How to Have Discernment in the Age of Misinformation
Let's Be Vigilant
This past week, with the devastation of the fires in Los Angeles, it seems like the internet has gone even wilder than it’s been before with all the reporting of what caused the fires, who’s at fault for the fires, and what went wrong as the fires broke out. There have been contradicting stories, such as California’s leaders not doing anything to prevent these fires, the fire hydrates running out of water, and the fire department suffering budget cuts, which hurt their ability to fight the fires. Then a few hours later there are stories that say the complete opposite - like there are satellites orbits to help find fires as soon as they start, the fire hydrates didn’t run out of water, and that the budget cuts aren’t true. And depending on how your algorithm is set up (which you actually create your own algorithm) will depend on which story you see.
I’ve seen this happen time and time again - a story will break out, everyone is sharing the post or video, and then a few days later another story comes out showing that the first story wasn’t true or was partially true. In the past few years misinformation has increased on social media with few ways of stopping it, until people develop critical thinking skills to discern posts that aren’t true.
Social media is the source of news for a lot of people unfortunately, even though it shouldn’t be, and at one point it was a reliable source but that’s no longer the case. I’ve shared many times before of how we must be careful who we follow on social media and what we are consuming, because not all content is good content.
So, today I want to share how to have discernment in the age of misinformation. Especially, with the changes Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, is now implementing with removing their fact-checking programs and replacing it with community notes.
Understanding Misformation
What exactly is misformation? Misformation refers to false, inaccurate, or misleading information. Which is actually different from disinformation that is deliberately created to mislead or manipulate. The biggest difference is that misformation is spread unintentionally. It’s usually people spreading the first post or video they see about a situation occurring without cross-referencing and making sure that it’s factual.
Misinformation can take several forms:
Rumors
Incorrect Data: factual errors or misunderstandings
Misleading context: accurate information presented out of content or creates a false impression (I’ve seen this a lot in the immigration space)
Edited Content: images or videos that are manipulated that distort the truth
The fastest way that misinformation spreads today is by social media algorithms, and they usually have clickbait headlines.
The impact of misformation on society that I’ve seen is that no one seems to know what the truth is anymore. Everyone seems to have their own reality based on their algorithm, and people have their own truths, which isn’t necessarily “the truth.” And this is causing us to be more divided than ever before, and honestly, I feel like it’s going to get worse.
How to Spot Misinformation
Here are a few questions to ask yourself when you see something online:
Does the post have a sensational headline? Is the title over-the-top or emotionally charged?
Does the article lack credible sources? You should be able to find cited evidence or credible references within the article.
Does the author have credibility? Check the background of the author or the publication. There are publications online that solely publish clickbait headlines to get paid.
Is this article outdated or a recycled content that is being presented as current?
Did the author use overtly biased language, or is it attempting to push a particular agenda? (Again, I see this a lot in the immigration space).
In today’s rapid information age, we have to take extra steps to make sure that what we read is true. It’s easily to believe an article or a post that feeds our biases or our point of view, but that doesn’t mean that it’s factual.
Staying Vigilant
One way to combat the spreading of misinformation is waiting to share the first story you come across online about a particular situation. You can always cross-reference it and see if other sources are reporting the same thing. For example, while starting this article, I looked up to see if the information I was reading about the LA fires was true, and I found two articles that also looked at the claims being made online. There is one by BBC who did some fact-checking. And here is one by LA Times talking about the funding issue.
As I was reading about the funding issues article, I realized that what happened with the budget isn’t as black and white as what people online were trying to make it seem. Also, all of a sudden everyone online is an expert on city funding? It seems like people feel like they are experts in everything because of what they read online. It’s okay to not know about a subject and say you cannot form an opinion yet.
Conclusion
Alright, this wasn’t the topic I was going to write about this week, I felt like it was important to share seeing what I’ve been seeing online and with the changes that Meta is making on removing the fact-checking on their platforms.
What are your thoughts on the rapid sharing of misinformation nowadays?
With Love, Heidy
P.S. I have written about critical thinking before and you can read about it here.
This is fantastic!