example:
“OSHA 10&30 certified”
Several social media posts about the effectiveness of wearing face masks have misrepresented information provided by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). In one of them, shown on Snopes, the author claimed to be “OSHA 10&30 certified,” but OSHA confirmed that while they have training courses of 10 and 30 hours, the courses do not provide “certification,” nor do they cover COVID-19. In this case, the author was presenting misleading qualifications to sound like an expert.
In many cases, information will not come from the original source; it may have been forwarded by someone else in a person’s network. Often, people assume that because the person who sent it to them is reliable, they can trust the information. But, since not everyone checks the credibility of information before sharing it, users should be wary of any post. For these reasons, you will want to try to determine the original source:
If you can’t find the source or are not sure if the information is credible, it is best not to share it.
Example:
“And the people stayed home” poem attributed to an author who lived through the 1918 influenza pandemic
A poem that went viral during the COVID-19 pandemic was misattributed to an author who lived through the “Spanish flu pandemic of 1919.” When Snopes traced back the original source of “And the people stayed home,” it found that the author wrote the poem in 2020 about the COVID-19 pandemic, not the 1918 Spanish flu.
Example:
Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind COVID-19 documentary
When Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind COVID-19 went viral with outlandish claims about SARS-CoV-2, fact-checkers got busy scrutinizing the content. Both PolitiFact and FactCheck.org highlighted a host of false and misleading claims related to the novel coronavirus pandemic, including its origins, vaccines, treatments and more. Plandemic had more than 8 million views in the first week of its release.
Visuals are increasingly becoming an issue as more people edit images to make them align with a particular viewpoint of the story being told. This is especially true of those who intend to misinform or deceive.
Example:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation building
A side-by-side comparison of an original photo of the exterior of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation building alongside a doctored photo clearly shows alterations. A quick Google Image search brings up many original, unaltered copies of the photo.
In conclusion, as you use these tips more often, you will get faster and better at recognizing misinformation and deception. By thinking critically, looking for the small details, listening to different perspectives, and fact-checking, the spread of misinformation can stop with you.
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Categories: Parents PACK August 2020, Feature Article
Materials in this section are updated as new information and vaccines become available. The Vaccine Education Center staff regularly reviews materials for accuracy.
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