Blog #10

While much of our discussions in this course have definitely talked about how the internet creates trouble. As the internet becomes smarter, we're beginning to be able to weed out false information. However, the ability to do so still relies on the reader having a critically thinking mind. Being in college, most if not all of us are taught to think critically about the information presented to us. However, before the dawn of the internet, those in the generations above us have not received the same knowledge or ability to weed out information that comes from unreliable sources. I remember time and time again as I went through K-12 education being warned about checking your sources when looking for information on the internet and to always be wary of what Wikipedia has to say. As the 2016 election illustrates time and time again, the dangers of false or misleading information being spread on the internet are relevant and frightening. It's interesting to find that the source of this spread does not come from the younger generations, but those who one could reasonably expect to also have a critically thinking mind--those older than us. They're older so they're supposed to be wiser right? So how do we combat this? I really like the feature that Facebook has begun to roll out in order to stop the spread of false or misleading information on their domain. The feature flags articles that show up as things that may be bias or misleading and tells you more information about from where the article originates, gives related articles, and includes statistics about how this article has been shared and how many times it has been shared. If there isn't much information, it can be deemed unreliable. While this tool is in its early stages, I think this tool has the potential to do good things in the spread of information, but I would like to see this feature rolled out on a larger scale.