There is so much 'fake news' in our world today. With social media, it is easier than ever to spread rumors and lies. It seems like Facebook is where I see most of the political fights via the internet, but it is definitely present on other social medias. One article of fake news I found was this:
After very little research, I found this headline to be a complete hoax. But when I scrolled down through people's comments, I saw so many about how liberals are ruining the world, #LiberalismIsAMentalDisorder, #Defendthe2nd, and so on. I couldn't believe that people would immediately attack those who have different political beliefs of them. If they Googled "Ohio student suspended for not walking out" they would have found the same article I did, proving the headlines were false. He got suspended because he refused to leave the classroom to go to a designated study hall for those who didn't want to participate in the walk out. The school said that they didn't force anyone to participate, and almost half of the school didn't participate, in the walk out. It's not like he was the only one not participating!!
How do people believe this shit? Well, when people see intriguing headlines from news sources that appear reputable at first, of course they are going to believe it. Also, the headlines are written for clickbait. I have to admit, when I see an interesting article while scrolling through facebook, I will click on it. I am guilty of sending alarming articles to my mom, and then finding out later it was fake. There are so many websites and journals online that appear to be reputable news sources, but actually are not. I'm glad Facebook is working on getting rid of fake news on the website. I think a lot of people believe everything they see on the internet, but they shouldn't. With just a little research you can find out what the truth is! Please stop fighting with people on the internet, unless they seriously deserve it. Don't comment about things you don't know about. That's how we will survive all of this fake news.
The article I found during my research
I see these types of posts all the time! After some time it becomes extremely easy to tell whether something is legitimate or not just by looking at the post itself. But for others, these posts seem completely true. This is dangerous because false posts like the one you have shared above can stir up unnecessary hate towards a certain person or organization. Once an entire group of people begin to believe something, it's really hard to convince them otherwise, even when you have evidence from verified sources. But like you said, Facebook says it is working to get rid of fake news, and that may be the only way to stop these type of false posts.
ReplyDeleteI think this post is a great example of fake news! I see stuff like it so often on social media, and people always seem to want to believe it so that it can match their own political beliefs. I'm also glad Facebook is starting to combat fake news more actively, but I don't think that people will actually start being skeptical of fake news as a whole until sites like Facebook start labelling articles as fake or possibly fake -- which will probably never happen. But it's interesting to see how easy it was for you to find out that the context around this image is fake!
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