Simran Week Four: Fake News
“Fake news.” “Misinformation.” This is a topic that is frequently talked about in the news due to the harm it causes society. It is a topic that is especially relevant in the current pandemic. On social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, many people have posted inaccurate statements about Covid-19 and its vaccines such as that vaccines can cause Covid-19 or that the vaccines contain a microchip. While some of these statements may seem ridiculous(I know that I have laughed at a few statements), many people still believe that these statements are true. Even worse, the spread of misinformation causes many people to not take the vaccine at a time when increasing the number of vaccinated people is essential in reducing Covid-19 cases.
While misinformation has always existed, in the current age of technology, it can be spread incredibly quickly. In a matter of days, millions of people can view and share a post. The article “Information Overload Helps Fake News Spread, and Social Media Knows It” by Filipino Menczer and Thomas Hills discusses why there is such a large prevalence of misinformation on social media. It discusses how the overwhelming information on social media leads to a loss in the quality of the most widely popular posts. People also have cognitive biases which cause them to be more likely to seek out and remember information that already supports their views. This, along with the personalized recommendations for users on many social media platforms, helps to create an echo chamber effect. This causes people to have the same views as others they know and insulates a community from other groups. This can be dangerous because it causes people to have a distrust of other sources of information that do not come from their own community, especially since many people receive this misinformation from their family and friends, who they already trust. This prevalence of misinformation in social media is why there has been a recent push for social media companies to set regulations that prevent misinformation. What do you think should be done about the prevalence of misinformation on social media?
Comments
I agree with the fact that there has been a lot of misinformation online, and unfortunately, I am also a victim of it. Sometimes, I blindly believe the things i see, but now, I am working on remembering to research the things before I begin talking about them. I remember that Nicki Minaj said something about how vaccines caused swollen testicles on Twitter to her 24.2 million followers. When people with a lot of influence spread misinformation, it travels a lot faster and holds a lot more merit. This is why celebrities should make sure to fact check before they post because the consequences can be very wide spread.
Misinformation, fake news, yellow news, made much more prevalent by the online presence. How else would millions of unsuspecting people around the world be affected by some fake news? Especially during the pandemic, the spreading of false information is dangerous. We wouldn’t want anyone thinking that the virus is a hoax because the person who believes that is more prone to contracting or spreading the virus. It can be baffling how many people fall for false claims that have little to no evidence backing it up. The natural cognitive bias we humans tend to conform to is being exploited by this era of misinformation. I’m not exactly sure how to tackle the issue, but a few platforms have been taking some kind of action in flagging and giving out warnings on false info.
-Angel
I definitely think that fake news is one of the most dangerous things in our society. Fake news start rumors, which can cause misconceptions, which can cause paranoia, which then can lead to discrimination, racism, and xenophobia. In history, there have been many examples of fake news, and how they resulted in violence breaking out. One such example is during the start of World War 1; the U.S decided to initially join the war because of the fake news stating that an American boat being sunk by a German U-boat. I think that our society really needs to consider the dangers of fake news and how they can literally change the course of history.
I believe fake news is a large problem in our society as nobody knows the truth anymore and would have trust issues. This is the same story of the boy who cried wolf except in real life. The reason I use this as a scenario as the boy repeatedly called for wolf until people nobody listened to him at the end. This creates false info for why many think that the pandemic is unreal or the vaccines for it don't do anything. Life shouldn't be joked with as many that do release fake news believe it is funny to do so or unaware that the news are fake without the doubt of factchecking it.
Misinformation nowadays kind of reminds me of propaganda, something I learned in history class. Propaganda includes biased or misleading information that is meant to sway people to one opinion and point of view of a political or controversial situation. Anyways, after that history recap, it’s still kind of upsetting to believe all sorts of false information lies out there and readers who are victims to those false articles or news are easily swayed and tricked. I also believe that our parents or relatives' information can impact us as teens. For me, because I don’t want my parents to think I don’t believe them, I usually take their ideas into consideration before making a stance on a certain political or national view. I also believe it will be hard for the publication of false information to ever stop, due to the fact that there are tons of articles or newspapers online and it will be hard to distinguish all of them from true or false.
Sincerely,
Faith Tong
I think that it was a smart idea how you connected language to false information and it sparked another idea in my head which I can't use because the quarter is over, but I was thinking about how miscommunication can make an appearance. Whenever I read your blog, I have trust in the information that is presented because you always have a source to back up your claims and this connects to how I know you are not feeding us false information.
Sincerely,
Mrinmayee
Language and misinterpretation really hits me. I always see something at first whether it be on Twitter or hearing something from a friend and then immediately believing it right away. In the back of my mind, I know that I should probably be fact-checking that information, but whatever I see or hear first is what I usually assume is correct, which is really not good.